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William Cooper
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Ngapa William Cooper.
Composed and written by Nigel
Westlake, Lior, Dr. Lou Bennett and Sarah Gory. Australian
String Quartet Dale Barltrop, violin Francesca Hiew, violin Christopher
Cartlidge, viola Michael Dahlenburg, cello. Adelaide Town Hall, March 7 2023.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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Lior and Nigel Westlake
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Although the Adelaide Festival’s
performance of Ngapa William Cooper is primarily about Yorta Yorta activist
William Cooper’s protest against the treatment of the Jewish people in Nazi
Germany, the evening of magnificent composition, musicianship and song is a
commentary on the evils of oppression and displacement as well as cultural eradication.
It is also a joyous celebration of courage and compassion and the healing power
of empathy. It is a euphoric symphony to the power of goodness in humanity
The first piece is Bryce
Dressner’s fiercely sinewy
Ayhem (
Homeward-a homage to the diaspora
experience of Dressner’s Jewish grandmother).
Composed for strings it comprises hard, sudden accents creating a
feeling of protest and defiance before subsiding into a sustained sound
reminiscent of ancient winds across a vast landscape and the persistent force
of resistance. Dressner’s composition, played with stirring agility and verve
by the four members of the Australian String Quartet
serves as a prelude to Nigel Westlake’s
beautifully conceived and composed tribute to Ngapa William Cooper with singer
Lior and
Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung
musician, researcher and social activist
Dr. Lou Bennett AM.
The second piece is Philip
Glass’s String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” Glass’s distinct minimalism is inspired
by Paul Shrader’s film ”Mishima” in which the famous Japanese novelist kidnaps
a commandant in an attempt to restore dignity and the distinctive cultural
heritage and national essence to the nation. In one way it echoes Ngapa William
Cooper’s advance on the Nazi Germany consulate in 1938 . The comparison does
draw a long bow, but it does highlight the call to preserve a people’s cultural
heritage, diminished after World War 2 by occupation and by genocide and
displacement in Germany after Kristallnacht and since the arrival of British
colonization in Australia.
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Dr. Lou Bennett AM
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After interval vocalists Lior and Lou Bennett
are accompanied by the Australian String Quartet and Andrea Lam on piano,
Rebecca Lagos on percussionand
Kees
Boersma on Double Bass in
Nigel
Westlake’s most extraordinary and uplifting composition in tribute to
Grandfather William Cooper.
To say that
this half of the evening’s programme was transformative does not fully express
the impact of the work and its significance.
Jewish singer songwriter Lior and First Nations singer and musician
Lou Bennett join together to sing six songs
written with Westlake and Sarah Gory to tell the story of William Cooper and
his stance against the persecution and annihilation of the Jewish people,
already in train after the infamous Kristallnacht of 1938 throughout Germany
and Austria.
The News is a lament for
Cooper’s son Daniel who fought for Australia in World War 1 and was killed. He
died unheralded and without citizenship, Lior’s haunting and soulful voice
captures the pain and the horror of the impending holocaust while Bennett
waving the eucalypt branches of the smoking ceremony echoes the song of
bereavement. In
The Silence Lior
cries out through the silence “If all backs are turned. If all eyes look away
There will be no way to know we are sinking” Lior and Bennett sing from the
heart their songs of experience. It is the song of sublime compassion.
Yakapna (Family) sung with such passion
by Bennett affirms the conquest of hate by love and a resilience that will not
harden the heart. In
The Meeting,
when Cooper summons his brothers and sisters to join him for the march to the
consulate Lior’s song is interwoven with the recording of Cooper’s call to arms
with “a pen for a spear and the courage to use it.”
The
Protest closes with “Dark is the heart that closes its doors” in
condemnation of the consulate’s refusal to see the protestors or heed their
call for empathy. In the final song,
At
the end of my Days Lior and Bennett join together in a moving tribute to a
man whose wisdom, courage and compassion stand as an inspiration to all.
In the true spirit of
reconciliation it is time to learn from Ngapa William Cooper. It is time to
hear and listen to the voice of a people who in spite of the wrongs suffered
and the injustice inflicted upon them “will be the first to speak up and the last
to be silent”.
Ngapa William Cooper is
a magical and unique experience transporting the listener to a state of
meditative contemplation. Lior’s Hebrew heritage and Lou Bennett’s song of her
Yorta Yorta people fill the Adelaide Town Hall with the songline of two
cultures rich in culture and humanity.
Ngapa
William Cooper is an unforgettable evening of sublime musical performance, transformative
song, uplifting composition and inspiring themes.
They did not listen to William
Cooper in 1938. In this Adelaide
Festival world premiere Nigel Westlake with creative lyricist Sarah Gory,
vocalists Lior and Lou Bennett and
members of the Australian String Quartet with percussion, piano and double bass
musicians create a night of
transcendental experience. It is time to listen and for the voices to be .heard.
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