Cape Town Opera
Cape Town Opera (CTO) is a professional opera company in Cape Town, run as a permanent section 21-company non-profit performing arts organisation.
Contents
History
Under the direction of Jan Kaminski and with the backing of several opera-loving business people, Cape Town Opera was launched as a Section 21 Non-Profit organization in 1998, offering employment to the entire staff of the opera section of the former CAPAB (although the theatre programme for the 1997 production of Into the Woods shows it was produced by Cape Town Opera). The company was formed, following the demise of CAPAB Opera, to ensure the survival of opera in Cape Town.
It is the only opera company to produce operas in Cape Town, with some productions in conjunction with the University of Cape Town Opera School.
Although standard Italian opera remains part of the company’s repertoire, it has become the opera company that has produced the most indigenous operatic works in the history of opera in South Africa. New works include Amarantha, Love and Green Onions.
Although the casts had changed from predominantly white singers to predominantly black singers, the choice of repertoire remained based on the quality of the available voices and their ability to sing and interpret the roles and operas. However, the new voices had given the company the possibilities to explore new repertoire and create new work for the available singers.
Since 2005, CTO has toured abroad regularly, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Kenya have been visited. In October 2009 the company once again travelled to Europe to perform Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in Wales and Scotland.
Staff
Philipp Pointner was the conductor and repetitor at the Cape Town Opera from 1994 until 1996.
Training schemes
Over the years, Cape Town Opera has run several training schemes for singers. These have included:
Judith Neilson Young Artists Programme
The Judith Neilson Young Artists Programme training and bursary programme is dedicated to nurturing exceptionally talented postgraduate singers, pianists, and conductors, with a focus on preparing them for the demands of a professional career. It refines participants’ techniques, blending formal tuition with hands-on experiences in rehearsal rooms and onstage alongside experienced performers. This approach ensures that participants gain invaluable, real-world experience within an opera company setting. This programme has previously been known as the Voice of the Nation Opera Studio and the Cape Town Opera Young Artist Training Programme.
Voice of the Nation Ensemble
The Voice of the Nation Ensemble also admits singers who have not had access to professional training at tertiary education centres, but would like to become professional choristers. Singers are auditioned for this course and the ability to read staff notation is a prerequisite for entry. The Voice of the Nation Ensemble has become CTO’s residential chorus, singing the chorus parts in opera productions and forming the backbone of CTO’s other choral productions. This group also takes part in CTO’s educational outreach programmes and community concerts. Opera choruses from the standard canon are often translated into Xhosa for these concerts.
Choral Training Program
The Choral Training Program is geared towards singers with an identified talent, but who lack access to formal music education programmes. This ‘lack of access’ is often due to the fact that singers do not meet the minimum requirements to be accepted at the UCT Opera School. This means that those entering this programme do not read staff notation and do not have adequate theoretical training to be accepted into tertiary education. All roles are therefore learned by rote. Participants in this programme often take part in CTO choral productions and are specifically used in their outreach programmes.
Foundation Studio
The Foundation Studio is a training programme for teenagers aimed at developing new soloists. In 2023, the programme accommodated 13 teenagers chosen from among 100 applicants from under-resourced high schools. The singers get individual vocal coaching, music theory classes and language lessons to learn Italian, German and French pronunciation. And transport from their homes to the studio. The programme won an impact and equality prize at the International Opera Awards in 2022 and one of its first students, Iviwe Boms, was admitted to the College of Music at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Operas
1999: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le Nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly, L'elisir d'amore, Carmen, Aida, Hänsel und Gretel, Elektra
2000: Die Lustige Witwe, La Traviata, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Tannhäuser, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Amarantha
2001: Porgy and Bess, Love and Green Onions, Macbeth, Un Ballo in Maschera, Rigoletto, La Bohème
2002: Die Zauberflöte, Dido and Aeneas, Madama Butterfly, Idomeneo, Lucia di Lammermoor, Aida, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Les Pêcheurs de Perles
2003: La Traviata, Hänsel und Gretel, earthdiving, Nabucco, The Bartered Bride, Faust, La Damnation de Faust, Così Fan Tutte
2004: Dark Sonnet, The Pardoner’s Tale, Fidelio, La Traviata, Alcina, Die Zauberflöte, La Traviata, Andrea Chénier, Die Fledermaus
2005: Il Trovatore, Valley Song, Nabucco, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Carmen, Masque, Cavalleria Rusticana, Gianni Schicchi
2006: Rusalka, Treemonisha, La Bohème, Le Nozze di Figaro, Porgy and Bess, Così Fan Tutte
2007: Tosca, The Orphans of Qumbu, La Rondine, Die Zauberflöte, Manon
2008: Rigoletto, Werther, Don Giovanni, Aida, Poet and Prophetess, L'incoronazione di Poppea
2009: Madama Butterfly, L'elisir d'amore, Dead Man Walking, The Cunning Little Vixen, Porgy and Bess
2010: Il Viaggio a Reims, Der Rosenkavalier, African Songbook: A Musical Tribute to the Life of Nelson Mandela, Lucia di Lammermoor, Five:20 Operas Made in SA (Out of Time, Words from a Broken String, Saartjie, Hani, Tronkvoël)
2011: Carmen, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, Brundibar, The Rake’s Progress, La Traviata, Die Entführung aus dem Serail
2012: Fidelio, The Flower of Shembe, La Bohème, Porgy and Bess, Les Contes d'Hoffmann
2013: Otello, Two:30 (Sing the Body Electric!, Between a Rock and a Hard Place), Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Il Barbiere di Siviglia
2014: Il Viaggio a Reims, Le Nozze di Figaro, Postcards from Morocco
2015: La Traviata, The Merry Widow of Malagawi, Maria Stuarda, Four:30 – Operas Made in South Africa (The Application, Blood of Mine, Bessie: The Blue-Eyed Xhosa, Anti-Lauis)
2016:
2017: Rigoletto, Der Fliegende Holländer, Die Zauberflöte, Mandela Trilogy
2018: The Fairy Queen, Mandela Trilogy, Don Pasquale, Maria Stuarda
2019: MI(SA), Orphée et Eurydice, i Capuleti e i Montecchi, African Passion, African Angels, Porgy and Bess
Musicals
1997: Into the Woods
2015: Heart of Redness
2017: Tiger Bay The Musical
2018: Tsotsi the Musical
2024: Orpheus Macadoo
Sources
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/index.php/company/about-us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_Opera
Wayne Muller. 2018. A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015). Unpublished PhD thesis.
Go to ESAT Bibliography
Return to
Return to ESAT Venues C
Return to South African Theatre Venues, Companies, Societies, etc
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page
