NewAfricanWoman Issue 49 - Flipbook - Page 81
OPERA MUSIC
| THE ARTS
Photography: Shutterstock/LukasPuchrik
As Clara in Porgy
& Bess at Grange
Park Opera in 2019.
bringing new ideas. Most people come into
opera because they are passionate about it.
They have unique and wonderful stories and
come from all over the world. And you will find
doctors who changed careers to become opera
singers…”
Chiejina enjoys the element of teamwork that
opera comes with,[which] brings many different moving parts together. The director has a lot
more say, but it’s a spectacle that is built collectively, from the orchestra to the singers to the
set and costume designers.
One point she does acknowledge is that it is
costly to become an opera singer, and so it
may be seen as elitist, or attainable only by the
better-off.
Her experience in the US is quite unique she
says, and she would like to see governments
making music as accessible as it was for her.
The pandemic forced a lot of talented people
out of the industry, she adds. She was lucky, she
admits, to have recorded and streamed three
operas during the period.
However, Chiejina feels that opera is gaining a
wider appeal across the continent. “The South
Africans are definitely killing it in the opera
game. There is definitely a few of us, but I definitely feel there’s a community that’s building,”
she says adding:
“There is April Koyejo-Audiger, an amazing British-Nigerian soprano. We were in La bohème
together. Even in Nigeria, they see what we are
doing over here. You can learn a lot through
YouTube. Many Nigerians I know are training
themselves through YouTube. Even on TikTok,
there are so many people keeping opera alive,
modernising it. I think that social media has
been a saving grace for the art form.”
Her own native Nigeria has two prominent
companies, the Abuja Opera Company and
the Muson Centre. Her last visit to Nigeria, a
supposed holiday, involved a lot of work, she
laughs. Her proud parents made sure she gave
a performance. She also went back to her music
school, Muson, to give a masterclass.
Does she follow the other genres, such as Afrobeats, which is taking the world by storm?
She does and it’s great because it encourages
people to see music and the arts as a viable
option for kids to make a living and succeed,
which wasn’t always the case for traditional
families, she says.
When asked whether there are any major
goals she’d like to achieve — knowing that she
performed in Carnegie Hall in New York in 2018
— she explains that part of the fun of singing is
being in the moment. “I’ve already achieved a
lot more than I ever dreamed of so early in my
career. I have other aspirations but no specific
goals such as ‘I want to sing solo’. Rather, I
want to continue enjoying what I do, continue
improving and to be able to help other people
who want to do the same.” That’s music to our
ears.
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March 2023 New African Woman
l 79