A fabulous soirée at Everard Read gallery on a crisply cool evening in April gave a taste of the magic that awaits at the opera in May.
The event, showcasing the gallery’s exhibition of work created by Shakil Solanki based on his earlier works for The Pearl Fishers, looked forward to Cape Town Opera’s production of the opera this May.
Levy Sekgapane and Brittany Smith (with accompaniment on piano from Cape Town Opera’s resident conductor Adam Szmidt) gave breath-taking renditions of a couple of pieces from the show.
As the two extraordinary voices soared and swooped passionately and playfully around the room, I wondered if the glass holding my Simonsig MCC was safe.
I heard a whisper that returning global star Sekgapane and Smith, who recently won the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for Best Female Performance in an Opera, had not sung together before.
Talk about a HOT first date! Just the two of them might set the stage at Artscape alight but, as Szmidt pointed out, there will be more, so much more. The Pearl Fishers is a ménage à trois, after all.
The third person, the “best friend” of Sekgapane’s character, Nadir, was a key inspiration for Solanki’s gorgeous works created for the original production, including the one above.
In a short dialogue with the audience at Everard Read, he presented a different framing (of the story, of the production, of life) when he said reading the opera had brought to mind the work of Derek Jarman, the British artist and queer activist.
The blues he uses are not just beautiful, he told us, they have meaning and relevance to spirituality and queerness in his world/the world.
Witnessing the bravery of brilliant and brave young people telling their stories is always a privilege.
Returning international opera star Sekgapane also gave us some insight into the journey of a Sotho guy from Kroonstad, in the Free State, to the very pinnacle of the global opera world. He was sent to boarding school in Cape Town at 15, and then for opera training, and went on to pursue a career in Europe.
Since winning Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition in 2017, Levy has performed on so many of opera’s biggest stages around the world.
He has performed in the many foreign tongues a global opera star must master: German, Italian, English and Spanish. He has spent much time in Paris and working on his French, but he told us that he is delighted to be debuting in the role of Nadir in George Bizet’s masterful French opera at home, “in front of ‘his’ people”, rather than in France, where the critics can be so very harsh.
(Piano courtesy of Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos)
Cape Town Opera’s production of Bizet’s 1863 opera, which was set in ancient Ceylon, is directed by Elisabeth Manduell with Matthew Wild’s original concept enhanced by Solanki’s exquisite imagery.
“In The Pearl Fishers we aren’t looking at a stage with traditional sets and props,” says Manduell, “but rather at a canvas on which we can set the scenes that illuminate onstage personalities and emotions.
“Matthew has succeeded in elevating the semi-staged concept into a rich and wonderful space to explore.”
Original set and costume design is by Michael Mitchell and lighting design is by Faheem Bardien.
The highly anticipated season, after more than two years of pandemic disruption and delay, will also feature Conroy Scott (winner: Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for Best Male Performance in an Opera), and Cape Town Opera’s Judith Neilson Young Artist, Reuben Mbonambi, who was placed 3rd in the Belvedere Competition last year.
The Pearl Fishers, supported by the Western Cape Government Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport and the National Arts Council, runs from 10-14 May 2023 (Yes! That is just five days) at the Artscape Theatre. It will be sung in French with English and isiXhosa surtitles. Booking through Computicket or on 021-4217695.
It would be remiss to not mention the food served alongside the Simonsig MCC at the soirée at Everard Read: delectable bites served by charming and knowledgeable waiting staff. I couldn’t agree more with Szmidt’s description of the canapes as the perfect pairing to the evening’s entertainment, which was also made up of small, exquisite bites. Out of This Planet Catering | Cape Town | Facebook