Spier Wine Farm
Situated outside Stellenbosch on the banks of the Eerste River. Also often referred to simply as Spier.
Purchased by Richard (Dick) Enthoven (1937 – 2 December 2022) in 1993. Enthoven developed the property, and built a hotel and amphitheatre on the farm, effectively creating a centre for the arts. Spier Wine Farm subsequently hosted several festivals on the farm.
Contents
The Spier Amphitheatre
Built in 1993 and it opened in 1996 for its first summer festival. The amphitheatre can seat 1 100 people and the stage is covered and exceedingly well equipped.
The Spier Summer Festival (1996 - 2007)
Also called the Spier Summer Arts Festival. An annual festival sponsored by the Spier Arts Trust. Founded in 1996.
The annual Spier Performance Arts Festival that lasted more than a decade was designed to deliver innovation and excellence in the performing arts; to showcase, promote and develop emerging South African artists; to provide opportunities for collaboration with Pan-African artists; and to build new audiences for performance art forms.
Each year Spier hosted a summer festival of about 5 months, running from end November to mid April the following year. The season consists of an array of musical entertainments, plays, operas, and so on.
Performances included:
1997:
1998: Ubu and the Truth Commission, Tosca, I Pagliacci
1999:
2000: La Traviata
2001:
2002:
2003: Hänsel und Gretel, Confessions of Zeno
2004:
2005:
2006: Princess Magogo
2007: macbEth: The Opera
The Spier Arts Trust
The Spier Arts Trust supports the contribution of art to the South African economy through the administration of an ecosystem of career development opportunities for fine artists. At the heart of the programme has been the Spier Arts Academy, which offered a three-year full time apprenticeship in mosaic and ceramic applied arts. The Creative Block programme provides a fun platform of experimentation with regular income potential to professional fine artists.
Spier Films
Sources
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 Unpublished PhD thesis.
'Citation: Richard Enthoven', https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/students/graduations/documents/Citation_RichardEnthoven.pdf
For more information
Return to
Return to South African Theatre Venues, Companies, Societies, etc
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page