SigmArt’s Post

Get to know one of the best-loved composers of his generation, Ludovico Einaudi, in a captivating conversation at Dubai Opera. Learn about his remarkable journey, the stories behind his successes, and the challenges that shaped his music, which has sold over 2.5 million albums worldwide. Watch the full interview here https://lnkd.in/d_ye84AB  #ConversationsWithDO

Proud to be part of this conference: "Although there is clearly demand for new work, there is next to no institutional context to learn the skills necessary for new opera development. For example, Germany produces around 80 new works annually; yet in the entire country there isn't a single degree or certificate-granting program for training future opera creators. How are these artists – whether composers, librettists, directors or conductors – supposed to hone their craft to produce successful new pieces? NOD5 "OPERAtion education" aims to bring together artists, professors, and opera houses to take this problem head-on." #newoperadialogues #NOD5

It is true that music unites, and this concept holds an extra significance for those in diaspora. In this piece for Delilah Magazine UCLU, I talk about Lebanese singer Fairuz, her sociopolitical importance, as well as her impact on collective cultural memory in the Arab region and beyond!

You might not think that jazz would have anything to do with something as seemingly different as steamboats. But that music and the boats that traveled across the Mississippi and Ohio rivers are inextricably linked. I relate this fascinating history in my book, "The Streckfus Riverboat Dynasty: Jazz and the Big Smoke Canoe." #AmericanHistory #Steamboats #Jazz #MississippiRiver #HistoryBuffs #FamilyHistory

If you missed the podcast interview, there is hope!! Click the link below and enjoy the insights behind “Cambio”🙏🏽🙏🏽

"Opera has been alive for 400 years, not by insisting on itself as a practice of purity. The practice isn’t hermetically sealed; in fact, it’s rather empirical. It’s like what the Brazilians talk about, antropofagismo—it eats influences from elsewhere." — Neo Muyanga At 16, Neo arrives in Italy, having left apartheid South Africa, and hears opera for the first time. He doesn't like it. "Why not just sing normally?" he wonders. “Why are people just crying and dying, and why so much blood?" Despite this initial reaction, it marks the beginning of a thread that Neo would go on to pull, unravel, and then reimagine. In an expansive part conversation, part performance, Neo, composer, musician, and theatre-maker, traces the arrival of opera on South African shores, along with colonial forces and their project to erase Indigenous histories and memories. For over a decade, Neo has been working to understand what the South African operatic voice is, and why so many individuals from environments without formal musical training and no desire to be classical performers are drawn to opera. His work and research have included looking at how the operatic tradition, present in Africa since the 19th century, has been not only assimilated but also boldly transformed and hybridised within black communities and, more broadly, in musical storytelling in the Global South. For Neo, it’s about leaning into this hybridity and developing a new language, “which allows us to do hybrid work that can sound both operatic and other.” Here’s a sneak peek of Neo’s performance, accompanied by soprano Tina Mene, titled 'Africa And Opera: A Revelatory Journey,' at the recent #AfricaIntheWorld2024 festival. In this excerpt, they perform an aria written by Neo as part of an opera adaptation of Zakes Mda’s novel Heart of Redness. We’ll be sharing the full performance in the coming weeks, so keep a lookout! #neomuyanga #tinamene #ZakesMda #heartofredness #AfricanOpera #AfricaIntheWorld #drostdyteater Dr. Sizakele M.STIAS: Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study Standard Bank Group

Join Us for a lecture by Dr. Emaeyak Peter Sylvanus From the airwaves to the pulpit, the influence of Afrobeats is palpable. The beats now accompany sacred song texts in churches across the world. This raises the question: What is the symbolic value of Afrobeats in sacred music today?

#emenidesopera #vasilstole By GEORGE LEOTSAKOS THE ACTION OF THE OPERA Eumenides, begins in Apollo’s temple in Delphi. One of the priests finds Orestes before the altar pleading to be saved from the Erinnyes (Furies) who are now sleeping, exhausted from attempting to persecute him. At that moment, the ghost of Queen Clytaemnestra appears. She awakens the Erinnyes, reproaching them for failing to punish Orestes and criticizes Apollo for having offered shelter to this criminal. The action then moves to Athens, where according to Apollo’s decision, Orestes will appear before a court to be judged for his crimes. The young hero, following the advice of Apollo, arrives there and embraces the statue of the goddess Pallas Athena, begging her to protect him from the Erinnyes, who persecute him relentlessly. The opera itself is in three acts, including an overture, 17 separate numbers (scenes) and three orchestral interludes: Act One: overture, numbers 1-7, and two interludes: the first between nos 1 and 2, and the second (performed by folk instruments) after no. 7. Act Two: nos 8-16, with an interlude between nos 14 and 15. Act Three (Finale): no. 17. Considering Aeschylus text almost ready for his purposes, Tole has set it to music almost in its entirety, with the exception of some purely narrative parts, which delayed the action. Concluding this short introduction, we consider Vasil S. Tole’s Eumenides a score worthy of wide, international propagation, and above all, a fully staged performance. We wholeheartedly wish and hope that tonight’s world première, in concert form, will only be the beginning of a brilliant career for this work. https://lnkd.in/gxnTnSTu

Listen to the interview.