Difference between revisions of "Five:20 Operas Made in SA"

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* ''[[Hani]]'' ([[Bongani Ndodana-Breen]] and [[Mfundi Vundla]])
 
* ''[[Hani]]'' ([[Bongani Ndodana-Breen]] and [[Mfundi Vundla]])
  
'''For more information on each opera, see entries below.'''
+
'''For more information on each opera, click on each title.'''
  
 
==''[[Out of Time]]''==
 
==''[[Out of Time]]''==
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Original 20-minute work expanded into a full opera, under the title ''[[Sara Baartman]]''.
 
Original 20-minute work expanded into a full opera, under the title ''[[Sara Baartman]]''.
  
== ''[[Tronkvoël]]''==
 
 
Composed by [[Martin Watt]] with librettist [[Alwyn Roux]] and directed by [[Marcus Desando]], is inspired by an event that occurred during the imprisonment of South African poet, painter and freedom fighter [[Breyten Breytenbach]].  The opera is set against the backdrop of 1970s apartheid South Africa at Pretoria’s notorious C-Max prison. Writer and poet [[Breyten Breytenbach]] was imprisoned there for two years for high treason, just metres away from the gallows. It is here, in the shadow of death, that the images conjured from the grotesque sounds of suffering come to haunt him.
 
 
===Productions===
 
 
2010: Presented at the [[Baxter Theatre]] (November) as part of ''[[Five:20 Operas Made in SA]]''
 
 
2015: Presented by [[Gauteng Opera]] at the [[Soweto Theatre]] (August),  directed by [[Tshepo Ratona]]. This short opera featured [[Sibusiso Shandu]], [[Coert Grobbelaar]], [[Kagiso Boroko]] and [[Elizabeth Lombard]], conducted by [[Graham Scott]], choreography by [[Thoko Sidiya]], with set design and lighting by [[Wilhelm Disbergen]]. .
 
  
 
== ''[[Words from a Broken String]]''==
 
== ''[[Words from a Broken String]]''==

Revision as of 18:33, 3 April 2024

Five:20 Operas Made in SA is a showcase of five South African operas created for the South African College of Music (SACM)’s centenary in 2010 and presented by Cape Town Opera at the Baxter Theatre (21–27 November 2010).

The operas are:

For more information on each opera, click on each title.

Out of Time

Composed by Péter Louis van Dijk and directed by Geoffrey Hyland, is a brief journey by ‘Black Taxi’ through prejudice, miscommunication, greed and xenophobia.

Saartjie

Composed by Hendrik Hofmeyer and Fiona Herbst and directed by Geoffrey Hyland, imagines Saartjie Baartman in Paris on New Year’s Eve, 1815.

Original 20-minute work expanded into a full opera, under the title Sara Baartman.


Words from a Broken String

Music by Peter Klatzow, libretto by Michael Williams and directed by Geoffrey Hyland, tells the story of Lucy Lloyd, the nineteenth century linguist, who with her brother-in-law Wilhelm Bleek recorded the now extinct language of the San Bushmen.

Productions

2010: Presented at the Baxter Theatre (November) as part of Five:20 Operas Made in SA

2015: Presented by Gauteng Opera at the Soweto Theatre (August), directed by Marcus Desando. Soloists included Natalie Dickson-Bath, Njabulo Mthimkhulu, Phenye Modiane, Kagiso Boroko, Thamsanqa Khaba and Sibusiso Shandu, conducted by Graham Scott, choreography by Thoko Sidiya, with set design and lighting by Wilhelm Disbergen. .


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.

"Five: 20 - Operas made in South Africa". University of Cape Town. https://humanities.uct.ac.za/cca/projects-archive-and-curatorship-arc-visual-university/five-20-operas-made-south-africa

'Gauteng Opera'. National Arts Council website. https://www.nac.org.za/artisan-post/gauteng-opera/

Return to

Return to PLAYS I: Original SA plays

Return to PLAYS II: Foreign plays

Return to PLAYS III: Collections

Return to PLAYS IV: Pageants and public performances

Return to South African Festivals and Competitions