Virginia Davids
Virginia Davids. (?-) Soprano.
Contents
Biography
Training
Davids started her vocal training with Nellie du Toit in 1982 on a part-time basis. From 1984 to 1986 she worked full-time with Du Toit when she enrolled for a Performer’s Licentiate in Music at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1990 she was awarded the prestigious Dalberg Bursary which enabled her to study with Christina Deutekom in the Netherlands and to work with several coaches in Europe.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Davids can be regarded as one of South Africa’s foremost Verdian sopranos. She has sung in all the main centres in South Africa.
Virginia Davids sang with the EOAN Group in the 1970s. From 1986 till 1994 she was contracted to CAPAB whereupon she became a freelance singer. She made her debut as Aida in 1988. Since then, she has sung leads in operas such as Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, Don Carlos, Nabucco and portrayed Puccini roles such as Tosca and Madama Butterfly. She sang the role of Tosca in Zimbabwe in the nineties.
In 1996 she joined the teaching staff of the College of Music at University of Cape Town on a part- time basis. She was appointed Associate Professor in 2000.
Roles/productions include:
Hello, Dolly! at the Nico Malan Theatre (CAPAB/PACOFS, 1987).
Davids played the title role in Aida for CAPAB Opera in 1988.
She played Katrina Bantjies in Buchuland by Roelof Temmingh and Michael Williams at the State Theatre in 1998.
She appeared in When the Saints Go Marching In for the Woordfees in 2011 in the Klein Libertas Theatre.
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 Unpublished PhD thesis.
Hilde Roos. 2010. 'Opera Production in the Western Cape: Strategies in Search of Indigenisation'. Unpublished PhD thesis. Stellenbosch University.
Alexandra Xenia Sabina Mossolow. 2003. The career of South African soprano Nellie du Toit, born 1929. Unpublished Masters thesis. University of Stellenbosch.
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