Gaddafi - The Opera

Page 10
Q-News, Issue 362
April 2005

As Pope John Paul II lay convalescing in a Rome hospital, most world leaders were content to call in their wishes for health of the 84-year old Pontiff (who passed 31 March 2005). Then a pick-up truck showed up at the Gemelli hospital loaded with a vast floral arrangement in the Vatican’s yellow and white colours. “Less a bouquet, than a forest,” one hospital official declared. The sender: Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Colonel Gaddafi has also been making news in London and, once again, it’s not what you think. The English National Opera (ENO) has announced 4 February 2006 as the date for the premiere of Gaddafi - The Opera composed by the Asian Dub Foundation’s Steve Chandra Savale with a libretto by actor/playwright Shan Khan. According to the ENO, “Gaddafi” is an examination of the creation of a myth. Through the story of a man of humble origin, born into a Bedouin tribe, who became a powerful and influential political leader, the opera examines the volatile relationship between the Middle East and the West and explores international politics and their representation in the media of both worlds.

Talk about a successful image makeover.