Drawing on a range of personal experience and literary influences, and mixing translation and original creation, The Rivered Earth consists of four libretti written by Vikram Seth to be set to music by Alec Roth - together with an account of the pleasures and pains of working with a composer. Entitled Songs in Time of War, Shared Ground, The Traveller and Seven Elements, the libretti take us all over the world - from Chinese and Indian poetry, to the beauty and quietness of the Wiltshire rectory where English poet George Herbert lived and died.
Spanning centuries of creativity and humanity, the poems that form these libretti pulse with life, energy and inspired brilliance.
They are accompanied by four pieces of calligraphy by the author.
