pOpera at the Philharmonie;
Credit: Helen O'Mahony
The Luxembourg based Foundation EME Community staged the 2nd edition of their community opera project, pOpera, in the Salle Musique de Chambre at the Philharmonie in Luxembourg-Kirchberg on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 September 2024.
Foundation EME uses music as a universal language, and pOpera brought refugees residing in Luxembourg together with professional musicians and singers to create their own pop opera production.
On both evenings over 50 international artists, from diverse backgrounds and countries, performed to full houses.
Conducted by Ivan Boumans, the one hour performance, set in a park, told the story of a young boy and his father, mourning the loss of the boy’s mother. Through the subsequent three acts the audiences were introduced to the gardener and pigeon lady while a chorus of people played football, had picnics and went about their daily lives.
The diversity of the participants was reflected in the use of both French and English during the performance. The moving rendition of the poem “We were abandoned” (written by Sam Hi. Sam) in six different languages effectively demonstrated how the performers, though coming from different backgrounds and cultures, were united in their feelings of abandonment.
Dominican-Luxembourger Soprano, Stephany Ortega delighted the audience with her strong performance and captivating voice as the pigeon lady. Ms Ortega also conducted the choir.
Californian-Italian Mezzo-Soprano Amber Fasquelle gave a wonderful performance as the gardener, while the Luxemburgish bass-baritone Jean Bermes well represented the grief of a man in mourning.
Two students (Leo and Matthias) from the boys’ choir Pueri Cantores du Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg played the part of the young son with impressive enthusiasm and empathy.
The main accolades, however, must go to the non-professional participants from Syria, Eritrea, Venezuela and Luxembourg as well as other countries. Following only six weeks of intensive rehearsals they produced a spell-binding show. Their solidarity and friendship was apparent to all watching.
The opera’s closing scene was a party in the park, where percussionist Amit Dhuri brought the full ensemble together. The audience enthusiastically joined in, clapping along to the wonderful beat of the drum .
The sustained applause as the show finished was testament to the great performance of all involved in the production.
Following the show, members of the audience were invited to share their thoughts and impressions of the performance. Among the audience members a previous pOpera participant, originally from Syria, spoke of the importance of pOpera in his life.
The shows were free of charge, and the audiences had the opportunity afterwards to donate to Foundation EME to support future pOpera projects
