With its production of Faust, Opera Africa has taken an elitist art form back to its origins – passionate, bawdy fun. Alex Sudheim reports
`When I first saw a production of Faust it was in Durban about seven years ago – when we were still part of Europe,” says Andrew Verster drily.
The famous painter, recently turned costume- and set-designer for Opera Africa’s seminal South African staging of Gounod’s classic opera, recalls the occasion with horror. “It was like visiting a museum of some German never-never land … a stylised baroque fantasy with the singers’ costumes bigger than they were. It immediately put up a barrier. Though everybody applauded politely and thought they had a great time, it had nothing to do with real life.”
Fortunately, much has changed since then, and one of the most important aspects of South Africa’s transition has been the opening up of a vigorous debate between the mental spaces of “Africa” and “Europe”. In this interface between the cultural identities of two continents, it is the true visionaries who see the confrontation as a mutually beneficial, not mutually exclusive, one.
Speaking at Opera Africa’s first performance of Faust at Zululand University last year, Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi said: “The notion of an `African renaissance’ should not only be about rediscovering and demonstrating our innermost African nature, culture and traditions, but should also involve finally absorbing the unparalleled gems of European culture which the majority of South Africans could not enjoy during the days of apartheid and oppression.”
Buthelezi’s insight is shared by Sandra de Villiers, CEO of Opera Africa and Faust’s producer. “I hate the term `Africanised’,” she says angrily. “It implies that a grand classic has merely been given an ethnic overhaul. In the mind of the purist, it is therefore inferior.”
Yet, ironically, her version of Faust is much closer to the spirit of the original opera than any anachronism the “purist” could long for. As De Villiers points out: “Initially, opera was really alive. Passionate, bawdy, fun and often ridiculous, it engaged ordinary people with its simple, intense melodrama. But opera has been made inaccessible by its rigid insistence on outdated stylisation – opera as an elitist art form alienated the very audiences it was originally written for.”
Thus one of the fundamental concerns of Opera Africa is to take the musical art back to its ingenuous roots as stimulating entertainment for the feisty masses. In fact, the opera’s performance last year in Empangeni was a world first: never before had a full-scale opera with a professional cast been taken to a rural area to entertain a crowd of disadvantaged countryside dwellers who had never seen such a spectacle before.
And the effect was astounding: “It was a wild, raucous affair,” enthuses Verster. “People booed when the devil came on and cheered for the heroes and everyone was stomping their feet and ululating – there was an incredible atmosphere.”
The unprecedented emotion of the audience at that show bears out Minister for Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Lionel Mtshali’s view that: “Opera Africa is committed to dispelling the erroneous notion among many people that the operatic arts are `elitist, urban and Western’, with no relevance to Africa.” Indeed, the overwhelming response of the “uneducated” audience gave the lie to any claim opera has to being an esoteric, exclusive art form.
Leaving the University of Zululand’s Bhekuzulu Hall after the performance of Faust, S’gagayi Ntshela of the KwaBuyela community near Empangeni remarked: “I thought there was nothing for me to enjoy in European art, but tonight I am left wordless.”
There is also no hint of the patronising “support it because it’s local” attitude from Opera Africa. Their production of Faust is a huge and highly professional affair, featuring some of the world’s top opera talent in the form of Linda Bukhosini, Bongani Thembe, Bronwyn Forbay and Rouel Beukes.
German conductor Gerhard Geist – former conductor of the Frankfurt Opera House – leads the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra through Gounod’s rousing three-hour score.
Of further benefit to the Opera Africa team has been the highly evolved choral structure in KwaZulu-Natal. Drawing from this deep pool of well-drilled professional talent to form the opera’s massed choir has immensely enhanced the overall sophistication of the project. “There are between 80 and 100 choral groups in this province whose interest, talent, dramatic passion and experience in working as part of a highly disciplined unit make these singers perfect from a musical point of view,” says De Villiers. “Also, opera needs big voices, and the African people have wonderful big voices. The singers also have natural passion and flair for drama, so the standard is incredibly high. Faust utterly exposes the myth that `African’ implies `inferior’,” she concludes.
Furthermore, “in South Africa, there are many preconceived ideas about opera,” says De Villiers of some of the struggles encountered when making African opera. “There is an incorrect perception that if you do a Carmen it must be set in Spain and the lead singer must be slender. Why? When we did Carmen, it was because I wanted to see Sibongile Khumalo in the lead role. Fat, black, never done opera before … but she was one of the sexiest Carmens I’ve ever seen,” she says with the conviction of one who would not for a moment doubt the veracity of their vision.
Her bold, convention-defying stance is echoed by Faust’s director, Themi Venturas. “Why do Italian opera when no one can do it better than the Italians?” he asks. “The only way for opera to survive is for it to be re- invented all the time.” Working according to the notion that the universal human themes are not locked into the fossil-beds of history but manifest themselves in infinite combinations of time and space, Venturas believes that of overriding importance in opera is the need to be relevant.
“When South Africans see Faust they recognise South Africans on stage, not remote creatures from an ossified European tradition,” he says. In fact, so strong is his commintment to “realness”, while directing the opera Venturas constantly imagined all the action taking place in West Street in downtown Durban.
Also radically breaking with convention are Verster’s sets and costumes.
Their emphasis is on keeping the production lean and mobile for touring, Verster says of his creations: “They’re cheap, raw, improvised, uncomplicated and transportable. Since I hardly knew a thing about opera I approached the project as a complete innocent, which I think allowed me to experiment in ways that would frighten sensible professionals.”
This approach ties in with Opera Africa’s aim to inspire other people to make opera when they see they don’t need massive, expensive sets and to be highly creative with the most ordinary tools at their disposal.
Consisting of huge painted cloth backdrops which create a powerful three-dimensional atmosphere, Verster’s entire set can be rolled up and stored in two or three kombis.
For the old-school opera fan used to what De Villiers calls “that elaborate, rich, heavy, opulent stuff – the people come in to clap for the bloody sets!”- this aspect of the show combined with the cast’s simple, light clothing will, according to Verster, “definitely irritate those people who come with all their opera baggage”.
Thus for De Villiers, Venturas and Verster, the power of Faust lies within its simple narrative power and potent allegory of the human condition, rather than upon awesome stage design and expensive costumes. “If you have a big imagination you don’t need a big budget,” states De Villiers. What has become forgotten in opera is that, as with many other froms of art, its ultimate success depends on the strength and pull of its inner vision rather than the lavish trappings of an expensive, gaudy exterior.
Before Goethe grafted an enlightened, humane and rationalist ethic onto the legend, Faust was always destined for eternal damnation for his sordid dealings with the devil. Trading his soul for youth, power and wisdom, Goethe nevertheless has Faust escape the clutches of Mephistopheles. Why doesn’t he burn in hell for all his sins? In the words of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, “Faust finds final redemption because the devil, Mephistopheles, proves that he does not truly understand the human soul which can always find its redemption in beauty and true love.”
The Minister of Home Affairs sure hit the nail on the head there, succinctly capturing the fundamental essence of Faust: tragic, yet optimistic morality play and humanist philosophical meditation, the work’s insights into the contradictory forces of good, evil, sin and redemption innate in the human condition are relevant anywhere, everywhere and at all times.