Category Archives: Shows
Muindaji Opera in Marseille on 07/06/13
Performance at the MimiFestival on the Island of Frioul, Marseille (France) – More information here
Operatic countertenor Serge Kakudji was born in Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He received several awards, including, in 2001, that of the best voice in the competition organized by the Alliance Franco-Congolese. In February 2007, he was awarded the prize for the best voice in the first edition of the Festival Nzenze Ngoma ya Kwetu. In April 2008 he won first prize at the National Competition “Prix Jacques Dome” in Belgium. Since 2006, Serge Kakudji collaborated with Faustin Linyekula, Alain Platel, Les Ballets C de la B, Fabrizio Cassol and Aka Moon in the show “Pitié” to music of the “St. Matthew Passion” by JS Bach. He has also appeared at the Royal Opera of Versailles, the Open-Air Berlin Festival Classic, and the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain.
Creation initiated by Serge Kakudji in September 2012 in Lubumbashi, it will be reworked with classical musicians (composition, lyrical singing in Swahili and traditional dance) in rehearsal hall at Wasteland La Belle May. “Muindaji Opera” is a typical African story, cast in both a form of expression purely western, opera, and contemporary phrase from urban areas, traditional Congolese dance. The show gives a response pathway of Africans who sold off their land to live abroad and who, out of money, are left with nothing. But this opera the hosts a fabulous aria “Neither Kwetu” which means “it is still my home, Africa.”
Preparations with Rony Olanor
Related show
Coup Fatal
In Coup Fatal the Congolese contertenor Serge Kakudji joins 13 musicians from Kinshasa in an encounter with the Baroque repertoire of Handel and Glück. The original music is enriched by the broad spectrum of the musicians. Around the vocals of Kakudji a new and contemporary universe is created, both in music and image. The new music is an exuberant and organic whole of Baroque phrases, traditional Congolese music, rock, jazz, and popular Congolese music. The Brussels composer Fabrizio Cassol takes the lead himself. Director Alain Platel and dancer Romain Guion (C (H) OEURS) search with the team for a theatrical form. The decor is realized in collaboration with Freddy Tsimba. He makes in Kinshasa large, disturbing sculptures of bullet shells, which he collected in Congolese war zones. The Baroque Coup Fatal reflects the unadulterated brilliance of perky ‘sapeurs’, the dandies of Kinshasa. There is no need for irony, their exuberance need not be reduced that way. In the background of the gray shell cases, the gaudy and grand gestures will challenge. Rather than a tribute to Baroque music, Coup Fatal is a tribute to the grim elegance of the Congolese. Performance at KVS – BRUSSELS
Sur les traces de Dinosord in Berlin
Since the creation in 2006 a great deal has happened involving the whole team of Dinozord. Serge Kakudji, untrained in 2006, has gained an international reputation as a countertenor (for example in Alain Platel’s pitie!). Maurice Papy Mbwiti toured Flanders with the KVS production A l’attente du Livre d’Or, although what appeals most to the imagination is the fate of the writer Antoine Vumilia Muhindo, who in 2006 was still incarcerated at Makala, a notorious Congolese prison. Vumi has meanwhile escaped, disguised as a woman. But have things also changed for the Congo since 2006? With the same cast, Faustin Linyekula takes another close look at his country, at Kisangani, where he comes from, which is beset by war after war. Dancers and actors roam through a landscape of ruins in search of what remains of their dreams.