FACING THE MUSIC
Bite-size opera ‘Trial by Media’ captures the high-profile drama of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, where judgment was served in the court of law — and the court of public opinion
As part of its season of Shorts — A Festival of Operas, Cape Town Opera is staging the world premiere of Conrad Asman’s
Trial by Media, a show that revolves around the media’s perception and the complexities of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial. Trial by Media is one of an intriguing trio of bite-sized operas that include Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice) and Mozart’s witty comedic opera, Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario).
Showing at the Artscape Arena Theatre until April 21, Trial by Media stars Cape Town Opera soloist and soprano Brittany Smith as Reeva Steenkamp, with Van Wyk Venter in his first major role as Oscar Pistorius. The supporting cast includes Conroy Scott as the defence lawyer, Tylor Lamani as the prosecutor, Lusibalwethu Sesanti as the judge, and members of the Cape Town Opera chorus. The opera is co-directed by Fred
Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer, who’s also the costume designer, and the set design of all three short operas is by Allegra Bernacchioni.
The 2013 Valentine’s Day murder of FHM model and paralegal Reeva Steenkamp and the subsequent trial of her partner, Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, was at the forefront of South African litigation and has served as a contemporary reminder of how justice is influenced by fame and public opinion.
In 2014, Oscar Pistorius was tried and initially found guilty of culpable homicide by judge Thokozile Masipa, with a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, concurrent with other charges.
This sentence sparked an enormous public outcry, which culminated when Pistorius was briefly released on parole in October 2015 after serving one-sixth of his sentence. This uproar was measured in an online study conducted by the media monitoring group Data Driven Insight, which found that 8.43% of 6.2-million online media content declared Pistorius as guilty, compared with just 1.14% who claimed him to be innocent.
Shortly after his release, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned Masipa’s original conviction and found Pistorius guilty of murder. Masipa resentenced Pistorius to six years in prison, which was again appealed by the state, and the sentence was subsequently changed to 15 years — the minimum term for murder in South Africa. Pistorius was denied the right of appeal in 2018, and, in March 2023, his parole request was rejected. It was finally approved in November 2023, just days before Asman’s opera was completed. In January 2024, Pistorius was released from prison. This opera is not, however, solely about Pistorius, says Asman. Trial by Media invites its audience to experience other critical perspectives of this tragic event, including those of the magistrate and the media. This opera also hopes to offer a sensitive and important portrayal of arguably the most crucial perspective: that of Reeva Steenkamp.
The opera follows the natural narrative of the trial, but there are moments of metaphysical emotional reflection, where the characters ponder on, and challenge, each other’s viewpoints in a way that’s not typically found in court, but is found online on social media, where most of public opinion for this case was formed.
The late Schalk Schoombie, the work’s librettist, adopted this same approach of creation by sourcing text from both published and online social media sources, including those from public X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook accounts. Schoombie’s resulting libretto possesses a raw, unfiltered quality that brilliantly contrasts with the acute sharpness of the original court transcripts, anchoring the opera’s narrative arch.
Says Asman, who won the Samro Composition Competition in 2018: “I hope that the music of this opera captures the Nietzschean ‘perspectivism’ present in this story while simultaneously highlighting the emotional heights of the differing opinions that, when combined, create the increasing tension that existed during this historical moment of contemporary South African litigation.”
‘Shorts — A Festival of Pocket Operas’ is on at the Artscape Arena until April 21. Tickets cost R280 per person, R500 for the double bill package, and R700 per person for the triple bill package. For performance dates and other details, and to book tickets, please visit Webtickets. ’La Voix Humaine’ is rated PG, while no-one under the age of 10 is allowed into ‘Trial by Media’.