Opera

The term Opera (or in some countries referred to as "The Opera") is traditionally seen as part of the Western classical music tradition. It therefore largely falls outside the ambit of this encyclopaedia.

However, some works and productions actually qualify as theatrical forms for various reasons, or are part of an integrated set of events, and are therefore taken up here (see below).

For the use of the term to refer to a performance venue (e.g. "The Opera" or the "Opera House"), see the entry on Opera House.

Opera as performance form

Opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo Peri's mostly lost work Dafne, produced in Florence in 1598) and soon spread through the rest of Europe. The form was initially viewed as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, but opera gradually began to include numerous other genres, often containing spoken dialogue - such as Operetta[1], Musical theatre[2], Singspiel[3], Opéra comique[4], etc.

Other features of the 19th century is the so called extravaganzas or burlesque versions of operas, performed by dramatic companies and the so-called Savoy operas of the late 19th and early 20yth centuries.

In the first half of the 20th century, there was also the rise of a kind of radicalized operatic production, intended as a form of protest and political comment (theoretically informed by the ideas and practice of people like Meyerhold and Brecht for example).

Arising from this, a feature of the late 20th and 21st centuries became the many experiments that were undertaken with the form, including modern styles of music, and in some cases the theatricalization of opera, drawing it closer to popular musicals (e.g. the so-called Jazz opera (e.g. Gershwin's Blue Monday and the iconic Porgy and Bess), the rise of the notion of a Rock opera (usually referring to a recorded performance, and when staged, more often termed a Rock musical). There are also the large-scale operatic style musicals, such as Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera.

For more on Opera as form, see for example Wikipedia[5]

Opera in South Africa - a brief overview

Besides its history as a musical form in South Africa, opera has also been intertwined with live theatre since the early years. Many of the theatrical companies visiting South Africa for example tended to have repertoires that included both dramatic and operatic work - especially in the 19th century. Similarly, many performers worked in a range of forms, including opera, musicals, cabaret, and so on, and therefore these performances will be reflected here.

A key event was the first "African Jazz Opera", King Kong (1959). Later in the 20th century, as the theatre became more radicalized, the work of theatre director/creators, such as William Kentridge; Mark Dornford-May, Brett Bailey and the Third World Bunfight[6] and so on, became influential, with the "African" style of operatic performance emerging more powerfully. In this encyclopaedia such work is considered as theatrical events, and therefore represented in the encyclopaedia.

To help readers in interpreting some of these events, we provide a brief overview of the history of Opera in South Africa here. It is a history that may be loosely divided into four periods:

1. The period of colonisation before the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910,

2. The period from Union till the coming of the South African Republic in 1961,

3. The 30 years from the establishment of the four Performing Arts Councils by Act of Parliament in 1963 up until the end of the Apartheid era in 1993

4. The period of the new South African Republic, after 1994.

Below follow a few highlights from each of these periods, notable events which in a sense had an impact on theatre in general.

Before 1910

The early 19th Century

Very little documentation of the activities of this period has survived until the present day with the exception of occasional references to performances in journals and letters of the period.

No regular performances of operas were held in the first half of the nineteenth century. The first artists to visit the Cape around 1803 to 1806 were French opera companies who were on their way to Mauritius, often performing under the most primitive conditions in makeshift venues, largely for the entertainment of the officers and their wives. Mostly opéras-comiques were performed in the original French, as had been the fashion then, and these French companies had introduced new French operas to Cape audiences. The last French company to visit the Cape was in 1833.

The earliest operas performed in Cape Town included works by Storace and Dibin, the first important work being Der Freischütz in 1831. From the mid-nineteenth century, an increasing number of travelling companies from England performed in the Cape, mostly performing comic operas and theatre works in English and French by contemporary composers of the time.

The late 19th century

By the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, several professional touring companies brought their productions from Europe to South Africa, visiting cities and towns across South Africa, often traveling from the Cape or Port Elizabeth and making their way north to the interior of the country. These companies stayed for as long as they could attract audiences, and then moved on to the next town or city. Visiting companies included:

• the Cagli Italian Opera Company
• the Wheeler Company
• the Arthur Rousbey Opera Company
• the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
• the Royal Australian Opera Company
• the Italian Opera Company

Luscombe Searelle

Certainly there was little or no formal strucure to opera until the arrival in Cape Town in 1887 of Luscombe Searelle and his Australian Opera Company. The company had a record season a 162 consecutive performances over a period of six months. After touring the Eastern Cape, Kimberley, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, Searelle and his company arrived in Johannesburg and erected their own theatre, the "Theatre Royal" at the corner of Eloff and Commissioner Streets. A series of successful seasons followed in quick succession and the new taste for opera which Searelle brought led to the formation of a number of revival opera companies. His final South African season was held in Durban in 1899 after which, financially embarrassed as a result of competition and failed productions he returned to England. Yet, his pioneering spirit had firmly established opera in South Affica.

1910-1961

Early years of the Union of South Africa

Between 1911 and 1913, the Quinlan Opera Company from the United Kingdom toured in South Africa. Led by a dynamic and idealistic Irishman, Thomas Quinlan, the company consisted of about 160 artists, including 45 instrumentalists and three conductors.

John Connell

A landmark in South African operatic history occurred in 1932 when John Connell, the Johannesburg City organist and director of music, conducted a performance of Tannhäuser. The arrival of the Carl Rosa Opera Company in Johannesburg in 1937 for a season at the Empire Theatre gave convincing proof of the substantial public following for opera in the city and led to Connell signing a contract with the SABC to direct opera on regular basis for broadcast. Connell had launched his Musical Fortnights in 1926, and from this, a Johannesburg opera season was to grow.

In 1938, Connell's Johannesburg Music Festival began. The first festival included five orchestral programmes and a fortnight’s season of opera, which included Gounod’s Faust, Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. By 1948, ten operas and two ballets were performed. Connell went on to form a National Opera Company which toured the country when the Johannesburg season had been concluded. From 1945 Connell had begun to travel to Europe and was able to persuade famous conductors to come to South Africa, such as Malcolm Sargent and Thomas Beecham.

Operas performed in Afrikaans

The first operas to be performed in Afrikaans were Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, translated by Con de Villiers and performed in Stellenbosch in 1940; Bizet’s Carmen as translated by Gideon Roos in 1946; and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, again translated by Roos, in 1948.

The EOAN Group in the Cape

Mention must be made of the EOAN Group, South Africa's most important cultural group for the Cape Coloured community, established in 1933 by Helen Southern-Holt. In 1943, the EOAN Group's music section increased in importance when Joseph Manca took charge of the groups small choir. It was Manca who promoted the idea of an arts festival, the first of which took place in 1956, and it was at this festival that La Traviata was sung in Italian.

For more information, see the EOAN Group

The first South African opera

In the mid 1950s, Erik Chisholm instigated the composition of In the Drought (by John Joubert, 1955). The piece was first performed in Johannesburg in 1956. It was subsequently translated by Anton Hartman into Afrikaans and performed as In die Droogte and staged by the South African Opera Federation in Johannesburg in 1958.

Opera in the Transvaal

The South African Opera Federation was one of several opera organisations in the Transvaal at this time. Others included the National Opera Association of South Africa, the Opera Society of South Africa and the Pretoria Opera Group.

1962-1993

The first indigenous Afrikaans opera

Conductor Anton Hartman was instrumental in advancing the work of South African composers through the Opera Society of South Africa, especially the presentation of opera in Afrikaans. The first full-length Afrikaans opera is said to be Klutaimnestra by Cromwell Everson (1925–1991), staged in 1967. The opera celebrates Afrikaner identity, culture and language.

The Arts Councils

From 1963 till the beginning of the 1990s the bulk of the operas in South Africa were produced by the four state funded Performing Arts Councils (PACs): CAPAB, NAPAC, PACT, SUKOVS.

After 1994

TO BE WRITTEN

See also Cape Town Opera, Spier Amphitheatre, Opera Africa, Isango Portobello, the Third World Bunfight, William Kentridge, Mark Dornford-May, Brett Bailey,

U-Carmen eKhayelitsha.

Sources

"Opera" in Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera#Other_trends.

https://thirdworldbunfight.co.za/

Wayne Muller. 2019. "How South Africans forged a path to making opera truly African", The Conversation, January 29, 201[7]

Hermien Dommisse, 2001

History of Cape Town Opera[8]

Havergal Brian. "John Connell’s Johannesburg Festival" from "On the other hand". Musical opinion, June 1938, p. 777.

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