Delius's Koanga staged at Sadler's Wells in London(March 2007) Sadler's Wells in London plays host to rare performances of Delius's opera Koanga on 12-14 April, marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK. This new staging by Pegasus Opera, the Brixton-based multiracial touring company, is conducted by Martin André, with Leonard Rowe in the title role, and Alison Buchanan as his ill-fated lover Palmyra.
Issues of racial and cultural conflict are central to Koanga, which tells of a voodoo Priest and African Prince, sold into slavery and forced into servitude by Don Jose Martinez, a cruel slave owner. Inter-racial love and betrayal are woven into an epic score which combines musical influences from the American Old South with the darkly operatic style for which Delius is renowned. “When the full story of Afro-American music comes to be written, Delius’ Koanga will surely play a significant part in it” Christopher Palmer Inspired by his time spent managing an orange plantation in Florida, Frederick Delius began composing Koanga in 1896 and completed it in early 1897, making it the very first African American opera, ahead of Joplin's Treemonisha (1910) and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1935). Taken from George Washington Cable's 1880 novel The Grandissimes, the story was converted into a libretto by Charles Keary and the opera had its stage premiere, sung in German, at Elberfeld on 30 March 1904. It was first staged in England on 23 September 1935, at Covent Garden under Sir Thomas Beecham with a revised libretto. Koanga was performed at Sadler's Wells 35 years ago in 1972, with a radically changed book by Douglas Craig and Andrew Page, starring Eugene Holmes as Koanga and Claudia Lindsey as Palmyra. For information on Delius's other operas, including A Village Romeo and Juliet, please visit our Opera website. > Further information on Work: Koanga Photo: Nuno Silva > News Search |
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