Koanga

Koanga
Opera by Frederick Delius
The composer in 1912
Librettist	Charles F. Keary
Language	English
Based on	The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life by George Washington Cable
Premiere	June 13, 1904 (1904-30-13) Stadttheater Elberfeld

Koanga is an opera with music by Frederick Delius, his third opera, written between 1896 and 1897, and a libretto by Charles F. Keary, inspired partly by The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life of George Washington Cable. Inspiration also came from Delius's own experiences as a young man when his family sent him to work in Florida. Delius himself thought well of the opera compared to its predecessors, Irmelin and The Magic Fountain, because of the incorporation of dance scenes and his treatment of the choruses.Koanga is reputed to be the first opera in the European tradition to base much of its melodic material on African-American music.

Koanga was the first of Delius's operas to be performed. It was also the most labor-intensive with regard to the libretto, which was continually being revised. The opera was posthumously published in 1935.

It was performed privately in March 1899 in Paris, at the residence of Adela Maddison. Gabriel Fauré was among the performers, and the audience included Prince Edmond de Polignac and the Princesse de Polignac. Selections from the opera were performed in London on 30 May 1899 at St James's Hall, in a concert of his own music organised by Delius.

The first public staging of the opera was in the Stadttheater Elberfeld, Germany on 30 March 1904. It was sung in German, using a translation by Jelka Delius, and conducted by Fritz Cassirer.

Sir Thomas Beecham directed the British premiere for the full opera on 23 September 1935 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.John Brownlee sang the title role, with Oda Slobodskaya as Palmyra.