Virginia Jubilee Singers
Virginia Jubilee Singers was an influential jubilee and minstrelsy group who visited South Africa in the 1890s under leadership of impresario Orpheus McAdoo. The group was also known as the Virginia Concert Company, and was even referred to simply as The Jubilee Singers or by some authors.)
See the Virginia Concert Company
Their tour began in Scotland where Orpheus McAdoo met Lady Loch, the wife of the then British Governor of the Cape, who invited them to Cape Town.
They became an unlikely overnight sensation in the Cape and are credited by some with shaping the performance style adopted by Cape Coon Carnival tradition in later years.
In 2014 David Kramer wrote a musical based on this incident called Orpheus in Africa. It was first produced by Eric Abraham and the Fugard Theatre in January 2015.
Sources
Erlmann, 1991*
The Fugard Theatre Newsletter (newsletter@thefugard.com), Thursday 9 October 2014.
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