February 11, 2011
Cape Town Opera 2011: A season of elegance and eclecticism
Marisah Smith
Marisah lives by a simple philosophy of eat, travel, read, write, laugh, listen and love.
Heartland is where she grew up in the Mother City, the Karoo and Overberg region and these are the places she returns to every time, boarding pass in hand. Passionate about travel, she’s working towards her Master’s Degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management with a special interest in luxury travel, destination management and sustainable tourism development. Her calling in life is finding the perfect cheesecake recipe.
Photo provided by the Cape Town Opera
Cape Town Opera launched their 2011 season to a full house at the Artscape Theatre on February 2, 2011. It was a surprisingly diverse audience, with both sophisticated operagoers and hip, young opera fans bearing testament to the success of the opera’s enc!re programme, aimed at making opera accessible to young professionals who love the art and enjoy networking in the city’s trendiest spots (while making conversation about contraltos and cabalettas over cocktails). Host and MC Alan Committie even commented at one point in the evening on what a ridiculously good-looking audience it was.
We caught a glimpse of the magical season ahead, with Cape Town Opera’s singers and stars performing extracts from the musical productions scheduled for 2011. What can you expect from the 2011 opera season? Well, the unexpected, really, ranging from the celebrated melodrama of Carmen and the heartbreak and healing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony, to the tragedy of the Brundibár children’s opera performed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II. Theatregoers can look forward to a tribute to the life of a South African icon in Mandela Trilogy, Verdi’s masterpiece La Traviata, Stravinsky’s wacky and fast-paced The Rake’s Progress and a dash of Mozart. The second part of the season culminates in another classical African story, Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars, a musical adaptation of Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country.
Cape Town Opera in 2011, at a glance:
March 9 – 19, 2011
Georges Bizet’s Carmen
Opera House at Artscape
April 16 – 21, 2011
Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi
Theatre at Artscape
May 12 – 14, 2011
Philip Miller’s REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony
Baxter Theatre
July 18 – 21, 2011
Hans Krása’s Brundibár
Theatre at Artscape
July – August 2011
Allan Stephenson, Mike Campbell and Peter Louis van Dijk’s Mandela Trilogy
Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein
August 2011
Johan Botha gala concert
Montecasino, Johannesburg
August 28, 2011
Deborah Voigt and Johan Botha gala concert
Opera House at Artscape
August 30 – September 5, 2011
Igor Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress
Baxter Theatre
October 11 – 22, 2011
Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata
Opera House at Artscape
November 6 – 12, 2011
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Theatre at Artscape
November 24 – 27, 2011
Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars
Theatre at Artscape
What else to keep an ear to the ground for:
Unwrapping Opera Open Day
Discover the magic of opera with a rare behind-the-scenes look at the production of Carmen – from set design, and costume making to singings tips and dress rehearsals. Unwrapping Opera Open Day is on February 26, 2011, from 10h00 – 15h00.
Lunch-box concerts
Enjoy a free midday performance of Viva L‘Amore on 25 March 25, 2011 or watch Opera Go Pop on May 5! Keep an eye on www.capetownopera.co.za and local newspapers for more details on the venues for these productions.
For enquiries, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or log on to www.computicket.com or call +27 (0)83 915 8000 to book your ticket.
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