Mozart with African Drums

While not a great opera fan, I’ve always enjoyed Mozart for the jolly tunes. It never occurred to me you could combine those hummable arias with African drums and tribal dancing and end up with a toe-tapping, cross-cultural take on an old Classic. Until I saw the South African township version of The Magic Flute - Impempe Yomlingo.

The main story remains of a young knight/ warrior Tamina on the quest to rescue Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night, accompanied by comic sidekick Papagena, the bird catcher. When he finds her in the control of Sarastro, he must go through three trials of initiation. It turns out that Sarastro’s not a tyrant but a wise old man and it is the Queen of the Night who is of a much meaner spirit. (Opera plots are all rather ludicrous and this one is no different so I don’t plan to go into the story in any more detail than this - for those who want to find out more, click on the embedded link for synopsis of: the Magic Flute story ) However, the costumes, language, music and instruments have all been transposed to Africa - with African tribal dress as well as modern black icons like Afro hair and kaftans; Xhosa (the clicking language) and English; African drums, wooden xylophones, whistling, voiced harmonies and hand clapping rhythms creating the sites and sounds of an African woodland.

The singing was still operatic in style, though for purists a bit raw round the edges in some cases. The Queen of the Night was spectacular - and very scary! What I enjoyed the most were the moments when the well-known tunes from 18th century Austria loosed into African harmonies and women would start ululating, the ensemble would break into tribal dancing and the drums and clapping would reverberate through the theatre.

What is impressive is that the cast are all from the township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, with no formal operatic training.

This production is from the same team who created U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, a modern reworking of Bizet’s Carmen set in modern Khayelitsha. I was absolutely enthralled by U-Carmen, the updated setting bringing out the dangerous passions at work in the opera as well as the descent of Don Jose from upright citizen into the inferno of gangs and bar (or shebeen) fights. The Magic Flute was a great opportunity to see the team live but for me was less riveting than U-Carmen - the fault for which I place squarely at Mozart’s feet: in terms of plot, Bizet’s tale of lust and murder wins hands-down any day over Wolfie’s pantomime fable. But still, I came out of the theatre humming along and tapping my toes and that’s all I needed for a wintry Monday evening!