Catgut — The Opera
Park Nights, Serpentine Pavillion, London, 2021
For Park Nights 2021, Rhea Dillon presents Catgut – The Opera. Dillon’s libretto ruminates on the conditions and capaciousness of Black performance as experienced through the Black operatic. Taking its departure from The Masque of Blackness by Ben Jonson, a masque commissioned in the early 17th century by Queen Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of King James I, Catgut convenes three orators in classic soapboxing fashion. Throughout the opera’s three acts — the essay, the poem, and the poethic — Dillon denounces the idea that the Black performing artist should or could ever exist in the mundane. The performance is accompanied by sound direction by James William Blades and includes an original composition by TWEAKS. Costumes designed by Jawara Alleyne.
Information on the publication
Photography: Henry Jay Kamara, Rosie Marks