Koulsy Lamko (Chad) and Wasis Diop (Senegal) wrote the libretto; Zé Manel (Guinea Bissau) composed the music. The artistic team, responsible for the artistic production, consists of Wasis Diop (musical director, Senegal), Jean-Pierre Leurs (mis en scène and training, Senegal), Germaine Acogny (choreography, Senegal), Flora Théfaine (choreography, Togo) and Oumou Sy (costume design, Senegal).
Bintou-Were, An Opera of the Sahel
The story
A village in the Sahel. Young people are confused and have no hope in the future, trapped as they are by natural disaster, war and dictatorship. Weary of life in Africa, they decide to leave and try to breach the walls that separate the Sahel from Europe. Bintou-Were, a former child soldier, is expecting a "love child". She decides to cross the barricades protecting the borders of Morocco and Spain along with several other people she has met in her hectic life. If the perilous attack of the barbed wire of Melilla is successful, and the baby waits to be born on the other side, will there be a "right of asylum" for all those claiming paternity of Bintou-Were’s baby?
All social levels intersect in this modern day odyssey. Those on the road to exile encounter others who are returning. They challenge one another in their songs. From the ethnic Fulani shepherd to the delinquent apprentice who has been jailed several times, from the woman who is following her husband to the enigmatic frontier runner who is the king pin of the puzzle…
In March 2005 a jury of five prominent figures in the international arts world supervised workshops held for the Sahel Opera at L’École des Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. Professor Kwabena Nketia, Director of The International Centre for African Music and Dance in Accra (Ghana) and former Prince Claus laureate chaired the jury, comprised further of Ama Ata Aidoo, author, (Ghana), Pierre Audi, Artistic Director of the Netherlands Opera Foundation, (The Netherlands), Ray Lema, musician and composer, the Democratic Republic of Congo/Paris (France), Robert Wilson, designer, theatre director and artist, New York (the United States). During these workshops, the jury selected the composers and the artistic team on the basis of their musical and dramatic presentations, their innovative character and artistic quality. The jury’s recommendations were subsequently adopted by the Board of the Prince Claus Fund and the team then assumed full responsibility for the artistic aspects of the opera’s production.
Try-outs for casting the actors, singers and dancers were held in Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Morocco and Mali in the spring and summer of 2006. The artistic team scouted not only musicians, actors and dancers but also technicians, designers and logistic experts. A team was put together of more than 80 artists and musicians from the Sahel. Training took place in Mali in the months that followed. For many, this was their first experience of working on an opera production.
The three main singers and four musicians performed a scene from the opera at the Prince Claus Awards Ceremony, December 13, 2006, in Amsterdam, giving that international audience a taste of the production to come.
The production has been entirely organised and realised in Africa, with the support and coordination of Cheick Oumar Sissoko, the Malian Minister of Culture. The production and performances have also relied on the co-operation of countless people in the various Sahel countries.
The premiere of the Sahel Opera took place at the side of the river Niger in Bamako, Mali on 17 February 2007. On 7 June 2007 the European Premiere took place in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam during the Holland Festival. The opera was performed in Théatre du Chatelet on 25, 26 and 27 Octobre 2007.
