Monday, July 1, 2019

Chronogram.com: Damien Sneed in Scott Joplin's "Treemonisha," Phoenicia Festival Aug. 3

Damien Sneed reimagines Scott Joplin's "Treemonisha" at the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice on August 3.    


July 1, 2019

Celebrating African Music and Artists with the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice

[Phoenicia, New York] 


 A key part of the Western musical tradition, opera is an art form that's, unsurprisingly, associated mainly with white artists and white audiences. But, as with so many aspects of culture and society, opera's history has its share of vital black performers, patrons, and parallels. With this in mind, the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice, which celebrates the power of the human voice in music, is honoring African American artists and African-related themes as part of its milestone 10th season this year.

Amid more standard Western fare, the festival, which takes place the weekend of August 2-4, includes "Lady Parts: Music of the Abolition Movement" (August 3); "Music of the African Diaspora" (August 3-4); a production of Donizetti's "L'Elisir D'Amore (The Elixir of Love)" featuring an all-African American cast (August 3); and a program of excerpts from Scott Joplin's opera "Treemonisha" reimagined by Houston Grand Opera composer-in-residence Damien Sneed. We spoke with the festival's general director, Maria Todaro about this year's programming. Phoeniciavoicefest.org.

—Peter Aaron

Congratulations on the 10th anniversary of the festival! What are some of the most significant ways that the event has changed and grown over its first decade?

I would say the most important progress has been in our logistics. We've learned to become more hospitable and serve better and, by doing so, have created a real model that other companies around the country follow. We focus on the experience that our patrons and artists will live more than selling tickets to shows. We've developed partnerships and collaborative efforts with many arts and social justice organizations to make the art relevant. We realized that in order to build audiences we had to really be among them, to listen and make opera non-threatening. We discovered that opera has a bad reputation because it is often expensive and perceived as stiff, pompous, or reserved for the elite. We have tried to become advocates of this art form, to make it accessible, fun, and family-friendly.

This year the festival is honoring African American artists. How and why did you and the other organizers come to select this as the theme?

Opera has the reputation to be written by white people for white people.             

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