“When an audience at the Metropolitan Opera House wants to make its approval known, its roar is unmatchable.
When the crowd is rewarding a new singer, whose career is poised to take off, the explosion of applause becomes a quintessential New York moment – as thrilling as any sports triumph at Madison Square Garden.
The Met experienced such a moment on Thursday evening when the 27-year-old South African soprano Pretty Yende made her debut. As she took her bows, the crowd went bonkers.”
Wall Street Journal
In the same month that saw a South African soprano bring the house down at the Met in New York, Cape Town Opera’s Artistic Director, Christine Crouse, has been invited to join the jury for the illustrious International Belvedere Singing Competition in Amsterdam, alongside representatives from some of the best opera houses in the world. In addition, Cape Town Opera’s Chorus has been shortlisted as Chorus of the Year at the inaugural International Opera Awards.
On yet another international platform Cape Town Opera is currently involved in a landmark collaboration with opera companies from New Zealand and Australia.
The upcoming production of Otello, chosen to mark the bicentennial year of Verdi’s birth, affords Cape Town Opera the thrilling opportunity to work with the combined budgets and the best talents of no less than six opera companies. Having survived on a shoestring for years, this is a massively exciting proposition.
The creative team alone holds some internationally regarded stars. In the director’s chair is the multi-award-winning Simon Phillips who, though perhaps best known for his musical production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, also has directing credits ranging from new works to Shakespearean classics and from Lloyd Webber smash hits to Mozart masterworks.
Set designer Dale Ferguson, who has twice been nominated for a Tony Award, is likewise no stranger to the international scene, with his sets and costumes gracing stages from the USA to Wales, for productions as diverse as Eugene Onegin and The Rocky Horror Show.
With all this talent both emerging from and migrating towards the Mothercity, Cape Town Opera has long since moved from the little dormouse, squeaking at the bottom of Africa. It is now a full-throated lion. And it is ready to roar!
Acknowledegement: Cape Town Opera