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]
By Peter Aaron
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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