Otemba - Daring Women

Otemba – Daring Women is a musical theatre piece in celebration of Amsterdam 750, composed by Misato Mochizuki. The piece is based on the painting Portrait of Pieter Cnoll, Cornelia van Nijenroode, their daughters and two enslaved servants (Batavia, 1665) by Jacob Coeman, which is in the Rijksmuseum. In Otemba – Daring Women, Cornelia steps out of the painting and has a conversation with the restorer about colonial relations, the feminine gaze and autonomy.

The restoration of the 17th-century painting that depicts a colonial scene results in a nocturnal encounter between the Indonesian restorer and the woman in the portrait: the Japanese-Dutch Cornelia van Nijenroode, wife of Pieter Cnoll, a wealthy senior merchant in Batavia. She remarried after his death and was the first woman in the Netherlands to file a lawsuit around financial self-determination when she wished to divorce her second husband. 'Otemba' is not just the title of the piece, but also one of over one hundred and sixty words that Japanese derives from the Dutch language. It refers to rebellious women who refuse to be subjected and go their own way.

Musical traditions
In her music, Mochizuki connects musical elements from different musical traditions from Japan and the West. With impressionistic, colourful sounds as a guiding principle, a new atmosphere and story emerge. The piece explores questions of identity, the impact of our colonial heritage, and shows women who go their own way, right through time, space and social class divisions. Mochizuki draws from her experience as artist in residence at IRCAM, the acclaimed centre for contemporary music in Paris. The singers inject their own cultural baggage and unique tonal colour: Bernadeta Astari is an Indonesian, classically trained soprano, while Ryoko Aoki combines traditional Japanese Noh recitations (utai) with contemporary music.

English, Indonesian, Japanese spoken
surtitles: English, Dutch