Where and when do the paths of a Congolese slum, Angelina Jolie, Mozart, opera, and a winner of two dozen international film festivals cross paths?

The answer is in Princeton this Saturday night. Philadelphia, Trenton and Princeton area residents are invited to attend an Italian wedding celebration on Saturday Evening, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street in Princeton.

This celebration, featuring Mozart’s fun-filled opera, “ Fandango,” will be the local kick off event to a planned string of cultural exchange events in North America and Africa over the next three years. The events are designed to bring awareness and solutions to violence, poverty and abuse to African and American children through the intercultural exchange of film, dance music, and other forms of art expression. They are based on the principle that music and the arts are the international language.

The Saturday celebration is sponsored by OPERAnauts, a Princeton-based non-profit organization, which is one of the lead global participants. Five Congolese musicians will travel to Princeton to study OPERAnauts’ production of an opera so they can return to Congo to perform it there as part of the cultural exchange. Next spring, OPERAnauts will travel to Philadelpha to perform a French opera and later in the year, will also travel to Kinshasa, Congo, to perform the production.

Joy Bechtler, Founder and Executive Director of OPERAnauts and a Princeton resident, said “We are a tiny but very committed group, who believe in the possibility of music to change the world. And we believe our performance Saturday night will be the first of many to be transported and interpreted to foreign cultures. Human emotion, love, and the joy of music will be celebrated in any culture,” said Ms. Bechtler, who lived in Africa as a child, the daughter of an American physician and missionary. “We are excited about the possibility these events will encourage foundations, corporations and governments to fund programs to reduce poverty, violence and sickness of children.”

Fandango will be sung in Italian with English dialogue. The main character of the story is Cherubino, an adolescent with the feelings of jealousy, lust, and wild emotional angst, punctuated with lots of confusion. The production will be performed by five talented opera singers, a marimba and wind quartet and a children’s chorus.

The intercultural exchange will also include the internationally celebrated film “Kinshasa Symphony,” winner of more than two dozen film festival awards. The film, featured on CNN and CBS Sunday Morning, tells the story about the residents of Kinshasa, Congo who, without funds, musical instruments or musical ability, formed the only all Black symphony orchestra in all of Africa. Using instruments often mended with whatever they could find, including old bicycle parts, and dedicating their non-working hours to long daily practice, the film shows how love of music can create miracles.

Goodwill ambassador Jean Claude Chiyuka, who represents the Democratic Republic of Congo in promoting both OPERAnauts and the film as it makes its way around the globe. Angelina Jolie, in a visit to the film production site, has offered her assistance in promoting the intercultural exchange.

Wedding cupcakes and punch will be served after the performance.

Article written by Dennis Bowers