An Opera of the World

Synopsis

The centrepiece of Manthia Diawara's An Opera of the World is a staging of Wasis Diop's Bintu Were, A Sahel Opera in Bamako, Mali in 2008 - a pioneering work telling the story of migration from West Africa to Europe by combining traditional Malian music with the structure of the Western operatic art form. Weaving together this performance with classical works and footage from the current migrant crisis, the film invites meditations on the role of music in experiences and representations of contemporary migration from Fatou Diome, Alexander Kluge, Nicole Lapierre, Richard Sennett and Diawara himself. For this event, sociologist Suzi Hall and artist Hannah Catherine Jones have been invited to use the film as a starting point to offer their own provocations. The discussion asks what happens when artistic forms meet and merge, and addresses the politics of cultural expression as it migrates and encounters other forms.