23rd October. A very successful first screening of the recently edited extracts from The Kingdom at Hornsey Library, and a warm welcome from librarian Vicky Orekoya, who hosted the event.
A large screen provided a vivid experience of scenes from the opera, together with excellent sound, installed by Sterling Rodgers.
The screening was followed by an animated audience discussion in which many ideas for re-staging the opera were put forward, as well as suggestions for future screenings.
It was agreed that these events should take place beyond the limits of Black History Month, as The Kingdom, and the novel by Alejo Carpentier The Kingdom of This World, on which the opera is based, deal with a period which is part of African, Caribbean and European histories. A French member of the audience told me that in France the Haitian Revolution and French involvement is taught in schools.
For centuries the British were also actively involved in maintaining and profiting from slavery in multiple locations in the Caribbean, including in San Domingo, but this key part of the past, the Haitian Revolution, is not taught in British schools. But by an extraordinary coincidence, the Haitian Revolution was the subject of Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time programme on BBC Radio 4 on the same day as the screening of extracts from The Kingdom.
A large screen provided a vivid experience of scenes from the opera, together with excellent sound, installed by Sterling Rodgers.
The screening was followed by an animated audience discussion in which many ideas for re-staging the opera were put forward, as well as suggestions for future screenings.
It was agreed that these events should take place beyond the limits of Black History Month, as The Kingdom, and the novel by Alejo Carpentier The Kingdom of This World, on which the opera is based, deal with a period which is part of African, Caribbean and European histories. A French member of the audience told me that in France the Haitian Revolution and French involvement is taught in schools.
For centuries the British were also actively involved in maintaining and profiting from slavery in multiple locations in the Caribbean, including in San Domingo, but this key part of the past, the Haitian Revolution, is not taught in British schools. But by an extraordinary coincidence, the Haitian Revolution was the subject of Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time programme on BBC Radio 4 on the same day as the screening of extracts from The Kingdom.