Heracles from Lubumbashi

An oratorio of mines for eleven musicians, a dancer and a singer
By Dorine Mokha and Elia Rediger

Loosely based on "Hercules" by G. F. Händel, the Congolese choreographer Dorine Mokha and the Swiss musician Elia Rediger created a post-documentary oratorio for 11 Congolese and European musicians, song and dance. They transferred the popular myth into the age of globalisation and transported us with a simple trick from the gloomy present to an obviously better future. The music theatre piece became a video installation during the pandemic. After the sudden death of Dorine Mokha, the collaboration of the artists involved led to the founding of GROUP50:50.

Despite the current talk about sustainability, nothing seems more difficult than designing a desirable future. With the energy transition, the demand for cobalt will triple in the next few years. The profits from mining will go to commodity corporations like Glencore in Switzerland, while the population in Congo can only expect destruction of their habitat and resettlement. Like gods on Olympus, multinational corporations and political elites play out their interests against each other unchallenged. Has nothing changed since ancient times? And where is this Hercules who gives back to the inhabitants of Lubumbashi their fair share of the riches of their earth? What could make the gods fairer if not heroic music and dance?

HERCULE DE LUBUMBASHI / Les Trouobadours de Lubumbashi

Inspired by the ancient Hercules saga, Congolese mythological tales and the oratorio of the same name by George Frideric Handel, a new work in nine acts for orchestra, dancers and singers from Europe and Africa has been created that imagines a utopian future in southern Congo. Current conflicts over raw materials, corruption, lawlessness, human rights violations and other consequences of global capitalism are settled, compensated and made up for in fiction - a collaborative project for a hoped-for reality and better future.

After two European tours in September 2019 (Scala Esslingen, Kaserne Basel, Düsseldorf Festival) and in January 2020 (CTM Festival), the oratorio "Hercules of Lubumbashi" was performed, shortly before the lockdown (February 2020), in the Bâtiment du 30 Juin, the parliament building of the mining city of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Afterwards, the transnational dialogue on economic injustice stimulated by this project was suddenly interrupted by the international travel restrictions due to the pandemic. Instead of travelling to Zurich to perform "Hercules" at the Theatre Spectacle, the artists responded to the new situation by creating a transnational music and video installation with live elements that shows us how everything is connected in a globalised world. The video installation was performed in Zurich and in Lubumbashi in 2020.

A project by PODIUM Esslingen in co-production with Kaserne Basel
In cooperation with the Institut Français Lubumbashi, the studios kabako Kisangani

Concept, text, composition, singing
Elia Rediger

Concept, text, choreography, dance
Dorine Mokha

Add. Compositions & Musical Direction
Kojack Kossakamvwe
Benjamin Weidekamp
Daniel Freitag

Orchestra
Daniel Freitag
Kojack Kossakamvwe
Merveil Mukadi
Huguette Tolinga
Benjamin Weidekamp
Jennifer Lippl
Ruth Kemna
Per Hakon Oftedal
Yeo-Rhim Yoon
Maria Schneider
Jacob Cirkel

Chorus
Les Troubadours de Lubumbashii

Dramaturgy
Eva-Maria Bertschy
Katia Flouest-Sell

Assistant Director
Sarah Ströbele

Stage
Flurin Borg Madsen

Stage Assistant
Johannes Plank

Costumes
Janine Werthmann

Video
Douglas Kasamuna
Elia Rediger

Video assistance
Joseph Kasau
Blaise Pelos
Idriss Gabel

Stage / lighting technology
Konstantin Dauer

Sound technology
Johann Günther

Technical production management
Clemens Kowalski

Concept, musical co-direction Podium
Steven Walter

Production
Pamina Dittmann

Production assistance
Judith Kalanga

Research, consulting
Lucien Kahozi Kosha