The world’s first Pidgin opera continues to spread its wings
Photo: Helen Epega, composer and librettist of ‘Song Queen: A Pidgin Opera’’
Daniel Nelson
When Nigerian-British musician Helen Epega announced that she would be writing the world’s first Pidgin opera, a woman responded, “Oh, but you’re an educated woman. Why would you do an opera in pidgin?”
The answer is that Pidgin English – a blend of English and local languages – is widely spoken in parts of West Africa and in many other countries and regions. Variations of Pidgin have long served as bridges between communities, as well as between local people and foreign traders, missionaries and administrators.
In addition, Epega explains, it is part of her drive to democratise opera: “it’s celebrating colloquial dialects, bringing together what is considered ‘high’ art with what is considered ‘low’ art.
“I’m trying to create a space where we celebrate African culture. I’m doing an opera and I wanted to do it in a grand way, in a fun and inclusive way, as well as using different dialects and cultures.
“I want to celebrate the blurring of geographical lines and cultures.”
So her work, Song Queen: A Pidgin Opera at Wilton’s Music Hall in east London, also “blends Patois, Creole, Cockney, Hip-Hop Vernacular and Multicultural London Slang with Western Classical music” and African instruments.
Call and response is another element in the work. Unsurprisingly, she describes the opera as less formal than people might expect.
Epega, a woman of many musical skills, sings and plays in the production, which she created a decade ago.
Yes, she says, “it represents all I’ve been working on. It’s the crescendo of my life’s work so far, but I’m hoping it’s not the final crescendo. I’m hoping to tour it around the world, to perhaps 10 cities in the next two years and build on from there.
“It’s the summit so far but I can still see the top of the mountain and I’m not there yet.”
Feedback from audiences has been “really wonderful”, but some doors are still closed to her, she admits, referring to traditional European opera houses.
“I do feel those doors. I am not from a music conservatoire, I’m not a dead composer, I’m a Black woman composer in a space where there are not many like me. There’s much reason for me to hope and also there are challenges.”.
But she loves being a trailblazer.
“I want to be fearless because it would be easy to think ‘Why on earth would you embark on this crazy Pidgin opera journey, Helen?’
“But my optimism far exceeds any fear that I can imagine. I just feel, ‘Go for it.’ I’m not going to tell myself No: I’ll leave that to whoever in the world want to tell me No. I just believe that we really are in a critical time and this is when artists bring hope to the world.”
She plans to bring out an album of the show later this year, and has started work on another opera based on the imagined conversation between two famous writers, one Nigerian, one British, “in some form of colloquial British dialect”.
Like Song Queen, it will be fascinating.
Song Queen: A Pidgin Opera, £10-£25, is at Wilton’s Music Hall, Grace’s Alley, E1 8JB on 24-26 April. Info: Wilton’s