“We embody contradictions”: Panel Discussion with Composers Neo Muyanga, Bode Omojola and Charles Uzor on Production Conditions of Operas in the African Diaspora

Abstract

The conference THE AFRICAN OPERATIC VOICE - Opera and Music Theatre in Africa and the African Diaspora took place at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Bern from 8 to 10 September 2023. Opera productions from eight African countries were discussed. On the second day, which focused on notions of genre and opera institutions in Africa and its diaspora, a panel discussion was held with South African composer Neo Muyanga and Nigerian composers Bode Omojola and Charles Uzor on the conditions of opera production outside Africa. Neo Muyanga regularly produces opera in Europe, Bode Omojola is the Hammond-Douglass Five College Professor at Mount Holyoke College and the Five Colleges in the United States, and Charles Uzor moved to Switzerland as a child, where he now has a career. All composers were asked to give statements on the topic before a discussion among them and the audiences started.