OPERATIC WORK

Using what he calls a “historically informed approach” Dippenaar seeks to create an authentic sound by using original instruments and playing techniques. “By using the correct tool you learn something,” Dippenaar explains. The orchestra will include two harpsichords, a chamber organ with wooden pipes, a theorbo, baroque guitar, viola da gamba, as well as a cornetto, a dulcian and period brass and strings. Erik says, “This will be the first Cape Town Opera production with a period instrument orchestra – it’s such a privilege being part of this!”

Despite being a lover of baroque music, Dippenaar is enthusiastic about the modern staging of Orfeo: “I like this approach. If you do a period piece, you have to do it properly and delve into the art of authentic gesture.”

While the Camerata Tinta Barocca specialises in baroque music, the music in Orfeo, written in 1607, is very early baroque and much earlier than the ensemble’s usual repertoire.

As well as working with music that is unfamiliar to the orchestra, Dippenaar is also working with young singers who are unversed in the baroque style. But it’s a challenge that he finds rewarding: “it’s a good process because you learn a lot if you have to explain something from the beginning,” he says.

According to Wikipedia, opera was, In effect, created by accident when The Florentine Camerata - a group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence - assumed that the choral parts in the Greek myth were sung. Dippenaar says that all opera lovers should come to Orfeo because “it’s good to know where your origins are from.” He adds, “Personally I’m fascinated by the idea that something that was written 400 years ago can still move us and make us forget about the world for a while.”

The individual talents of the creative team involved in Orfeo are indisputable. The question is, will Bouwer’s Orfeo achieve what he considers to be the measure of good theatre - “Gesamtkunstwerk” a term that describes the harmonious coming together of separate parts. You will have to come to Orfeo and decide for yourself. All from November 19 to 26 at Artscape Theatre.

Book: Computicket 0861 915 8000