For a couple of years now Thee Black Swan Theatre & Opera Company has been working towards making the sound of William Grant Still's opera Troubled Island live again. This opera, written in 1936 in collaboration with Langston Hughes, chronicles the life of Dessalines, leader of the Haitian Revolution alongside Toussaint L'Ouverture, who went on to lead the newly independent nation of Haiti after 1804. The opera itself has a troubled past, with writer and composer falling foul of both racism and McCarthyism.
A taster of this grand opera is being performed in London on six occassions on the last day of October and five nights into November, as follows:
Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate, 7.30pm
Thursday, 31st October, Friday, 1st November and Saturday 2nd November
Catford Broadway, 8pm
Friday, 8th November and Saturday 9th November
The Wilberforce Theatre, The Museum of London, Docklands E14 4AL, 7.30pm
Sunday, November 10th
With support from Judith Anne Still and Arts Council (England).
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