Introduction

The integration of multiple elements of performance to achieve a total theatre effect and generate intertextual meanings speaks to an agelong operatic conception of performance in Africa. But although African operatic practices predated colonial rule, the genre has, one might expect, continued to explore new directions. While indigenous examples like the Dagbamba drum history of northern Ghana and the Yorùbá Alárìnjó theatre of western Nigeria were enacted in specific religious or social contexts, African operas of the colonial era were created in ways that made them accessible to audiences beyond their ethnic affiliation. Duro Ladipo's Ǫba Kòso was, for example, performed to great acclaim when it toured Europe and the United States in the 1970s (Duro-Ladipo & Kolawole 1997). The trend towards greater stylistic inclusivity has however been strongest in the works of Western-trained African composers and dramatists who compose and produce for global audiences. In Nigeria, these include Akin Euba, Okechukwu Ndubuisi, Meki Nzewi, Samuel Akpabot, Laz Ekwueme, Adam Fiberesima and this writer. Ndubuisi's two-act opera, The Vengeance of Lizards, for example, is defined stylistically by the incorporation of traditional African (Igbo) theatrical resources within the framework of a Western operatic form to achieve a considerable musico-dramatic effect. The same description would apply, albeit in varying degrees, to Akpabot's Opu Jaja, Nzewi's The Lost Honey, Laz Ekwueme's A Night in Bethlehem, and Fiberesima's Jaja of Opobo (see Omojola 1995, 2000; Irele 1993).

Focusing on Akin Euba's opera, Chaka, written in 1970, and my most recent opera, Odyssey of a Dream (aka Ìrìn Àjò), written in 2018, this chapter examines how two modern Yoruba composers have represented and sought to define the African operatic voice in the postcolonial era. By ‘operatic voice’, I refer to the use of music and dramatic narrative to perform and reflect on Africanist experiences in ways that are socially contingent and historically dynamic. Akin Euba, emeritus professor of music at Pittsburgh University, studied music in Nigeria before proceeding to Trinity College of Music (London) to study piano and composition. He followed that up with a Master's degree in composition at UCLA, and a PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Ghana, Legon. Considering the strong European content of his education in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States, it is not surprising that many of Euba's works are significantly influenced by Western art music tradition.