The stage is an African jungle. Spears flash through the murk, an elephant trumpets. Tom-tom-tom goes the tom-tom. The Voodoo Man warns his people, "All the gods are angry, all the clouds hang low." There must be human sacrifice. The Girl is chosen. As she walks into the stream to drown, the Boy creeps to the bank, plays on his flute. The Voodoo Man has him dragged away. A sacrificial procession. Tom-tom-tom. The Boy struggles in his bonds, the Voodoo Man leaps at him knife in hand. Comes a slave caravan, the Boy & Girl are chained together, carried away. The Voodoo Man runs through the clearing. Slavers club him down, but his tom-tom has sent its warning to distant drums. . . .
Thus in Cleveland last week began the first performance of Tom-Tom, a Negro folk opera by Shirley Graham, graduate of Howard University, postgraduate student at Oberlin. Composer Graham, 25, daughter of a Negro missionary, had keyed her music to the primitive chants, the spirituals and the modern jazz rhythms of her race. Tom-Tom's costumes, shields and tattoo marks had been designed by 19 Cleveland Negro artists. From London had come deep-voiced Jules Bledsoe, original "Ol' Man River" singer in Show Boat, to sing the part of the Voodoo Man. On a windy, cloudy night last week, second night in Cleveland's open air opera season, nearly 15.000 persons were present, the 25¢ and 50¢ seats well filled with Cleveland Negroes lustily applauding. They watched the Girl prepare for sacrifice in a real 30-ft. waterfall provided by the Cleveland Fire Department. A murky grey light failed to clarify the opening scenes, but through it gleamed brown, almost nude warriors, splashed with orange paint, in white head and tail pieces. Small children capered about.
Tom-Tom pursued a lengthy, sometimes tedious course, took its Boy, Girl and Voodoo Man into a plantation scene, where a treadmill and enormous water wheel figured in the setting; then into Harlem for a lively cabaret scene. From the jungle opening, where only percussion instruments accompanied the unisonal chants, to the end, where spirituals and jazz were mingled, the tom-tom beat its insistent note. Spirited and rhythmic was the performance of the 500 Negro choristers and Negro moppets. High spots: the end of the plantation scene, with massed slaves singing the chant of their new freedom while a band plays "John Brown's Body"; the short, jazzy cabaret scene; the death of the Voodoo Man, with Baritone Bledsoe groaning "Now, forever my tom-tom will be silent," and the Boy (Tenor Luther King) responding "No! No! Black Man! The tom-tom shall be heard."