Ñandereko (Our Way of Life) by Ramon Gorigoitia
Mbaporenda (La Esperanza) by Rafael Montero
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"Likely the most important artistic experience I’ve had in the past decade. The vitality and exceptionally high-quality talent music, dance, video and recordings mixed with the urgent reckoning all people (especially the English) must face has to be performed over and over again. It’s hard to describe in words how this kind of integration of the arts, history, place and culture has achieved such subtly and magic; however, it was evident that what the audience FELT was an eye and ear opening encounter which moved our souls." Kevin Malone, Prof Emeritus University of Manchester, Chair in Social and Autoethnographic Composition.
This is a new artistic/historical project based on Indigenous songs from the Ava Guarani people of Northern Argentina, telling the story of the extraction of these songs under conditions of duress by a German anthropologist, Robert Lehmann Nitsche, in 1905. The singers were being held in bonded labour on a sugar plantation, La Esperanza, in the Jujuy province that was owned and managed by British industrialists from Rochdale, the Leach Brothers. Lehmann Nitsche recorded the songs on wax cylinders (an early recording device) and brought them to Berlin, where they remain in the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv of the Humboldt Forum.
The project is the original conception of the Argentinian tenor Rafael Montero, founder and artistic director of the early music ensemble El Parnaso Hyspano, and a descendent of the people whose songs are represented in this project.
The project mixes extracts from these songs with accounts from the diaries of Lehmann Nitsche and other textual materials to tell a profoundly moving story of exploitation of Indigenous South American people by European colonialists, but also of the resilience of the Indigenous voice and its ever-present call for justice and reparation
The first public manifestation of the project was given at the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, Martin Harris Centre for Music & Drama, University of Manchester on 12th March 2023, where Mbaporenda was premiered by Rafael Montero (creator and singer); Sergio Teran (Flutes, Ethnic Aerophones, Saxophone); Isaac Andrés Espinoza Hidrobo (violin, strings); Ben Salwey {drums, percussion), with visual materials by videographer Antonio Uscategui.
This performance replaced Ñandereko a new dramatic cantata by Chilean composer Ramon Gorigoitia, which was to have been premiered in Manchester, but could not go ahead due to illness of key personnel. Nandereko weaves the indigenous material in a contemporary sonic world, mixing live performance with pre-recorded sonic elements. Updates on it's planned rescheduled premiere will be given in due course.
Following the performance of Mbaporenda, audience members attended an object session, coordinated by Dr Alexandra Alberda (curator of Indigenous Perspectives at the Museum), focusing on the museum’s South American collections.
This was followed by a public roundtable exploring the issues of the colonial misappropriation of songs raised by the project. It was part of the Music Department’s weekly research seminar series and was introduced and chaired by John Sloboda (Emeritus Professor, Guildhall School of Music & Drama), with the participation of Rafael Montero, along with Alexandra Alberda (curator of Indigenous Perspectives, Manchester Museum), Caroline Bithell (Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Manchester), Jon Mitchell (Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Sussex), and David Stirrup (Professor of English, University of York).
The production’s logo contains a traditional symbol of the Guaraní people’s cycle of communal work and ritual celebration.
This project is financially supported by the Esperanza Trust for Anthropological Research.
The costume for this performance was made for Rafael Montero by @valentinamirandadesign, based on Indigenous designs but with contermporary additions
Mbaporenda (La Esperanza) by Rafael Montero
Recorded live at the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, Martin Harris Centre for Music & Drama, University of Manchester, 12th March 2026, presented as part of the Lunchtime Concert Series sponsored by the Department of Music.
Cast and creatives
Rafael Montero (singer,project originator)
Sergio Teran (flutes, ethnic aerophones, saxophone)
iSaAc iSaBeL Espinoza Hidrobo (violin, dancer)
Ben Salwey (drums, percussion)
Antonio Uscagetui (visual projections)
John Sloboda (speaker, producer)
Scenes
(4.53) Prologue:
Dawn at the Chaco Jujeño in the 19th Century. The forest wakes up.
(7.23) Scene 1:
The indigenous people receive the morning. The ritual of the morning, giving thanks to nature. The Ava Guarani people prepare for a celebration of Arete Guasu later in the day.
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(12.05) Scene 2:
“Canto wichi”, a song of Indigenous people celebrating diversity. In indigenous pre-colonial civilizations, the different genders and sexualities were respected. They were curanderos (shamans) and priests sometimes.
(17.21) Scene 3:
A song recorded in 1905 on the Esperanza Estate by Robert Lehmann Nitsche of a Chorote man whose name was not given.
(21.42) Scene 4:
The Canto del mono. The indigenous of the Chaco play an indigenous violin and they also compose music. This is traditional music, which represents nature and sometimes memories.
(27.19) Scene 5:
Cuña (meaning woman in guarani language). A song recorded in 1905 on the Esperanza Estate by Robert Lehmann Nitsche of an Ava Guarani woman whose name was not given.
(30.20) Scene 6:
“Yerure” The Ancestor who comes to the present day to achieve justice.
(36.22) Scene 7:
“Tairari”. Santisima Trinidad is a Tairari of the Guarani people which expresses spirituality, memory, and cultural resistance. Recorded in 1905 by Lehmann Nitsche on the Esperanza Estate.
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(42.13) Scene 8:
“Arete Guasu”, or Fiesta Grande del Pueblo Guarani, is the feast for the celebration of the rain, harvest. It is time to say thanks but also to ask, it is the time where the ancestors come to see us and see that we are living respecting the nature, our house. It is also time for the reconciliation and pardon. The performers dance with the audience.