Denise Louw
WRITTEN by talented young musician and composer Bongani Ndodana, South Africa’s first Xhosa opera, Temba and Seliba, premiered at the 1820 Settlers National Monument in Grahamstown on December 7.
Nederburg Opera Prize-winner Gwyneth Lloyd researched and wrote the libretto for Temba and Seliba, a love story based on a conflation of two Xhosa legends. She also sang the role of Seliba, queen of the underwater realm who heals and empowers the crippled Temba (Ayanda Songongo) so he can win the hand of his beloved Marina (sung by Jane Silver).
Martha Munro, lecturer in voice at Pretoria Technikon, produced the opera, which was staged by Co-opera Ibali Lemculo in collaboration with the Grahamstown Foundation.
Peter Silva, the Foundation’s Director of Educational Projects, said: “The aim of the Co-opera Ibali Lomculo company is to demystify opera; and their production was well-received by an opening-night audience of about 350. The Grahamstown Foundation is exploring the possibility of obtaining sponsorship to enable it to take the company abroad as one of the Foundation’s ongoing projects.”
Co-opera Ibali Lomculo was formed last year with the encouragement of Eastern Cape MEC for Education and Culture Nosimo Balindlela, who suggested commissioning a Xhosa opera.
Company members range in age from eight to 50-plus, and are drawn from communities across the Eastern Cape. They include both amateurs and professionals.
Ibali Lomculo means “music stories”, and the company aims to provide these for South African communities through performance and workshopping activities. Because the company is a travelling one, costumes and sets are designed and made (by the singers themselves) to fit into a few cardboard boxes which can be transported in a single bakkie.
Bongani Ndodana, composer of their first commissioned opera, matriculated at St Andrew’s College, Grahamstown, and in 1994 won a South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) bursary to Rhodes University.
A grant from the Foundation for the Creative Arts enabled Ndodana to study music under Roelof Temmingh at the Stellenbosch University Conservatoire of Music during 1995. More than 20 of the young composer’s works have been performed to date.
Co-opera Ibali Lomculo also aim to promote singing as a medium of communication. For “the singing voice is common to all groups, and the creation of a performance with people from all culture groups can provide channels for constructive activity for both performers and audiences”.
Temba and Seliba music director and accompanist, Dennis Stander, a lecturer in the Rhodes University Music Department, is a specialist in music education for disadvantaged students. And Gwyneth Lloyd, who lectures in singing at Rhodes, said: “With Temba and Seliba I think we have succeeded in breaking down the elitist barriers traditionally associated with opera.”
Accordingly, the second half of the programme picked up the water theme (first introduced in Temba and Seliba in songs from various classical operas, including Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the earliest opera written about Africa. Solos from The Merry Widow, sung by Gwyneth Lloyd and student Roy Hobson, drew particularly enthusiastic applause.
The Company will present Temba and Seliba at the Moederkerksaal in George on December 13 at 7.30pm