THE GOLDEN STOOL Comes to Opera Ballet Vlaanderen This Month

Who is Nana Yaa Asantewaa? What did she mean? And what is her legacy?

Around 1900, an old woman takes the lead in the resistance against the troops of the British Monarch and, together with the women's brigade she founded, holds out for a year in a fight for the Golden Stool, throne and pride of the Asante people in Ghana.

For years the Asante have been slaughtered for wood, gold and cocoa. The industrial revolution in faraway England demands resources, lots of resources, like a hungry beast. The claim of the Golden Stool by the British Monarch was the final straw for Nana Yaa Asantewaa and her wives. The Golden Stool would not leave the country!

Nobulumko Mngxekeza-Nziramasanga (soprano), Nonkululeko Nkwinti (mezzo-soprano), Doris Bokongo Nkumu, Nathalie Bokongo Nkumu, Abena Biney Gloria, Titilayo Oliha, Saar-Niragire De Groof, Briana Stuart, Maïmouna Badjie and Somalia Williamson sing, play and dance the story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa and her valiant struggle, to the tones of famous arias from the classical western opera repertoire - which Gorges Ocloo has appropriated for the occasion. Handel, Bizet, Shostakovich, Verdi, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Orff,... they all pass in review. With this AfrOpera, Gorges Ocloo exposes his roots.

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