He Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts Valencia presents this Thursday, September 19 in Spain “The Golden Stool or the Story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa”, an Afro-opera that fuses song, dance and avant-garde theater.
He Ensems Festival collaborates with Les Arts for this unique performance of “Le Tabouret d’Or”, which opens the 46th edition of the Contemporary Music Festival at the Teatre Martín Soler.
In this document, the composer Ocloo Gorges brings together Western lyrical traditions and contemporary commercial music with African percussion and rhythms to tell the story of Asante heroine Nana Yaa Asantewaa, who led a female rebellion against British colonial forces in 1900.
The conflict, known as War of the Golden Stool, It was an anti-colonial response to British efforts to seize the sacred symbol of the Asante people: a small throne made 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 plays Nana Yaa Asantewaa and mezzo-soprano Nonkululeko Nkwinti plays her antagonists: the British colonizers and the Asante elders. A women’s choir sings, dances, enacts and comments on the conflict.
Ocloo Gorges deconstructs and confronts Western music with African percussion and rhythms in a composition in which we recognize classics of the repertoire such as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, Strauss’s “Blue Danube”, “La Habanera” from the opera “Carmen” or the second waltz of “Shostakovich”, as well as mentions of contemporary successes of Aretha Franklin, Gloria Gaynor or Lady Gaga.
Premiered on 27 April 2023 at the Toneelhuis theatre in Antwerp, the show is musically directed, staged and videoed by Gorges Ocloo, who also designs the costumes with Kasia Mielczarek. Pino Etz & Gilles Roosen (lighting), Víctor Hidalgo (sound) and Josse De Pauw (dramaturgy) complete the creative team.
‘The Golden Tabouret’ is a production of LOD muziektheater & Toneelhuis Antwerp in co-production with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen & O. Festival Rotterdam, with the support of ENOA (European Network of Opera Academies).
The Arts will offer a only function of ‘Le Tabouret d’Or’ this Thursday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Teatre Martín i Soler, as part of its collaboration with the Ensems Contemporary Music Festival.
