OFFENBACH AND THE VOICES OF LIMPOPO:

VOCAL AND VISUAL NARRATIVES IN A “LAND OF CONTRASTS”

Lee Chambers

Texas Tech University

(Slide 1) In recent years, scholars have given considerable attention to the presence of

indigenous peoples from beyond the West in the world of opera; topics have ranged from the

representation of these peoples by Western composers to the engagement of opera by “Indigene”

composers and performers to express their identities amidst the fractures of postcolonial life. In

the case of African operatic contexts, these perspectives address the ways in which opera

interfaces with African convictions by exploring the motivations for operatic practice,

perceptions about opera and operatic voices, and the intended function of African voices and

viewpoints within these practices.1

Similarly, semioticians have often focused their analyses of advertising campaigns on the

role of music in promotional narratives, the representation of genres within these narratives, and

the social ideologies from which the narratives emerge. As such, the advertisements serve as a

type of auto-ethnographic text that intentionally defines a message designed to persuade its

addressee concerning the identity of the advertiser and the product in question.2 In cases in which

operatic excerpts narrate the visual images, the product becomes entwined with associations

related to the genre’s use as a marker of social distinction, its implication within the history of

1 Pamela Karantonis, “Introduction,” in Opera Indigene: Re/presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures, ed. Pamela Karatonis and Dylan Robinson (Surrey: Ashgate, 2011), 2. 2 Eero Tarasti, Existential Semiotics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), 191; for an introduction to the reading of auto-ethnographic texts, see John Dorst, The Written Suburb: An American Site, An Ethnographic Dilemma (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989).

imperial domination, or its presentation of the voice as a medium for either spiritual

manipulation or emotionally ecstatic expression.

Situated at the intersection of these two areas of inquiry, this study considers the

Mozambique Ministry of Tourism’s 2008 promotional campaign “Land of Contrast,” in which

two Mozambican singers—soprano Stella Mendonça and contralto Sonia Mocumbi—perform

the Barcarolle Duet from Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman with the Symphonic Orchestra of

Pontarlier in the nation’s Limpopo National Park, incorporating video imagery of wildlife from

the park. Employing the stated goals of the campaign, I provide an analysis of the imagery in

these commercials and its relationship to the musical backdrop. Discussing the layers of

opposition that are constructed between the images, the music, and the voices of Mendonça and

Mocumbi, I argue that Mozambique is presented to the potential tourist as a destination where

the experience of cultivated amenities co-exists with that of an untamed idyllic nature. As such,

the advertisement demonstrates the ways in which the juxtaposition of “indigenous” and “global”

objects signifies networks of prestige, commonality, and individuality.

Methodology

(Slide 2) According to Eero Tarasti, the purpose of an advertisement is to persuade the

consumer through an emotional exchange in which the advertisement stimulates positive feelings

toward the product being marketed.3 In other words, a successful promotional campaign fulfills a

dominant role over the consumer, and in this way, the goals of a campaign are closely aligned

with historical associations with operatic practice. Nicholas Till argues that the emergence of

opera was an essential component of early modernity, of which “colonialism was one of the most

distinctive elements”: in the seventeenth century, authors often equated European scientists and

3 Tarasti, Existential Semiotics, 191.

explorers with the same mythological figures—particularly Orpheus—that served as the focal

point of early opera libretti.4 Till cites a passage in Striggio’s libretto for Monteverdi’s Orfeo

(1607), which describes a dominant Man, against whom “nature can no longer protect herself,”

as an example of rhetoric that reflects the impulses of early colonialism.5 Framing Orpheus as the

“founder of civilization,” Francis Bacon similarly equated the ability of music to tame beasts and

nature with the potential of law and civilization to tame primitive peoples, and Grant Olwage

argues that nineteenth-century vocal pedagogy was used in South Africa as a means of

colonizing the body of the Other.6 The influential power of music as constructed in these

discourses stems from further associations of the voice with the spiritual and emotional

expression: Gary Tomlinson argues that the operatic voice has been used throughout opera

history as a medium by which the metaphysical is made physically accessible.7 This may help to

explain the use of operatic excerpts in product advertisement: if operatic singing carries

associations of physical, emotional, and spiritual domination, then its historical uses have often

paralleled the goals of advertising.

Second, a successful advertisement must disguise its own purpose as an advertisement

and convince the consumer that its space is a part of the consumer’s natural world.8 In the case of

dominant/dominated relationships, discussions of signification—by which I mean the process of

making meaning—must, in addition to the signifier and the signified, take into consideration the

one who signifies.9 Because available choices for expressive tools include the languages of both

4 Nicholas Till, “Orpheus Conquistador,” in Opera Indigene: Re/presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures, ed. Pamela Karatonis and Dylan Robinson (Surrey: Ashgate, 2011), 20. 5 Ibid., 17.

6 Ibid., 21; Grant Olwage, “The Class and Colour of Tone: An Essay on the Social History of Vocal Timbre,” Ethnomusicology Forum 13, no. 2 (2004), 208. 7 Tomlinson, Metaphysical Song (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 4. 8 Tarasti, Existential Semiotics, 192. 9 Ibid., 138.

the one who dominates and the one who is dominated, I suggest that this analysis must also

account for the one to whom the signifier is directed. For the purposes of this study, the

expressive language consists of opera as a genre code and the specific visual images used in the

advertisement, those who signify are the African sponsors involved in auto-ethnography, and the

ones to whom the signifiers are directed are potential tourists.

Finally, the product that is advertised is often treated as an auxiliary object: competing

manufacturers do not fight for the products themselves, but rather for the markets of consumers

that the products make possible.10

European society has similarly used opera and quasi-operatic

practices as an auxiliary tool for the performance of an urbane identity. According to Vlado

Kotnik, social cache within operatic hierarchies is variously distributed according to initiation or

non-initiation into operatic society, seating arrangements in the opera house, the feats or

reputation of one singer over another, and the emergence and evaluation of national schools of

operatic composition and vocal technique.11

As such, the protection and maintenance of

sophistication and merit requires the performance of social ritual that marks difference from the

operatic non-initiate.12

Similarly, the discovery of gold in Southern Africa in the mid-nineteenth

century was quickly followed by the erection of opera houses in several cities throughout the

region.13

This is not to say that participants in these social rituals do not genuinely enjoy operatic

singing as performers or spectators; rather, it emphasizes two purposes of operatic identity within

advertising campaigns. First, as an example of auto-ethnography, the performance of operatic

identity tells the consumer that the advertiser is sophisticated; second, the product being

10

Ibid., 195. 11 Vlado Kotnik, Opera, Power and Ideology: Anthropological Study of a National Art in Slovenia (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2010), 157. 12 Ibid., 41, 43. 13 Jacques Malan, “Opera Houses in South Africa,” in The World of South African Music, ed. by Christine Lucia (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2005), 126.

advertised—because it is aligned with operatic sophistication—itself serves as an auxiliary of the

same sophistication.

Land of Contrast

(Slide 3) The promotional campaign “Mozambique: Land of Contrast” was initiated by

Sonça International, an NGO founded by Switzerland-based Mozambican soprano Stella

Mendonça; the project was developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and co-

sponsored by the national hydroelectric company, Rani Resorts, and the National Parks of

Limpopo and Gargongosa.14

The relationship between sponsors in the project reflects a neo-

liberal trend across Southern Africa since the 1990s that involves private institutions for the

promotional sponsorship of public resources; as such, the project may be re-appropriated

according to the respective goals of each organization.15

In the case of this project, the recorded

footage was utilized to produce two different advertisements: the original Land of Contrast

video, which was designed to benefit the majority of sponsors; and a second video to promote

the hydroelectric company, which incorporated a slightly different set of images and the new title

“Hydroelectrica Cahora Bassa: The Pride of Mozambique.”16

While this study in its expanded

form will include an exploration of the same themes in the second video, this paper will focus

specifically on the construction of the ideas of modern and idyllic in the Land of Contrast

campaign.

14 Press Release. “Mozambique—Land of Contrast,” http://www.stellamendonca.com/Download/PressRelease_wtm.pdf [accessed 26 March 2013]; “‘LAND OF CONTRAST’—Promotional Clip for Mozambique’s Tourism Industry,” http://www.soncainternational.org/file/about_SONCA_international/Entries/2008/4/14_%22LAND_OF_CONTRAST%22-_Promotion_clip_for_Mozambiques_tourism_industry.html [accessed 26 March 2013]. 15 William Wolmer, “”Transboundary Conservation: The Politics of Ecological Integrity in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park,” Journal of Southern African Studies 29, no. 1 (2003), 261. 16 “Promotional Clip.”

(Slide 4) The stated intention of the campaign is to promote tourism in Mozambique,

which is described as “Africa’s rising star in tourism,” and to present the image of Mozambique

as “a rising country: rich in nature and hospitality, [while] connecting natives with international

cultural values.”17

In other words, the evidence for Mozambique’s distinction as a rising country

has two co-existent aspects: the local—coinciding with “nature and hospitality”—and the

global—coinciding with “international cultural values.” The various facets of the campaign’s

rising country model are treated in both opposition and conjunction with one another in the

advertisement: while the title creates an interpretive frame emphasizing the contrast of local

practices and global values, the stated goals of the campaign suggest their unification within the

spaces of contemporary Mozambique. According to press releases concerning the campaign,

these goals represent the themes of innovation, sustainability, and excellence, which likewise

suggest a dialectic relationship of opposition and conjunction: innovation and sustainability are

presented as contrasting elements that may benefit from one another, while excellence is possible

within and between each.18

Thereby, for the purposes of this study, I will consider the theme of

sustainability in relation to claims concerning Mozambique’s nature and hospitality, innovation

in relation to the idea of incorporating “international cultural values,” and excellence in relation

to both aspects of the “rising country.” Further, both the rhetoric of the advertisement’s

production and the advertisement itself reflects these goals and their relationship to operatic and

advertising conventions by means that are both explicit and implicit.

(Slide 5) The campaign emphasizes the idea of innovation and discovery. Materials

released describing the campaign stress the “surprising and unseen images of the only two

Mozambican opera singers” in the “World Premiere” performance of live classical music in a

17 Press Release, “Mozambique—Land of Contrast”; “Promotional Clip.” 18 Press Release, “Mozambique—Land of Contrast.”

Mozambican national park.19

This highlights both the rarity of the event and the juxtaposition of

native and international values. If only two Mozambicans sing operatic repertoire and if the

performance is a first, then this account of the event is designed to emphasize the imminent

nature Mozambique’s “rising” status within the international community and generate curiosity

for tourist activity. At the same time, the purposeful association of opera with international

cultural values helps to frame a promotional space in which Mozambique overlaps with the

natural space of the potential tourist. Further, the press release states that this music and these

musicians stand alongside “a unique and unseen set of breathtaking nature and wildlife.”20

This

connects to the idea of emotional power in both operatic practice and advertising conventions, as

the native—in this case, “nature and wildlife”—is promised to elicit a physical response from the

potential tourist. Therefore, Mozambique is rhetorically constructed as an idyllic space only

found in this locale. However, regardless of the contrast between the emotional power of native

and that of international values, the idea of uniqueness is utilized in the campaign as partially

resulting from the ways in which the local and the global meet and collaborate. (Slide 6)

According to Minister of Tourism, Dr. Fernando Sumbana Jr.:

We need to fully present the country in all its aspects - to present all physiological aspects

in terms of natural resources and its potential for development of tourism. We found in

Stella someone who brought all those elements of contrast together: The contrast made

possible by bringing an orchestra to discover southern Africa - and to enjoy

Mozambique’s potential by performing world famous pieces of classic music in a typical

Mozambican environment experiencing the challenges inside a park, in this case the

Limpopo National Park. We find typical Mozambican - typical African culture - we find

European and Arab culture converge into different civilizations and societies from our

continent.21

19 Ibid. 20 Ibid. 21 Interview with Dr. Fernando Sumbana Junior—Minister of Tourism, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CwxwySBIjY&list=PL1967F7848C348252&index=8 [accessed 26 March 2013].

(Slide 7) By this account, not only do all of the elements of contrast exist within a single

Mozambican person—Stella Mendonça—but the orchestra discovers the potential and resources

of a space—the Land of Contrast—that is already culturally pluralistic. The experience of an

orchestra—which carries with it the cultural weight of a high culture institution—is itself

presented as a kind of invitation to the potential tourist: the discovery of Mozambique and the

realization of its potential can be experienced by those other than the orchestra with activities

other than classical music. The citation of “world famous” music speaks to the campaign’s goal

of establishing Mozambique within networks of international cultural values: not only does the

hospitality of the native environment invite the tourist, but the environment is itself presented as

a space in which international values may be discovered and produced. As such, the connection

between the orchestra and the landscape is emphasized in the press release’s claim that the

orchestra “plays in harmony with Mozambique’s nature and wildlife.”22

This claim serves two

purposes as an invitation to the potential tourist: first, it equates Mozambique’s essence with the

cache that accompanies the music, establishing Mozambique as a space that generates universal

experience. Within this space, the idyllic pastoral imagery and hospitable expertise of the native

is both contrasted with and narrated through an international expressive language. Second, the

claim highlights the affective goals of advertising campaigns. One of the purposes given by the

hydroelectric company for co-sponsorship was that lyric singers show the beauty of

Mozambique, such as “beaches, national parks etc. in a very extraordinary way - with music,

which is really very touching.”23

In this way, the practice of opera is utilized within the

advertisement not as an end in itself, but rather as an auxiliary that begets intangible qualities and

presents a specific image of Mozambique to the potential tourist.

22 Press Release, “Mozambique—Land of Contrast.” 23 Interview with Dr. Paulo Muxanga—PCA HCB, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSNJB5ireJA&list=PL1967F7848C348252 [accessed 26 March 2013].

Images of a Rising Nation

(Slide 8) I continue now to the advertisement itself. Because the images move so quickly

and the overall effect of the video reveals more about the opposition and conjunction of images

than do individual scenes, I will show the advertisement in its entirety. In the interest of time,

however, I will not provide a detailed analysis of each scene; instead, I would like to briefly

highlight some broad trends. (Play Video)

(Slide 9) First, I point to the sense of “emptiness” in select scenes; according to Gordon

Waitt, the inclusion of vast, open spaces that are “devoid of people” as images in tourist

advertising mirrors the historical claim to uninhabited territory as a justification for colonial

appropriation of that territory.24

In this case, a large percentage of the images highlighted in the

video focus on animals, vegetation, bodies of water, or rock paintings, the last of which only

suggests a presence—or, at least, a former presence—of human habitation. Nevertheless, each of

these scenes, through either animal or camera motion, demonstrate a kind of activity and

vibrancy within this “natural” space; conversely, the most “still” images, “devoid” of animated

life are those most closely associated with “international,” “modern” amenities: the luxurious

hotel room and the ocean-side pool.

Second, when visitors do appear, they are present and active in the “wilderness,” making

music with native Mozambicans. It is here that we see the campaign’s fullest manifestation of the

claim to connect natives with international cultural values, which may be interpreted in two

ways. On the one hand, if music—and specifically, opera—is a dominating force, then the

inhabitation of an idyllic landscape by a foreign orchestra may represent the orchestra’s

24 Gordon Waitt, “Selling Paradise and Adventure: Representations of Landscape in the Tourist Advertising,” Australian Geographical Studies 35, no. 1 (1997), 50.

domination of both the landscape and the voices of Limpopo. Musical activity, lead by a foreign

conductor, infiltrates a vast, open space, bestowing on that space the cache associated with the

music. At the same time, however, the park’s uncultivated grass stands around and between the

performers, as if the musicians are themselves implanted within the landscape. If the operatic

voice pastorally emanates from metaphysical worlds, as Tomlinson suggests, then the music

itself is generated in and from the landscape. In this respect, it may be significant that activity

takes place in the idyllic environment rather than in the modern environment. Not only does the

sonic result of musical activity narrate the “breathtaking” visual representations of Limpopo, but

the Mozambican environment inspires and speaks through the “international” language of the

orchestra.

In any case, the focus in nearly all scenes that visually demonstrate musical performance,

particularly those in which the voice is heard, is on Mendonça and Mocumbi. While the

orchestra and its conductor are seen behind the singers, the visibility of the foreigners in these

scenes is minimal. Further, because the singers face each other rather than the orchestra, they are

not visually led by the cues of a foreign conductor; rather, the conductor sonically follows the

lead of the voices of Limpopo. While Mendonça and Mocumbi sing “world famous” music,

connecting natives to international values, their own musical activity leads the foreign musicians

through a tour of Mozambican visual and vocal nature in a language that the foreigners

understand, showing the musicians the same sense of hospitality that the potential tourist can

expect in the same environment.

Conclusion

(Slide 10) The positioning of operatic singing within the world of international cultural

values and, thereby, innovation corresponds to historical associations of opera with colonialism,

modernity, cultivation, and sophistication. At the same time, its relationship with the affective

properties of Mozambican landscapes perpetuates operatic associations with pastoral magic,

emotional ecstasy, and the aesthetically sublime. If music is constructed as an influential force,

then it may certainly be argued that the image of Mozambique presented here reflects a long

legacy of imperial hierarchies. In any case, as a tool for advertising, the operatic voice and its

attached currency are utilized because of their legacy of dominance: in this case, however, the

voices of Limpopo are evoked in order to lead the behaviors and emotions of foreign ears.