Bongani Ndodana
WITH the new policy on the arts, Dr Malan’s bust, perched in its shrine in the Nico Malan opera foyer, has witnessed the unceremonious undoing of the Cape Performing Arts Board (Capab). First it was the frantic campaign to save the orchestra, then ballet went independent under the banner of Cape Town City Ballet. Now, a big neon question-mark hangs over drama, but opera has decided to take the plunge and go solo. And the question is: will it sink or will it swim?
Cape Town Opera make their debut with Lucia di Lammermoor this Saturday. Baetano Donizzeti’s tragic opera, after Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor, is probably the finest bel canto opera that came from the composer’s pen. Apart from beautiful writing for the voice and an ingenious score (few notes but much music), the opera is also famous for its “mad” scenes.
The juiciest is when Lucia bursts in on her wedding party – dagger in hand with her nightdress soaked in her husband’s blood. In a dazzling coloratura , her mind launches into a psychotic hallucination which, musically, is just sheer ecstasy.
Ukranian soprano Natalia Vorobiova, with her dramatic stage presence sings Lucia, with a young local diva in the making, Angela Gilbert, as her understudy. Italian tenor, Miro Solman (Edgardo, Lucia’s betrothed) has a thinnish voice but performs with great sensitivity.
John Eager (Enrico, Lucia’s brother) is his ever-authoritative and imposing self; Gordon Christie (Arturo) and Marcus Deesando (Normanno) also give fine performances.
Barely in his 30s, conductor Kemal Khan, from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, is on the threshold of a successful international career as a conductor and, despite his age, still gets his way with the Cape Town Philharmonic.
The vibe behind the scenes is quite mellow and laid-back, despite the dramatic litany unfolding on stage. On set the chorus is bow-tied gentlemen with all the airs and graces of European aristocracy. But in the artists’ room they’re just amagents who move freely from Donizzeti, kwaito and the episode of Molo Fish blaring from the antique TV set. In the crowded canteen above, I catch assistant director Michael Williams, who runs the Choral Training Project. He speaks in a string of hyperboles about its success, adding that, in his view, it is a worthwhile investment for the country’s future. He should know: Desando, Sibongile Mngoma and Abel Motsoadi are some of its products. Williams himself has written a handful of operas and his latest, Sacred Bones, which he describes as “a safari opera”, premieres at the Nico in June.
Back in the auditorium I find the “Prof” (as his singers call him) calmly paging through an arts magazine to get his mind off things. “We cannot sit and hope that all will be okay with opera,” says company director Professor Angelo Gobbato. “It’s more than that. This company has got to go into the future.” He sounds determined but the events of the past few months have clearly taken their toll. The company had to do away with its permanent chorus, and its Chorus Training Programme is being funded by the Department of Labour. The support crew is not a permanent fixture – it services the company on a project-to- project basis.
“I know we’re taking a chance,” says Gobbato, “and even though the name and the image is new, we have much public support.” Figures show that for the last three productions, attendance has averaged on 90% and this, Gobbato hopes, will prove to the private sector that opera is worth funding.