African Folk Opera at Mount Holyoke

Published on November 30, 2007

The Mount Holyoke College departments of music and dance bring an African Folk opera to the stage of the Rooke Theater in two shows Dec. 9 at 2 and 8 p.m.

"The Palmwine Drinkard," written by Kola Ogunmola, and based on Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola's novel of the same name, recounts the mythological tale of a man, who follows his dead tapster into "Deads' Town," a world of magic, ghosts, demons, and supernatural beings. According to the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, Tutuola's works can be read as moral tales, commenting on Western consumerism: "What happens when a man immerses himself in pleasure to the exclusion of all work?"

The opera, directed by five-college ethnomusicologist Bode Omojola, will be performed by a cast of 28 Mount Holyoke College students in collaboration with a group of Nigerian professional performers, including master drummer Bisi Adeleke, singer Mark Ojo and choreographer Esi Nicholl.

Tickets are $5; $3 students, available from the Box Office at (413) 538-2406.