Catch Odaline de la Martinez in London next month with scenes from Imoinda and Canciones

Odaline de la Martinez

There is a chance next month to catch music from Odaline de la Martinez' powerful opera Imoinda: A Story of Love and Slavery. Vincent Godfrey is conducting the Merlyn Ensemble on 1 November 2025 at the Warehouse in scenes from Imoinda with Donna Bateman as Imoinda and Sandeep Gurrupadi as Okoin a programme that also includes music by Britten, Smyth, Coleridge-Taylor and Florence Price. The programme is repeated on 15 November at Guildford United Reformed Church.

Loosely based on Aphra Behn's 1688 novel Oroonoko: or the Royal Slave, one of the first published works by an English female writer, the libretto for Imoinda was adapted by award-winning poet and academic Joan Anim-Addo. The opera traces the beginning of the Afro-Caribbean Culture from Africa, through the horrific boat journey, to the arrival of the enslaved people in the Caribbean. [ticket details]

There will be more of Odaline de la Martinez' music in London in November as her Canciones for Voice, Piano and Percussion will be featured at the London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church on 21 November in as part of a Celebration of Latin American Women Composers  performed by pianist Nigel Foster, soprano Ana Beard Fernandez and percussionist Gillian McDonagh who along with baritone Michel de Souza will be performing songs ranging in date from the 19th to 21st centuries, by composers from Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba. [further details]