Merle Colborne Little evening bags and small binoculars. Tickly throats and Black Magic. And then the final fling, piping “Encore! Encore!” and pounding one’s feet on the floor and even perhaps doing a spot of standing up. Natal was awfully English going to the opera. Now opera audiences in KwaZulu-Natal rise from their seats whenever they feel the urge. Passionately involved in the spectacle on stage, they’ll sway their bodies and flutter their fingers, they’ll ululate and whistle, they’ll boo the villain and cheer the hero, then just as easily, they’ll hold beauty bated in a thrumming silence and they’ll love every minute.
“It’s the way Italians watch opera,” says Sandra de Villiers, who with Raphael Vilakazi as deputy CEO, launched Opera Africa to “place opera in an African context” in 1995. “It’s part of what makes opera here so exciting.” That and the extraordinary natural talent strewn across the hills and tucked into townships all over the province. “We have some of the world’s best voices in KwaZulu Natal” says de Villiers. Something she should know. After getting a B Mus at the University of Stellenbosch, she won a scholarship to study in Salzburg, one of the world’s most prestigious music centres, where the Salzburg Festival has been attracting international performers and audiences for over 80 years. She stayed for 10 years and there met her husband, fellow South African, Hein de Villiers. On their return to South Africa she headed up the opera school at Natal Technikon for 15 years and he became a music inspector, which brought him into contact with grassroots talent. Both were overwhelmed by the natural gifts and the enthusiasm they found and it was this which eventually led to the founding of Opera Africa, a non-profit company that provides pre-production training for conductors, directors, stage managers, technicians and singers. Sandra de Villiers used to believe that a voice could be made but now feels that a good voice is something you are born with. It’s in the physical make-up and, in this part of the world, it is honed by the Zulu language itself, which with its abundance of pure vowel sounds keeps the voice beautifully placed. Singing is as old as the hills of KwaZulu- Natal and there have long been intense competitions between choral groups – but now, along with the traditional songs, Verdi or Puccini have begun to pop up in the work prescribed for competitions. As for the Eurocentricism argument, De Villiers believes that it came from politicians, not from artists, “who love anything that’s beautiful.” Previous Opera Africa productions include Mozart’s Magic Flute, Bizet’s Carmen – which starred Sibongile Khumalo in her first operatic role – and Gounod’s Faust, works that in their portrayal of the pain and joy of the human condition can be appreciated as much in rural KwaZulu- Natal as in the cities of the United States – where, after Opera Africa’s presentation to the International Society of the Performing Arts in New York, the company’s specially commissioned Zulu opera Princess Magogo composed by Professor Mzilikazi Khumalo, is ardently awaited. To celebrate Heritage Day this weekend, Opera Africa is staging Famous Operatic Choruses on September 23 and 24. The programme, presented in association with Durban’s Playhouse company, will be performed by singers from choral groups around the province and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra and includes hum- along favourites like the March of the Priests from Mozart’s Magic Flute, the Bridal March from Wagner’s Lohengrin and the Soldiers’ Chorus from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, which in a brilliant translation uses the Zulu clicks to remarkable effect.
Some of the many well-known South African public figures who also happen to be talented singers have been invited to join in the Heritage Day performance on the Sunday afternoon. Among them are Justice Pius Langa and editor Aggrey Klaaste, who will don theatre costumes and join the massed choir on stage for the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco. While the performance has been billed as “1E000 voices”, fitting a thousand people on to the Playhouse Opera stage has proved impossible. So the organisers simply stuck the “1E000 voices” in inverted commas and got on with the show. Getting on with the job comes naturally to De Villiers, who thrives on the business side of things – her practical nature tells her that Verdi and Puccini are all very well, but no one can sing on an empty stomach or while they’re worrying about getting home. Working with choir managers to lay on safe cost-effective transport and a good supply of Kentucky Fried Chicken – the choristers’ favourite – is all part of her job. So is raising funds. KFC social investment and marketing managers take note.
Opera Africa’s Famous Operatic Choruses performances are at 7.30pm on September 23 and 3pm on September 24. For further information Tel: (031) 261E6708