Les Arts premieres in Spain ‘The Golden Stool’, an Afro-opera that fuses singing, dance and avant-garde theatre

Les Arts és Òpera

• ENSEMS collaborates with Les Arts for the performance of this production, which opens the 46th edition of the contemporary music festival.
• Composer Gorges Ocloo presents a stunning show that combines operatic tradition and Western popular music with African rhythms.

Valencia (17.09.24). The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía premieres in Spain this coming Thursday, September 19, 'The Golden Stool or the story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa', an Afro-opera that fuses singing, dance and avant-garde theater.

The ENSEMS Festival collaborates with Les Arts for this unique performance of 'The Golden Stool' which opens the 46th edition of the contemporary music festival at the Teatre Martín Soler.

In it, composer Gorges Ocloo combines Western operatic tradition and contemporary commercial music with African percussion and rhythms to tell the story of the Asante heroine Nana Yaa Asantewaa, who led a female rebellion against British colonial forces in 1900.

The conflict, known as the War of the Golden Stool, was an anti-colonial response to British efforts to seize the sacred symbol of the Asante people: a small throne of pure gold. Although the uprising ended in defeat, with Yaa Asantewaa captured and exiled to the Seychelles (where she died in 1921), the Golden Stool remained in the possession of the Asante.

'The Golden Stool' is performed in a mixture of English, Dutch, and Asante Twi by an all-female cast. Soprano Nobulumko Mngxekeza-Nziramasanga portrays Nana Yaa Asantewaa, and mezzo-soprano Nonkululeko Nkwinti plays her antagonists: the British colonizers and the Asante elders. A female chorus sings, dances, performs, and comments on the conflict.

Gorges Ocloo deconstructs and confronts Western music with African percussion and rhythms in a composition in which you can recognize classics of the repertoire such as Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy', Strauss's 'The Blue Danube', 'La habanera' from the opera 'Carmen' or Shostakovich's second waltz, as well as mentions of contemporary hits by Aretha Franklin, Gloria Gaynor or Lady Gaga.

Premiering on April 27, 2023, at the Toneelhuis in Antwerp, the show features musical direction, set design, and video by Gorges Ocloo, who also designed the costumes with Kasia Mielczarek. Pino Etz & Gilles Roosen (lighting), Víctor Hidalgo (sound), and Josse De Pauw (dramaturgy) complete the creative team.

'The Golden Stool' is a production by LOD muziektheater & Toneelhuis Antwerp in co-production with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen & O. Festival Rotterdam, with the support of ENOA (European Network of Opera Academies).

Les Arts will offer a single performance of 'The Golden Stool' this Friday, September 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Teatre Martín i Soler, as part of its collaboration with the Ensems Contemporary Music Festival.