Singing the praises of an operatic first for SA
We have to give them credit for taking opera into their own hands
THE MANDELA – Music & Spoken Word production opening at the Artscape Theatre on Thursday November 8, for three days, may be one of countless celebrations worldwide of Nelson Mandela’s centenary, but it’s certainly unique on other levels.
It is presented by the country’s first entirely black-owned, managed and full-time opera company, the Township Opera Company (TOC), and produced by the Voices of Cape Town company, which is owned by the performers and funds the show.
Despite being new to Cape Town’s local music scene after its launch last month, TOC is not new to the world stage as it boasts some of the country’s most accomplished opera singers, most of them UCT graduates who have performed in New York, Italy, London and elsewhere.
The show’s 24 opera singers own TOC and the Voices of Cape Town company, said spokesperson Adele Kock.
“These are Cape Town’s opera singers and they must be celebrated, because it’s not everybody who will have the guts to start up such a company.
“They are our representatives on the world stage. We have to give them credit for taking the future of opera in Cape Town into their own hands by setting up an entity where township kids, in years to come, will look at it as theirs, a legacy.”
The show’s creator is Lungile Jacobs and its director is Sandile Kamle, both of whom have worked in the arts – and specifically in the operatic space – for many years.
Jacobs pointed out: “Until the commencement of TOC there were no full-time opera companies which had been created and managed by black people in the country, let alone being owned and managed by the artists themselves.
“TOC aims to change the way that opera companies are run and do business on the African continent, and will bring a fresh new sound and new ways of presenting the genre to its audiences.”