GAFA Arts Collective to Connect Wagner’s ‘Ring’ With Somoan / Pacific Culture

By David Salazar

GAFA Arts Collective is set to present “RINGAFA” between Oct. 30 and Nov. 20, 2021.

The concert performance, which will take place at St. Mary’s Church in London, England, follows the organization’s 2019 concert performance of “Siegfried” and will feature a cross-cultural presentation of Wagner’s famed tetralogy, imbuing it with Somoan / Pacific artistic expression. The showcase will be led by Stephen Anthony Brown and the Rosenau Sinfonia.

Other artists involved in the production include soprano Yannick Muriel Noah as Brünnhilde, mezzo-soprano Rhonda Browne as Erda, bass-baritone Pauls Putnins as Wotan as well as tenor Sani Muliaumaseali’i, soprano Aivale Cole, baritone Freddie Tong, and mezzo Sarah Sweeting.

“In RINGafa the connection is  the mythology and the back and forth between love, power, sacrifice and corruption,” says Sani Muliaumaseali’i, the organization’s creative director. “RINGafa is a development from our Siegfried concert of 2019 where, like the Rhine finding it’s  way to the Pacific Ocean I intertwined aspects of Samoan culture into the narrative —  RINGafa will do the same.”

The organization has presented such production as “Messiah Pacific” and “Sunday MASSIVE,” which link seminal works of classical music (Händel’s “Messiah” and masses by Mozart and Verdi) with Samoan culture.   

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