The Emancipating Opera, 2019
Voluspa Jarpa

The Emancipating Opera, 2019
Video HD, color, sound, 11:49
2/5 + 1AP

In The Emancipating Opera (2019), Voluspa Jarpa uses the musical form of the cantata, which originated in European musical history, to create a narrative about power and emancipation. Voices come together to sing of the hegemonic psyche of paternalistic European and US colonizers and the subaltern psyche of marginalized social classes. Two protagonists mediate between these poles in the video: the “arriero,” a traditional Chilean muleteer, and the transsexual singer and actress Daniela Vega. In Jarpa’s video, indigenous culture is contrasted with colonialist writings that sought to legitimize the subjugation of non-Western cultures with their discourse of devaluation. The singer Daniela Vega acts as a figure of multiple rebellion: she resists not only the colonization of nature, culture, and people, but also the restriction and taming of the body.

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