Sahel opera reflects Dutch prince's African dream

Bamako, Feb 17: Conceived by a Dutch prince, composed by some of West Africa's leading musicians, and performed by artists from some of the world's poorest nations, the Sahel Opera is being billed as the first of its kind.

Four hundred years to the day after Monteverdi's L'Orfeo became the first opera performed in Europe, Bintou Were, the story of an African former child soldier trying to migrate to Europe, premieres in Mali's capital Bamako today.

The pioneering project was dreamt up by the late Prince Claus of the Netherlands.

The German-born aristocrat, who died in 2002, wanted to create an African opera written and performed by artists from around the Sahel, a region poor in economic terms but rich in song, dance, music and drama, the core ingredients of opera.

Although he died before the opera saw the light of day, the fund he set up to help artists in developing countries has ensured his dream reached fruition.

''The Sahel Opera was Prince Claus' idea. We thought to start with he was totally mad, but it had to be done, and it is with Mali that we've been able to do it,'' said Els Van der Plas, head of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development.

''The date was not selected by chance. It is the 400th anniversary of the performance of the first European opera on February 17, 1607,'' she said.

Where Monteverdi's score called for around a dozen singers and some 40 musicians, Bintou Were involves as many as 80 musicians, actors, singers and dancers cast and trained at workshops around the Sahel over the past year.

The Sahel region, which stretches along the fringes of Africa's Sahara desert, is made up of countries including Mauritania, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Nigeria.

Prize-winning Chadian playwright and poet Koulsy Lamko wrote the libretto, which tells the tale of a young girl who tries to smuggle her way into ''fortress Europe'' over the barbed wire fence surrounding Spain's north African enclave of Melilla.

''Bintou is pregnant and she doesn't know who the child's father is. She goes with others into the desert to search for salvation elsewhere but is going to give birth on the barbed wire border that separates Africa and Europe,'' Lamko said.

In recent years, the Melilla enclave has seen real-life tragedy, with thousands of young illegal African migrants being turned back at its fences and some even shot dead.

Royal Backing

Prince Claus had a life-long interest in Africa, living there as a young child, working in the West German embassy in Ivory Coast and then specialising in sub-Saharan affairs for the Foreign Ministry in Bonn in the 1960s.

He took Dutch citizenship in 1965 when he was engaged to Princess Beatrix, sacrificing a potentially promising diplomatic career, but devoting his energies to state-sponsored overseas development in countries including Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

''Central to the Prince's idea was that this opera should discuss the relation between Europe and Africa in a humorous, critical and innovative way,'' his fund said on its Web site.

''He envisaged a spectacle of such quality and originality that it would steal the hearts of people throughout the world.'' Two of his sons, Prince Constantijn and Prince Johan Friso, are due to attend today's premiere, to be held in the open air on the banks of the majestic Niger River.

The opera -- which cost a total 2.5 million euros to cast, produce and perform, including planned tours in Africa and Europe -- has involved musicians including Senegal's Wasis Diop and Guinea-Bissau's Ze Manel.

Internationally-renowned Malian singer Salif Keita and Senegalese superstar Baaba Maal have advised on the production, while top businessmen including the former finance chief of ABN Amro Bank, Tom de Swaan, oversaw its funding.

It is due to be performed in Amsterdam in June before an October run at the prestigious Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.

Reuters