The Prince's Crazy Dream: The Sahel Opera Project

With all the despair, the story report below makes room for light amid the darkness of our world. Only connect, the writer, E. M. Forster, wrote. Here we connect through music.

My friend, David Swatling, introduces The Princes's Crazy Dream on Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep/Vox Humana (English):

Prince Claus, the Dutch Queen's late consort, had what some would call a crazy idea. Right up until his death in 2002, he dreamed of creating an opera in the Sahel; the band of African countries along the southern Sahara stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. Now, some of the Sahel's most talented musicians and artists have come together to bring his idea to the stage.

On Saturday 17 February, members of the Dutch Royal family presented the 2007 Prince Claus Award at the world premiere of "Bintou Were: A Sahel Opera" at the spectacular open-air theatre of the Palais de la Culture on the banks of the Niger River, in Bamako, Mali.

On June 7, 8 & 9 it will premiere in Europe at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, as part of the Holland Festival, and in October, at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, France.
Prince Claus Fund: The Sahel Opera Project (English)

Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep: Prince Claus, the unknown prince --

Frans Bieckmann says the ideas he presented were not revolutionary, but they were progressive:

"Basically, Prince Claus thought that people in developing countries should be allowed to handle their own development. It is not for the West to prescribe how people in those countries should develop […] Richer nations should enable them to develop on their own by creating the right kind of international conditions for them to do so."

Towards the end of his life, Prince Claus became increasingly bitter about the results – or lack thereof – achieved by and with development aid. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Dutch development aid in 1999, he wrote a damning speech in which he said a celebration was inappropriate because of the failure of aid to achieve anything significant in the preceding decades. His speech was so critical that he was not allowed to use it.