Orpheus at The Lowry, Salford, November 19

It’s the back garden of a suburban semi in an unnamed British town, and a wedding party is underway. Orpheus, sung by the golden-voiced British tenor Nicholas Watts, is serenading his bride with baroque airs in Italian; Eurydice, the British Tamil vocalist Ashnaa Sasikaran, replies with an infectious raga melody in Hindi. ‘Aapki khushi meri khushi,’ she sings – ‘Your joy is my joy’ – and flies off into sargam improvisations. They are surrounded by vividly attired guests in saris and suits, who double as chorus and accompanying ensemble. Sitting amid the garden roses, the 19 instrumentalists draw upon both musical traditions, sitar, santoor and tar-shehnai interposed with harp, harpsichord and theorbo.

The Lowry is hosting the last night of the tour of this riveting act of reimagination, produced by Opera North and South Asian Arts-UK. Monteverdi’s 1607 opera L'Orfeo is a good base on which to construct such an adventure, for it was a boundary-stretcher itself, the first great opera by a major composer. It is also a story that, although a tragedy, has at its heart the power of music to change other worlds. Half the libretto has been translated into Indian languages, principally Urdu or Hindi, and Opera North invited its artist-in-residence, the Leeds-based sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun, to compose Indian classical arrangements for these passages. Degun is further credited as co-music director along with the baroque harpsichordist Laurence Cummings; both of them are performing on stage.

Shahbaz Hussain (tabla), Mark Wagstaff (percussion), RN Prakash (ghatam), Sergio Bucheli (theorbo), Jasdeep Singh Degun (sitar) and Andrew Long (violin)

The encounter is a triumph. Surprising similarities between the musical traditions help to marry them together, the occasional baroque vocal embellishments seeming to echo their Hindustani equivalents, the metallic hammering of the santoor shadowing the plucked strings of the harpsichord. But the contrasts are equally instructive, for instance between the force of the open-throated operatic voices and the softer, occasionally closed-mouth delicacy of the Indian singers. Cummings conducts the Western musicians while Degun counts the time cycle for the Indians, equally valid ways of controlling musicians playing the same piece.

Despite the number of languages deployed, the storytelling is transparent and the English subtitles hardly required, a tribute to the clear staging by director Anna Himali Howard and the performers’ rendition of emotions. The fateful moment when Orpheus turns back to look at Eurydice as he is leading her out of the Underworld – breaching Pluto’s condition and thus losing her forever – draws gasps. At the finale there is a sense of unity and optimism emerging from tragedy. As the audience bursts into a standing ovation, it is clear that this is our joy too.