Opera production in the Western Cape: strategies
in search of indigenization

Hilde Roos

Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Stellenbosch
University.

Supervisor: Dr. Stephanus Muller
Co-supervisor: Prof. Siegfried Huigen

December 2010
i

Declaration
By submitting this dissertation I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is
my own, original work, that I am the owner of the copyright thereof (unless to the extent
explicitly otherwise stated) and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part
submitted it for obtaining any qualification.

Date: 24 August 2010

.......................................

Copyright © 2010 Stellenbosch University
All rights reserved
ii

Summary
During the past few decades fascinating opera productions have been staged by South
African opera companies, using strong local casts and strikingly indigenous interpretations
of standard works from the canon. It appears that opera in South Africa has survived the
tumultuous recent history of this country and is invigorated by the creative possibilities
unleashed by its contexts. This dissertation explores whether and how opera production in
the Western Cape has reacted to societal influences specific to South Africa. It launches an
exploration of if and how the genre has ‘indigenized’ to become what it is today. The
following themes present themselves during the course of this dissertation: the process
through which opera has rooted itself in the country historically, the forms in and through
which opera manifested itself in the Western Cape, how the art form has developed, to
what extend local culture has influenced the art form and if, how and why opera
production in the Western Cape has diverged from original Western operatic ideals.

This dissertation is comprised of two sections representing, broadly, the past and the
present. Chapters 1 and 2 are historical studies, whilst Chapters 3 and 4 discuss
contemporary perspectives. Chapter 1 is an attempt to construct a history of opera in South
Africa and serves as a background or frame for the ensuing chapters. This chapter will
show that indigenization in its most subtle form can be traced in local opera productions
long before the issue of the reflection of indigenous cultures in opera became relevant.
Chapter 2 is a first attempt to account for the history of the Eoan Group, a so-called
Coloured opera company who performed during South Africa’s Apartheid years. It
investigates the far-reaching implications of the drive to ‘Europeanize’ indigenous culture,
as exemplified in the opera productions of this group. Chapter 3 discusses a new opera
composition, Hans Huyssen’s Masque (composed in 2005), focusing on the use of voice as
it engages with the indigenization of the aesthetic model of voice production. Chapter 4 is
an investigation into the functioning of Cape Town Opera. It investigates how a local
opera company – an institution promoting opera as a Western form of art – negotiates its
way through the tumultuous changes of post-Apartheid South Africa.

iii

Opsomming

Operageselskappe in Suid-Afrika het gedurende die afgelope dekades verskeie
fassinerende produksies op die planke gebring, produksies wat aansienlik deur inheemse
interpretasies beïnvloed is en dikwels van inheemse sangers gebruik maak. Dit wil
voorkom of opera in Suid-Afrika nie slegs die politieke omwentelinge van die onlangse
verlede te bowe gekom het nie, maar ook produktief put uit impulse wat uit plaaslike
omstandighede voortvloei. Die gedagte wat in hierdie proefskrif ondersoek word, is of en
hoe opera produksie in die Weskaap op spesifiek Suid-Afrikaanse omstandighede
gereageer het. Die bestudering van opera in die Weskaap deur die lens van verinheemsing
fokus op die manier waarop opera in die land wortel geskiet het, die wyses waarop dit in
die verlede en in die hede tot uiting gekom het, hoe produksie van die genre ontwikkel het,
tot watter mate inheemse kulture operaproduksie en komposisie beïnvloed het en hoe en
waarom operaproduksie in die Weskaap afgewyk het van oorspronklike Westerse ideale.

Hierdie proefskrif bestaan uit twee dele wat die verlede en die hede verteenwoordig.
Hoofstukke 1 en 2 behandel historiese gevallestudies en Hoofstukke 3 en 4 kontemporêre
operapraktyke. Hoofstuk 1 onderneem om ’n geskiedenis van opera in Suid-Afrika te skets
en dien as ’n vertrekpunt of konteks vir die daaropvolgende hoofstukke. Die hoofstuk dui
aan dat verinheemsing reeds in subtiele vorm plaasgevind het in operaproduksie lank voor
die vraagstuk oor die weerspieëling van inheemse kulture in opera relevant geword het.
Hoofstuk 2 is ’n eerste poging om die geskiedenis van die Eoan Groep, ’n sogenaamde
Kleurling operageselskap wat gedurende die Apartheidsjare in Suid-Afrika opera
geproduseer het, neer te pen. Die hoofstuk ondersoek die verreikende implikasies van die
veldtog om inheemse kulture in Suid-Afrika te verwesters. Hoofstuk 3 bespreek ’n nuwe
operakomposisie, Hans Huyssen se Masque (gekomponeer in 2005) en fokus op die
gebruik van stem en die kwessie van die verinheemsing van die estetiese model van
stemproduksie. Hoofstuk 4 het as onderwerp die plaaslike operageselskap, Kaapstad
Opera, en ondersoek hoe hierdie organisasie wat opera as ’n Westerste kunsvorm beoefen
en bevorder, sy weg vind deur die ingrypende veranderinge wat post-Apartheid SuidAfrika kenmerk.
iv

Acknowledgements

During this time of study I have been richly blessed and I would like to express my sincere
thanks to a number of people without whom this venture would not have come to fruition.
Heartfelt thanks go to my supervisor, Dr. Stephanus Muller, whose unfailing support,
inspirational advice and steadfast belief in me as a person has given me wings to fly and to
grow as a scholar. My husband, Henk Dekker, has similarly supported me without
question, his trust in my abilities and his care has carried me through. Thank you to all of
those in the field who have supported me through making time and resources available to
complete this study. I would also like to thank the University of Stellenbosch and the
National Research Foundation for making generous funds available through which I have
been able to create an infrastructure and to ‘buy time’ to complete this work.

v

Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3

Chapter 1. Indigenization and History: how opera in South Africa became South
African opera ..................................................................................................................... 20
1.1

Literature Review ................................................................................................. 21

1.2

South African Opera: General Historiographic Points of Departure .................... 24

1.3

Towards a History of Opera in South Africa ........................................................ 28

1.3.1

Touring Companies: Introducing Opera to South Africa ........................ 28

1.3.2

Local opera production............................................................................ 34

1.3.3

Local opera composition ......................................................................... 66

1.4

Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 71

Chapter 2. Archival secrets: constructing the history of Eoan ..................................... 75
2.1

The early years ...................................................................................................... 75

2.2

The 1956 Arts Festival .......................................................................................... 79

2.3

The Fourth Opera and Ballet Season and the 1960 Opera and Ballet Tour.......... 89

2.4

The Second Arts Festival of 1962......................................................................... 93

2.5

The Eoan Group Trust .......................................................................................... 99

2.6

Eoan’s Sixth Opera Season and their Second Tour of the country in 1965 ........ 102

2.7

The musicals of the late 1960s ............................................................................ 113

2.8

The Joseph Stone Auditorium in Athlone........................................................... 118

2.9

The 1971 Republic Festival and beyond ............................................................. 125

2.10

Eoan tours abroad ............................................................................................... 136

2.11

The beginning of the end .................................................................................... 141

2.12

A new and different Eoan ................................................................................... 147

2.13

Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 150

1

Chapter 3. White skin, black masks: the aesthetics of indigenization in Masque ..... 153
3.1

Imagining Masque .............................................................................................. 156

3.1.1

An opera of opposites ............................................................................ 156

3.1.2

Libretto .................................................................................................. 158

3.1.3

Characterization .................................................................................... 163

3.1.4

Orchestration ......................................................................................... 167

3.1.5

Voice ..................................................................................................... 169

3.2

Reception ............................................................................................................ 173

3.2.1

The use of voice .................................................................................... 174

3.2.2

The orchestra ......................................................................................... 177

3.2.3

Logistical problems in getting the work staged .................................... 181

3.2.4

The performances .................................................................................. 183

3.2.5

The libretto ............................................................................................ 188

3.3

Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 189

Chapter 4. Cape Town Opera: tradition and change as strategies of survival.......... 192
4.1

Introduction ......................................................................................................... 192

4.2

Tradition and change .......................................................................................... 195

4.3

The Company ...................................................................................................... 201

4.4

The rise of the black opera singer ....................................................................... 204

4.5

Artistic management ........................................................................................... 210

4.6

Finance and Marketing ....................................................................................... 215

4.7

Education and Training ....................................................................................... 219

4.8

Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 223

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 226

Appendix: List of South African operas and operettas ............................................... 233

Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 242
2

Introduction

The dissemination of Western culture during and after colonization exposed opera to a
number of external influences in countries where European settlers established themselves
in substantial numbers and where the genre of opera continues to be practiced to this day.
These influences include the aesthetics and traditions of local musical practices, as well as
the social and ideological configurations indigenous to former colonized countries. In
South Africa, the exposure of opera to local cultures (not to raise here the issue of the
exposure of local cultures to opera) has in time resulted in some opera productions that
have departed from Western aesthetic norms and prompted innovations to the genre. These
innovations can be traced in newly created operas (this is done in Chapter 3 of this
dissertation) as well as in the production of a number of operas from the standard canon
that have been radically adapted to local contexts and social realities.
Various factors have contributed to these processes of what will here be called
‘indigenization’. Departing from variously theorized critical views on music and/in
context,1 music is not heard or created in isolation and implies a production and reception
connected to and influenced by society. In order to understand why South African opera
production has increasingly been characterized by the appropriation of African culture, it is
important to take the political context of the country into consideration. In addition to the
gradual acculturation and osmoses due to the co-existence of diverging musical practices
in the country over a long period of time, South African composers and musicians active in
the field of Western art music have during the past two decades been subject to increasing
structural pressures to reflect the indigenous cultures of their environment in their work.
Since the dawn of the new political dispensation in 1994, opera production in South Africa
has experienced structural and institutional pressures that have encouraged strategies of
indigenization. The last Chapter in this dissertation considers this structural and
institutional response to political exigencies like demonstrable demographic representation
in productions and audiences. It does so under the rubric of indigenization.

1

See for instance the writings of Adorno (1967), Parker and Groos (1988), Said (1993), Goehr
(1994) and Abbate (1996 and 2003).

3

The initiative taken by artistic directors who adapt and change opera to express (or reflect)
local cultural experiences, has had notable successes. For example, an ‘all-black opera
production’ of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème was created in 1998. Set in the Soweto of
1976, the libretto was translated into South African English and the opera was renamed La
Bohème: Noir.2 In 2001 an ‘Africanized’ version of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth was set in
a guerilla war in Sierra Leone. Although sung in Italian, the opera was substantially
shortened with the specific goal of highlighting a post-colonial message. Sections of
Verdi’s music were also transcribed for alto saxophone, marimba and djembe and stage
props included, amongst others, that ubiquitous symbol of post-colonial Africa, the
AK47.3 In recent years two strongly indigenized operas, Georges Bizet’s Carmen
(translated into uCarmen eKhayelitsha) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic
Flute by the Cape-based opera company Dimpho Di Kopane,4 received prestigious
international accolades such as the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival in
February 2005 and the Laurence Olivier Award in London in March 2008. In both
productions ‘Africanization’ was achieved by drastic alterations to text, instrumentation
and setting.
This prompts the question: is Africanization synonymous with indigenization? Can these
sometimes violent ‘transpositions’ of the African context into opera be subsumed and
accommodated under the term ‘indigenization’? The idea of the indigenization of opera in
South Africa seems an entirely reasonable one. Cultural exchange, appropriation,
mutation, influence, acculturation and a myriad of variously labeled processes describing
cultural change pertaining to traditionally European cultural forms, both serious and
popular, seems entirely natural when people cohabit. The same can be said of Western
influences found in traditional African cultural expressions. Today, in a ‘global village’,
the notion of ‘cultural trade’ is even less surprising.5 We experience and accept cultural
flow and diversity where appropriation of cultural artifacts of one culture by another is
commonplace, not only in terms of African and European culture in South Africa, but also
2

Marianne Thamm, ‘Boost for Opera’, Mail and Guardian, October 1998.
http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/mg/art/reviews/97oct/16oc-boheme.html, accessed 8 April 2008.
3
Herman Wasserman, ‘Opera ’n onredbaar Eurosentriese kunsvorm?’ No date.
http://www.oulitnet.co.za/klank/09opera.asp, accessed 8 April 2008.
4
This company is currently trading us Isango Portobello.
5
Arjun Appadurai, ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’, Colonial
Discourse and Post-colonial theory, edited by Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, Harvester,
1993, p. 324.

4

internationally. Culture has become a free-for-all, depending on one’s particular interest.
Although the colonial age was arguably the onset of cultural traffic – or at least the traffic
jam – the technological age of the past decades ensured global cultural exchange
previously not deemed possible.6 However, in South Africa, especially after the political
revolution of 1994, indigenization has also become a political imperative exercising more
pressure than terms like ‘process’ or ‘exchange’ imply.

Theoretical considerations
Although the term ‘indigenization’ has rarely been used in musicological writings, studies
exploring Western classical music’s interest in the use of music of other cultures are
commonplace. Alterity has interested the West for centuries and an extensive literature
exists describing these occurrences in classical music. In the field of opera studies,
Timothy Taylor, for example, discusses European conceptions of Turkish culture and the
use of Turkish music in Rameau’s opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes (composed 1735) as
well as Mozart’s opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (composed 1782).7 The
considerable bibliography of Taylor’s article alone is indicative of Western classical
music’s fascination with music of other cultures. Noteworthy examples on opera are Paul
Robinson’s article scrutinizing ‘orientalism’ in Verdi’s Aïda8 and Ralph Locke’s article
‘Constructing the Oriental “Other”: Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Delila’.9
However, in academic studies where the concept of ‘indigenization’ have been used (for
example in ethnomusicology, missiology and economics – each of these will be discussed
shortly), it is clear that the context of usage does not pertain particularly to Western
composers who make use of music from variously constructed ‘others’. As the following
discussion will illustrate, when the concept of indigenization is used in existing literature,
it tends to suggest exactly the opposite process, pointing towards something other than a
mere interest in the exotic or an exploration of ‘other musics’ in the music of the ‘self’.
6

Ibid.
Timothy Taylor. ‘Peopling the Stage: Opera, Otherness and New Musical Representation in the
Eighteenth Century’, Cultural Critique, 1997, (36) pp. 55-88. This article has been incorporated in
slightly altered form in Taylor’s 2007 publication Beyond Exoticism, pp. 43-72.
8
Ibid. p. 213.
9
Ibid.
5
7

Whilst exoticism seems a luxury afforded to a composer that he/she can employ at his/her
leisure, indigenization seems to happen when the social and political relevance or the
survival of a cultural format is under pressure.
In ethnomusicology the concept of ‘indigenization’ has been used in writings by Carol
Babiracki10 and Amy Stillman.11 Both writers trace the indigenization of religious music
that was introduced by missionaries from the West to Christian converts originating from
tribal groups in east-central India and Polynesia respectively. Their work is instructive
towards this thesis as both writers analyze the premises for indigenization and describe the
process as well as the outcome of indigenization on the level of the music itself. Stillman’s
work, for instance, provides a tool through which indigenization can be measured and her
theory can be used critically to investigate new opera composition as well as the
production of opera from the standard canon. Although this dissertation does not primarily
investigate indigenization on the level of musical works but considers different strategies
of indigenization, Babiracki and Stillman’s ideas offer insights from which valuable
conclusions are drawn at the end of this dissertation.
Stillman sets the ‘coexistence and absorption’ of two different musical practices as the
premises on which indigenization can take place, both of which can be traced in local
opera production. Based on the findings of her fieldwork, she proceeds to set out the
process of indigenization in five stages and convincingly analyzes the indigenization of
Polynesian Protestant hymnody through these stages:
… first, the survival and resurgence of indigenous performance traditions […]; second, the
coexistence of indigenous and introduced repertory and practices; third, the appropriation
of materials, structures and processes between indigenous and introduced systems; fourth,
the emergence of new musical idioms; and fifth, the absorption of old and new idioms into
indigenous conceptual frameworks of musical repertory and practice.12

Stillman’s model suggests that indigenization follows a trajectory which has a beginning
and an end, and that the opposites in binaries such as ‘Polynesian-European’ or ‘self-other’
can be dissolved in new manifestations of music through indigenization. Babiracki’s
10

Carol Babiracki. 1985. ‘Indigenizers’, in The Western Impact on World Music, Change,
Adaptation and Survival, ed. Bruno Nettl, Schirmer Books, pp. 96-100.
11
Amy Ku’uleialoha Stillman. 1993. ‘Prelude to a Comparative Investigation of Protestant
Hymnody in Polynesia’, Yearbook for Traditional Music, Volume 25, pp. 89-99.
12
Ibid, p. 93.

6

statement that indigenization is ‘a matter of recovering, relearning and recomposing native
music in a mixture of Western and native traditions’,13 provides a slightly different angle
from which new opera composition as well as opera production in South Africa can
productively be discussed.
Indigenization is furthermore explored in writings on missiology where it appears in
academic writing since the 1950s and in current writing the term is used alongside terms
such as ‘enculturation’, ‘metamorphosis’ and ‘contextualization’. The Korean Protestant
scholar, Sung Jong Shin, points out that the use of the term indigenization in missiology is
fraught because it can relate to the adaption (or adulteration) of the ‘pure’ Christian
message:
The term is derived from the Latin word indigenous meaning ‘of a people’ or ‘stock’. It
designates a conscious effort to put down roots in the native soil in order to communicate
the gospel to the people in a particular land. But such indigenization … is an ambiguous
expression because it can mean either to adapt the message to the native culture and treat
the values of that culture as the norm, or to adapt the norm of the presentation of the
message without change of its essence.14

This passage is rich with evocative (and potentially useful) metaphors of growth and
habitat. Replacing ‘gospel’ with ‘opera’ in the same passage is instructive:
It designates a conscious effort to put down roots in the native soil in order to communicate
[opera] to the people in a particular land. But such indigenization … is an ambiguous
expression because it can mean either to adapt [opera] to the native culture and treat the
values of that culture as the norm, or to adapt the norm of the presentation of [opera]
without change of its essence.

This description of indigenization implies two kinds of processes: one leading to radical
changes in opera as the local cultural context dominates the exchange taking place; the
other implying presentational adaptations to the genre without essential change taking
place. In the political context of South Africa, where indigenous cultures and values were
marginalized and looked down upon over centuries, one would expect the latter process to
govern processes of indigenization of opera. One critical historical perspective explored in
this dissertation, the history of the Eoan Opera Group (Chapter 2), speaks to this
13

Babiracki, p. 98.
Sung Jong Shin, Paul’s missionary method and the indigenization of the Korean Church.
Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University, 1974, p. 64.
14

7

expectation in a surprising way. As will be seen, the manner in which this marginalized
local cultural community practiced Italian opera in ‘tradition Italian style’ has profound
implications for how one reads local strategies of musical indigenization.
Drawing on similar metaphors as those used by Jong Shin, the Zimbabwean scholar, A.R.
Mutumburanzou, explains that indigenization is ‘like transplanting a plant from Europe to
Africa where one cannot also transplant the soil and the climate but just the plant to a
different environment’.15 The writer does not further elaborate on how this European plant
(the gospel in his case) is expected to behave in African soil, although it is assumed the
goal is that it should survive and grow. This metaphor is limited in its application as it
presupposes that the product (in Mutumburanzou’s case the plant and in the case of this
study, opera) does not change in appearance or the fruits it bears as a result of its move to a
new context.
In the case of opera, indigenization is therefore best understood as a process, a technique
or an action whereby A is gradually transformed into B, but with the understanding that A
can always be recognized in B (its altered state). The term implies that A is an entity of
‘pure’ substance that somehow is changed by the place, space, time and people that
surround it. However, opera has long had the connotation of an ‘unpure’ genre with a long
history of hybridity that complicates matters of definition. In this dissertation opera is
viewed as a Western musical form where performance is based on what is written in a
score, the latter being a musical text composed by a composer in addition to a libretto
written by a librettist. This study will therefore depart from the premise that opera is a
Western genre, the existence of which in countries like South Africa enables changes to
take place. In this study these changes will be considered under the rubric of
indigenization.
In economics ‘indigenization’ takes on yet more meanings. In his book Indigenization of
African Economies, Nigerian editor Adebayo Adede writes:
Unlike nationalization, indigenization in fact encourages, develops and strengthens
indigenous private enterprise at the expense of expatriate-controlled enterprise. Four types
of indigenization can be identified. First, there is the indigenization of ownership, which
aims at giving the indigenes of a country, either individually or collectively, ownership
15

A.R. Mutumburanzou, Indigenization in the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe, 1975 – 1994.
Unpublished Masters Thesis, University of Stellenbosch, 1995.

8

stake in the economic establishments in their country. There is, second, the indigenization
of control, whose objective is to enable the indigenes of a country to exercise control.
Third, there is manpower indigenization, known as Africanization, aimed at developing
indigenous competence in modern industrial and commercial operations and management.
16
Finally there is the indigenization of technology.

Although the parallels with musicology are less pronounced here, indigenization in
economics focuses on material ownership, control, manpower and the means needed to
achieve them. Significantly these factors play an important role in the indigenization of
opera production, as shall be illustrated in more detail in Chapter 4 of this study. Motivated
by government subsidies, opera management structures – past and present – have made
certain decisions to enforce a specific demographic representation in their productions as
well as the audiences who attend performances. In terms of indigenization the issues of
ownership, human recourses and control in opera production are indeed points of
contention. Thus it is not only the concepts of economic indigenization that ring true when
speaking of opera in South Africa, but also the political activism inherent in the application
of these concepts.
It is important to note that the concept of indigenization is also present in other disciplines
where similar practices are apellated differently. In translation studies, for example, the
tendency of adapting a text for readers of a different language is called ‘domestication’.
Translating an English text into French, translator Pierre le Tourneur articulates his
intention ‘to distill from the English […] a French [text] to be read with pleasure and
interest by French readers who would not have to ask themselves whether the book they
were reading was a copy or an original’.17 Maria Teresa Sánchez writes elsewhere that
domestication ‘refer[s] to the inevitable process of having to adapt the foreign text to our
own linguistic and cultural background when we translate.’18 The similarities with textcritical notions of ‘authenticity’ in Western art music are striking. In cultural theory the
concept of ‘hybridization’ has been developed by theorists like Homi Bhabha, Mikhail
Bakhtin and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. It is used to describe, in simplified terms,
16

Adebayo Adede (ed.), Indigenization of African Economies. Anchor Press, 1981, p. 31.
Pierre le Tourneur as quoted in: Lawrence Venuti (ed.), The Translation Studies Reader.
Routledge, 2000, p. 16.
18
Maria Teresa Sánchez, ‘Domesticating the Theorists: a Plea for Plain Language’, in Translation
Journal, volume 11, nr. 1, 2007. http://accurapid.com/journal/39plainlanguage.htm, accessed 6
August 2010.
17

9

changes that occur to existing and new cultural utterances due to the cross-pollination of
different cultures. This notion is perhaps best distinguished from indigenization through
the understanding of hybridization’s subversive political tendency with regard to power
relations between the West and the ‘Other’.
The varied understandings of ‘indigenization’ outlined in the work of Babiracki, Stillman,
Sung Jong Shin and Adede, rest on constructed binaries of ‘self’ and ‘other’. In the context
of this study, these binaries could easily morph into one of ‘European’ and ‘African’. The
‘self-other’ construct is of course firmly rooted in thinking originating from the West, and
in musicology ‘self’ most often references the ‘unmarked’ position of ‘classical music’.
However, in the context of South Africa in 2010, it is possible to argue that European
culture is not the dominant culture. Thus the Western notion of ‘self’ and ‘other’ (that
obstinately persists in South Africa) is susceptible to reversal. As will be illustrated in the
course of this thesis, this oppositional construct functions ambiguously in the cultural
expression that is opera. Although it is clear that European culture in South Africa is in
many respects not the dominant culture, opera currently operates in an environment
informed by historical dominance – initially via colonialism and later through Apartheid –
and despite the major political shift which saw white South Africans lose their political
dominion in 1994, the art form still seems to aspire towards a cultural conceit of national
importance. This complex dialectic is explored in particular in Chapters 2 and 4 of this
dissertation, which document how indigenous (non-white) South Africans engage with
music of the ‘other’ (opera in this case) as cultural expressions of ‘self’. In Chapter 3 these
binaries are cast differently yet again in the context of an opera composed by a white
South African composer acutely convinced of difference as a binary structure.
Not surprisingly, ‘indigenization’ emerges from this study a more complicated
phenomenon than dictionary definitions imply. I remarked above on the possible
conflation of the ‘self-other’ duality with the ‘European-African’ alternative. In local
literature ‘indigenization’ is indeed often used in conjunction with, or as an alternative for,
the term ‘Africanization’. The usage of this term in writings on opera in Africa, as well as
observations made from fieldwork, confirm that it is easy to misinterpret the term
‘indigenization’ as ‘Africanization’. The critical perspectives presented here will argue
against this interpretation as politically driven and ultimately limiting. However, the
examples of local opera productions mentioned earlier as well as the topics of at least two
10

of the chapters in this dissertation indicate an inclination towards narrowing down the term
indigenization to refer uniquely to the cultural heritage of Black Africans.
This very point introduces, lastly, the issue of race. In the introduction to their book Music
and the Racial Imagination, Bohlman and Radano describe the remarkable silence
regarding naming issues of race in most music studies despite the fact that race seems
pertinently present and plays a decisive role in the content of such writings. After
introducing this phenomenon as the ‘specter [that] lurks in the house of music, and it goes
by the name of race’, Bohlman and Radano go about ghost-busting the existing literature
and exposing the silent racial attitudes prevalent in much musicology and
ethnomusicology.19 Race is deeply entrenched in the discourse of indigenization; the very
words used by the OED, ‘making predominantly native’, is firmly grounded in a racialized
discourse and is therefore insinuated in the very texture of this dissertation. It is clear that
tracing ‘difference’ in Western music in South Africa means to trace race.20
In South Africa today, the continued use of racial categories such as ‘Coloured(s)’,
‘Black(s)’, ‘Indian(s)’ and ‘White(s)’ – resulting from an Apartheid history – presents an
uncomfortable situation as it creates the impression of a continuation of Apartheid
practises that insist on difference between races.21 However, despite valiant efforts by
(some) politicians, community leaders and ordinary South Africans to de-emphasize racial
differences in attempts towards reconciliation, racial categorization is still unapologetically
and brashly characteristic of discourse on all levels of South African society – past and
present. It also seeps into the discourse of this dissertation. Racial categorization indeed
easily lends itself towards racial prejudice, but an attempt to gloss over the severity of this
situation would not only be hypocritical but also futile. For the duration of this dissertation
these terms will be used as group and cultural markers in the same way they were
historically used by the various protagonists that form part of South Africa’s history and
how they are used in our society today.
Critical Perspectives

19

Ronald Radano & Philip Bohlman. 2000. Music and the Racial Imagination, p. 1.
Ibid.
21
Another thorny issue in this respect is whether these terms should be written with capital or
small letters.
20

11

It is evident that indigenization finds expression in many processes, on many different
levels, within varying time zones and to a variety of degrees. The cited discussion of
‘indigenization’ implies that ‘process’ is singular, but this kind of trajectory creates an
untenable simplicity of meaning. Indigenization is a term that allows for the exposition of
the complexity of cultural trade, enabling enquiry into the core understandings of opera in
our local contexts. In an attempt to remain faithful to this complexity, this study therefore
focuses on a variety of strategies of indigenization, rather than trying to assign hierarchical
importance to chosen opera events or works.
The critical perspectives that follow will not provide a theory of (musical) indigenization.
In fact, this dissertation stops well short of such an undertaking, which would develop the
topic philosophically and theoretically. The current writer has been more concerned to
document – historically and ethnographically – narratives that could demonstrably be
enhanced (or so it is argued) by understanding them in terms of indigenization. The focus
in this dissertation is therefore less on musical works than on ethnography and
historiography through which different strategies towards the indigenization of opera can
be illustrated. In the introduction to his book Beyond Exoticism, Timothy Taylor makes an
ardent plea in support of this approach when he critiques the many studies that have thus
far been published on Western (classical) music’s interest in music of the ‘other’.22 He
writes that ‘many of these studies […] suffer from a well-worn approach that tends to
fetishize form and style’. He describes this approach as ‘the classical music ideology […]
that has its two foundational tenets in the concepts of “genius” and “masterpiece”’, an
approach that, despite producing important work, is used at the expense of the historical
and cultural foundations of scholarly research. 23
The reader can therefore expect selected perspectives or windows on opera production in
the Western Cape, one of three provinces in South Africa where opera has historically and
contemporaneously most consistently been produced (the other provinces being Gauteng
and KwaZulu Natal). The Eoan Group (the subject of Chapter 2), provides a unique
perspective on the practice of opera during and after Apartheid by singers for whom
European culture was not part of the cultural heritage they inherited from their parents.
The singers who perform in the opera productions discussed in Chapters 2 to 4 (spanning
22
23

Taylor, p. 2.
Ibid, pp. 3-4.

12

60 years) are all either coloured or black and, to use Stillman’s language here, can be seen
as ‘converts’ to opera. However, many of the composers, educators, directors and
managers in these productions are whites who were also active in opera production in the
Western Cape during Apartheid. The different chapters therefore allow an exploration of
how existing management structures have (or have not) adapted new strategies for opera
production. Tracing opera production before and after 1994 through these chapters offers a
geographically and thematically connected narrative through which the degree of
indigenization of opera can be etched more sharply.
The chapters of this dissertation represent the past and the present, connected by
reflections on how these critical perspectives cohere under the rubric indigenization.
Exploring opera in the Western Cape through the lens of indigenization focuses on the way
in which opera has rooted itself historically, the formats in which it has manifested itself,
how opera has developed, to what extent local culture has influenced the art form and if,
how and why opera production diverged from Western models. It has to be emphasized
that the approach here is not a comprehensive one, which, considering the current paucity
of research on this topic, would necessitate a study several times the size of this one and
exceeding the reasonable time expectations of a doctoral dissertation. Although the
complexity of indigenization is consistently kept operative in this study, it is never
systematically or exhaustively probed.
The colonial condition has proved a fruitful axis against which the theme of indigenization
could be plotted. Not only were Western cultural models imposed on indigenous African
society, but European cultural traditions also influenced the relationships of the white
settlers – who in time became indigenized – towards Europe. Since Jan van Riebeeck set
foot on Cape shores in 1652, white settlers have viewed ‘Europe’ as a cultural beacon. The
indigenized white community of the country in turn established a colonizing control over
indigenous African peoples. Musically, a fecund source for this dynamic has been local
opera composition, not least because new opera composition has experienced an
unprecedented upsurge over the past two decades in South Africa. Opera as a multilayered discourse is an ideal medium to engage with social, political and cultural contexts,
as Chapter 3 of this dissertation will illustrate. However, only a cursory investigation of
programming confirms that the performance of locally composed operas is the exception
13

rather than the rule. New works are usually performed for one season only and a number of
South African operas have never been performed.24
Another possible area of investigation could therefore shift the focus from the work to the
production. From the early 1990s, black opera singers have risen in prominence and
influenced opera production nationally. This has partly been responsible for novel
interpretations and a widening of repertoire. In 2008, the German newspaper Süddeutsche
Zeitung described Cape Town Opera as ‘the blackest opera company in the world’.25 The
unprecedented availability of black opera singers created the incentive and opportunity for
the translation of libretti into indigenous languages, not only for use in formal opera
production, but also in informal music making. Arguably the most famous example is the
translation of Bizet’s Carmen into isiXhosa in 2006, although other opera choruses are
also being translated by Cape Town Opera as part of their drive to make opera accessible
to black communities. The history of opera in South Africa constructed in Chapter 1,
reveals that the translation of opera into local languages is not a new strategy of
indigenization; coinciding with British and Afrikaner nationalisms, many standard
repertoire operas were translated into Afrikaans and English during the twentieth century.
These translations were often driven by ulterior (political) motives.
An intriguing aspect of indigenization not covered in this dissertation but important to note
for future investigation, is the informal sphere of opera production. Fascinating
occurrences of opera can be found in townships and residential areas where people were
forcibly resettled during the Apartheid era. In these instances, especially after 1994, opera
as a Western form of art is largely stripped of its historical and European context and
illustrates an African urban culture that frees the Western operatic genre from the scholarly
baggage of so-called authentic opera production. Here we find opera functioning in
musicals, as showpieces for singers, extracts sung in choral competitions, multicultural
pageants, television shows or items by Coon Bands on New Year’s Day in Cape Town.

24

Hendrik Hofmeyr, one of South Africa’s most successful and frequently performed composers,
has composed five operas of which only one has been performed (in 1988). Between 1994 and
2006 he composed four operas, of which not one has as yet been performed.
25
Joerg Koenigsdorf, ‘Corrugated iron huts, Goethe, Apartheid’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 4 July
2008. English translation:
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/news/article.php?r=/view/capetownopera/1388, accessed 18
August 2009.
14

A large part of this dissertation explores historical, rather than analytical or ethnographic
perspectives on the indigenization of opera in South Africa (Chapter 1) and the Western
Cape (Chapter 2 and a section of Chapter 4). Opera in South Africa has been practiced
since 1801 and its history has been inextricably bound to the country’s social, economic
and political development. British and Dutch colonial rule, the expansion of the country’s
borders after the discovery of diamonds and gold in the north, the establishment of the
Republic of South Africa with its Apartheid history in the twentieth century – all these
political transformations have influenced opera in South Africa. Various theorists have
convincingly described how the past influences the present, how the past, as it were, lives
in the present.26 Any attempt to describe or understand the indigenization of opera today
requires an understanding of opera production in South Africa’s past. Thus the four
chapters comprising this dissertation could be seen as representing this imperative:
chapters one and two are historical studies, whilst chapters three and four engage
contemporary perspectives. Chapter 1 constructs a general history of opera in South
Africa, mostly from previously unconnected secondary sources, but also from primary
sources. Chapter 2 is the first extensive history of the Eoan Group, a Coloured opera
company that performed during South Africa’s Apartheid years. The last two chapters
focus on current opera production. Chapter 3 discusses a new opera composition, Hans
Huyssen’s Masque, and the difficulties of its production and reception in Cape Town.
Chapter 4 is an investigation into the structures and functioning of Cape Town Opera, a
local opera production company.
The narrative constructed in Chapter 1 contextualizes and informs much of what follows in
the rest of this dissertation. The importance of attempting to write an integrated historical
account of local opera derives from the absence of any attempts, comprehensive or
otherwise, in this field of local music historiography. This chapter is the only one in this
dissertation that includes material pertaining to opera production outside the Western
Cape. Information regarding political and cultural developments and the historical role of
opera elsewhere in the country provides a necessary context for current opera production
in the Western Cape. This chapter shows that indigenization can be traced in local opera
26

See for example Victoria Johnson’s Backstage at the Revolution. Although Chapter 1 in this
book (pp. 15-35) is entitled ‘The Past in the present’, the concept underscores her entire theory of
why and how Paris Opera survived the French Revolution. See also Eyerman and Jamison’s
treatment of the term ‘tradition’ in their book Music and Social Movements, p. 29.
15

productions long before the reflection of indigenous cultures in opera became politically
relevant. In the context of this dissertation, writing a history of opera represented more of a
means than an end. In constructing this history the present writer hoped to identify
moments when one musical thing became another, or some musical thing changed enough
to become the same thing, but different. Clearly, in the matter of discovering the South
African roots of opera and understanding the many projects that characterize the current
opera scene in this country, the issue is not only one for cultural or textual analysis. It is,
very pertinently, a matter for historiography.
Chapter 2 documents the extraordinary story of the first (and only) Coloured opera
company in South Africa, the Eoan Group. This group performed opera during South
Africa’s Apartheid years, and the drive to transform these musical amateurs into ‘good
Italian singers’ invests the narrative with meanings that are difficult to make sense of
today. In one way, Eoan’s musical ambitions were clearly aspirational. The ‘European
ideal’ was clearly reflected in a statement by the group’s leader, Joseph Manca, (a white
South African of Italian decent) when he described Eoan’s members to the press in August
1960: ‘They are really dark Europeans. Their way of life is Western. Their religion is
Christian. They live like us. They think like us.’27 But also part of this complex history is
Manca’s personal ambitions and the way in which Coloured agency appropriated Italian
opera in a way that indigenized it.
The historical account that takes shape in this chapter also has a wider relevance, and
provides a cultural perspective on Apartheid’s legacy. Although the Apartheid government
advocated the education of non-whites through the model of separate development, the
Eoan Group was never given access to first-class education or performing opportunities
and was thus kept at arm’s length from the centre of opera production in Cape Town.
Despite the fact that the group, under the direction of Manca, aimed to produce Italian
opera in ‘true Italian tradition’, the label ‘Coloured’ restricted them to the margins of local
opera production.
The decision to take on the Eoan Group as a case study came in February 2008 when the
Documentation Centre for Music at the University of Stellenbosch (Domus) acquired the
group’s archive. Until this date the archive had been inaccessible, and a first enquiry into
27

No author, ‘Servants, teachers in Eoan Group Cast’. The Daily News, 12 August 1960.

16

the documentation provided material of an unusually rich nature. Unprecedented evidence
was found on how the political regime under Apartheid shaped the opera performances of
this group. The material includes, amongst other things, newspaper reviews bearing
testimony to a high level of opera production; permits which Coloureds had to apply for in
order to perform in White venues or for the Coloured public to attend these performances;
the never-ending struggle to obtain funding; the political compromises accompanying
government funding; protest letters against their performances and documents illustrating
the gradual rejection of the group by their own community. Driven by a sense of urgency
stimulated by the content of the archive, combined with the realization of the importance
of this material for local musicological historiography, the narrative that unfolded became
longer than anticipated. This meant that the balance of this dissertation moved decidedly
towards the historical, rather than the theoretical or ethnographic perspectives. More than
any other chapter in this dissertation, this material moved and pre-occupied the present
author, resulting in an expansive narrative that, in the end, infuses the notion of
indigenization with unexpected meanings.
The Eoan Archive contains much material that requires sensitive treatment. Domus is
currently engaged in an oral history book project on the Eoan Group. The current writer is
involved with this project, and this has resulted in many of these book project interviews
informing or complementing the scholarly work done on the archive. The processes
preceding the oral history book project included wide public participation from former
Eoan members. Not only are a number of former Eoan members now part of the book
project, but public meetings and various gatherings have been held in an attempt to involve
people from the Eoan community and to achieve a transparent working process. All
interviewees cited in this study have formally given consent that information provided in
interviews may be used for publication and signed consent forms are kept with the Eoan
Archive at Domus.
Chapter 3 grapples with aesthetic indigenization, particularly with regard to voice
production, as found in the production of a new opera, Masque, composed in 2005 by the
South African composer Hans Huyssen. Investigating the indigenization of opera in new
opera composition could have focused on any of a number of works. At least twenty new
South African operas have been composed since 1990, each of them presenting a
particular, sometimes unique, perspective on indigenization. Masque was chosen because
17

it provided the present author with a unique opportunity to study not only a score and/or
performance, but to observe the process of preparation and rehearsal months before the
production. Thus this moment of inquiry was extended to what Nattiez would call the
poietic and, eventually, the aesthesic domains of various levels of reception.
Masque also seemed ideal subject matter for the investigation of indigenization in South
African opera. The work was composed with the intention of being an ‘African opera’ and
was composed for predominantly black singers. The story of the opera is based on
indigenous African mythology and thematizes the clash of this mythology with modern
European society. The libretto is sung in English with some sections in Xhosa and even
includes a Zulu praise song. The orchestra included a group of African instruments (the
uhubu, the mbira and the akadinda amongst others), a contemporary orchestra and a
baroque orchestra. The chapter discusses how the composer’s ideals of vocal sound –
described by him as ‘singing in the kraal’ – did not materialize. For one thing, black opera
singers were uninterested in producing a sound that came from the ‘kraal’; for another, the
composer himself could not describe on a technical level how this sound was to be
produced. The composer assumed that, prompted by indigenous African instruments, for
example the uhadi, black singers would understand the kind of sound that was required.
This in turn exposed the myth that black singers (irrespective of their background) would
be familiar with the sounds of indigenous music making in tribal environments in the rural
areas.
Chapter 4 maps how Cape Town Opera – a local institution promoting opera as a Western
form of art – negotiated its way through the tumultuous changes of post-Apartheid South
Africa. The transformation from an opera company fully owned and subsidized by the
Apartheid state to a privatized opera company that had to compete on equal footing with
other cultural activities in order to obtain state funding, can be viewed as a kind of twentyfirst century structural indigenization. This chapter explores a number of issues pertinent to
local opera production and indigenization. The meteoric rise of ‘the black opera singer’ in
South Africa, whose dominance in local opera circles is set to continue and whose
prominence internationally is steadily increasing, emerges as an important theme. But the
chapter is perhaps most concerned to describe structural perspectives, like the role of
artistic management in the indigenization of opera and the design of marketing and finance
strategy in the production of opera in South Africa today.
18

It should be clear from this introduction that this dissertation does not purport to provide a
treatment of opera in a national sense. Nor should the title, ‘Opera production in the
Western Cape: strategies in search of indigenization’, lead the reader to expect an
exhaustive treatment of either opera in the Western Cape or indigenization. Thorough
theoretical engagement with large swathes of material from South Africa’s past (as
opposed to small historical cameos) will arguably only become possible once histories,
claiming to be comprehensive, have been written. In this dissertation indigenization as a
concept serves as a tool to understand diverse events, structures and histories. It is a
theoretical term, but it performs more of a theoretically connective function in the context
of diverse material and perspectives, than providing the basis for systematic theoretical
work or new theoretical insights. Similarly, the histories of opera that are recorded here are
points of departure rather than destinations.

19

Chapter 1. Indigenization and History: how opera in South Africa became South
African opera

Entering backstage at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town, I walk past a new and shiny
silver grey Saab, displaying Cape Town Opera all over its bodywork. I wonder who the
lucky manager is who drives this car, and whose money is paying for it. A few parking
bays on, an older Mazda 323 is parked, the office car of Cape Town’s classical music radio
station FMR 101.3. Next to it is the plain white minibus owned by Artscape and the blue
City Golf displaying the logo of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. Judging by its choice of
wheels, opera in Cape Town is prospering. The image is not contradicted by the many
fascinating productions staged during the past few decades, using strong local casts and
strikingly indigenous interpretations of standard works from the canon. It appears that
opera in South Africa has not only survived the political changes since 1994, but is
invigorated by the creative possibilities unleashed by these changes.
How did this happen? How is opera in South Africa in 2009 able to attract so much public
attention and do so well compared to other classical music genres, not only in Cape Town,
but also in Kwazulu Natal and Gauteng? There are many factors contributing to the
apparent success of local opera production, some no doubt due to opera’s inherent nature
as a spectacular musical event, others to external factors such as visionary planning, strong
traditions of vocal education, a keen sense of business, formidable individuals in the
industry and shrewd adaptation to political, financial and cultural circumstances. The
indigenization of opera in South Africa, the particular focus of this dissertation, has also
lent impetus to the creative possibilities of this genre. And it is the historical dimension of
indigenization where the present writer should like to focus this chapter, exploring
specifically problems in constructing the history of this phenomenon. As so often, Carl
Dahlhaus got it right when he pointed out that ‘we arrive at a better understanding of a
thing, whether it be a piece of music or our own relation to that piece, by knowing the
history behind it’.1The same should hold true for understandings of genres in specific
cultural and social contexts. And if indigenization is the critical perspective that guides this

1

Carl Dahlhaus, Foundations of Music History, Cambridge University Press, 1983, p. 3.

20

enquiry, the cultural dynamic implied by this term presupposes an historical narrative
against which it can be read.
The underlying concern of this chapter is therefore how a history of opera has been
constructed in South Africa. This narrative will contextualize much of what is to follow in
the rest of this dissertation. Apart from the imperatives of this study, the importance of
attempting to write an integrated historical account of local opera derives from the absence
of any attempts, comprehensive or otherwise, in this field of local music historiography.
Evidence of the presence of opera in South Africa during the past two centuries can be
found lurking behind many a ‘fact’ in music-related writing, evidence scattered in bits and
pieces archived at institutions throughout the country. These writings include primary
sources such as newspapers from 1800 onwards, various writings during the past two
centuries by people of hugely varying musical acumen and secondary sources including
dissertations by scholars from the 1960s onwards. The following literature review will
attempt a systematic survey of this material, using this as a point of departure for
considering the historiographic challenges facing the researcher. Clearly, the main
obstacles to overcome in any attempt to write a history of opera in South Africa are firstly
the dissipation of sources and secondly the subsequent attempt to order that information
into a coherent, if not comprehensive, narrative.

1.1

Literature Review

1.1.1

Academic Dissertations

Locally, many academic dissertations exist on the history of classical music in various
towns in South Africa. These do not deal exclusively with opera, but might well contain
relevant information pertaining to a history of South African opera. The only sources on
the history of classical music in the Cape during the early nineteenth century are the
writings of Jan Bouws, a Dutch emigrant who published two Afrikaans monographs, Die
musieklewe van Kaapstad 1800-1850 (‘The Musical Life of Cape Town 1800-1850’) in

21

1966, and Solank daar musiek is (‘As Long as There is Music’) in 1982.2 Music in Durban
from 1850 has been researched by George Jackson, music in Pietermaritzburg by Hubert
van der Spuy, Johannesburg’s classical music was the subject of a thesis by Lily
Wolpowitz, K.J. Bromberger and Timothy Radloff wrote on Grahamstown (Bromberger
covering 1812-1862 and Radloff 1863-1879), Albert Troskie wrote on Port Elizabeth,
Henning on Graaff-Reinet, Human on the Orange Free State, Vermeulen on Pretoria,
Arthur Wegelin on Potchefstroom and even the musical life of Barberton between 18851914 has been subjected to historical scrutiny by one Blyda Maré.3 Although possibly
regarded with some bemusement today, there is little doubt that fascinating threads of the
historical narrative of opera need to be picked up and connected in these largely forgotten
relics of an earlier generation of South African musicology.
2

Jan Bouws, Die musieklewe van Kaapstad 1800-1850, Cape Town, 1965 and Solank daar musiek
is..., Cape Town, 1982.
3
The following overview has been compiled from source lists in South African Music
Encyclopedia (SAME), ed. J.P. Malan, Cape Town 1979-1986, Volumes 1-4. The list comprises
academic dissertations written on music in South Africa. Although these sources have not been
consulted for writing this specific chapter, they are important sources of information for a more
comprehensive investigation into the history of opera in South Africa: Elizabeth Magdalena Brill,
Die Lindense Musiekkring, University of Pretoria, 1968; K.J. Bromberger, Music in Grahamstown
1812-1862, Rhodes University, 1967; J.M. Dugmore, Saint of the city, Rhodes University, 1966;
C.G. Henning, A cultural history of Graaff Reinet, 1876-1886, University of Pretoria, 1971; J.J.
Horn, Die Johannesburgse Joodse Gilde-orkes, University of Pretoria, 1968.L.K. Human, Musiek
in die Oranje-Vrystaat vanaf 1850 tot aan die begin van die Anglo-Boereoorlog, University of the
Orange Free State, 1963; J.L.K. Human, Musiek in Bloemfontein, 1900-1939, University of the
Orange Free State, 1976; G.S. Jackson, Music in Durban from 1850 to 1900, University of the
Witwatersrand, 1961; Blyda Maré, Die musieklewe van Barberton, tussen die jare 1885-1914,
University of Pretoria, 1967; J.H. Maritz, ‘n Oorsig oor die lewe en werk van Owen Forrester
Rorke en sy seun Peter Rorke, University of Pretoria, 1967; Colleen Nero, Theo Wendt, first
conductor of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, University of Pretoria, 1968; J.H. Potgieter, ‘n
Analitiese oorsig van die Afrikaanse kunslied, University of Pretoria, 1967; T.E.K. Radloff, Music
in Grahamstown 1863-1879, Rhodes University, 1969; T.J. Smuts, John Connell, University of
Pretoria, 1971; M.J. Sparrow, Music in Grahamstown 1880-1900, Rhodes University, 1978; A.J.J.
Troskie, The musical life of Port Elizabeth, 1875-1900, University of Port Elizabeth, 1969; Ellen
M. van Aswegen, Die lewe en werke van Luscombe Searelle, University of Pretoria,1965; M.F. van
Coller, Die Johannesburgse Simfonie-orkes, University of Pretoria, 1968; F. van der Merwe, The
compositions of P.R. Kirby, University of South Africa, 1977; H.H. van der Spuy, The musical life
of Pietermaritzburg, 1850-1902. University of Stellenbosch, 1975. H.H. van der Spuy, W.H. Bell:
Enkele aspekte van sy loopbaan en sy invloed op die Suid-Afrikaanse musieklewe, University of
Port Elizabeth, 1970. E.H. van der Walt-Snyman, Musiek in Oos-Londen tot 1920, University of
Pretoria, 1964;E. Vermeulen, Die musieklewe in Pretoria tussen 1902 en 1926, University of
Pretoria, 1967; L.H.D. Voorendyk, Die musiekgeskiedenis van Wes-Transvaal, 1838 – 1960,
Potchefstroom University for Higher Christian Education, 1971; A.W. Wegelin, Die musieklewe in
Potchefstroom, 1838 – 1925, Potchefstroom University for Higher Christian Education, 1965; Lily
Wolpowitz, James and Kate Hyde and the development of music in Johannesburg up to the first
World War, University of Pretoria, 1965.
22

1.1.2

The South African Music Encyclopedia

A second source of information is the South African Music Encyclopedia, edited by
Jacques Philip Malan and published between 1979 and 1986. Despite the negative press
Malan received for his publication, this is an amazing source of information. Not only is
the writing factually based (even though it is well known that ‘facts’ contained in this
source need to be rigorously checked), but Malan personally had an admirable capacity for
collecting and presenting scattered information. Some of the articles in the Encyclopedia
(for instance the one on touring companies visiting South Africa during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries) give an impression of a scholar with a bird’s eye view on masses of
information. Unfortunately (and perhaps symptomatically of the endeavour embarked
upon in this chapter), the Encyclopedia has no entry for opera as such and the information
needed to compile such an entry is to be found throughout the four volumes in the entries
on towns, touring companies, opera singers, composers, etc.

1.1.3

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

Contributions on music in South Africa and specifically opera in South Africa have been
made by James May for The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. One cannot but be
grateful for his lucid writing, creating clear beacons in a sea of detail. May does, however,
dispense with the whole of nineteenth-century opera production in just one paragraph, and
(being a Cape Town-based academic) describes the Cape as the leader in opera production
during the past two centuries without paying much attention to opera in places such as
Durban or Johannesburg.

1.1.4

Other Sources

A number of memoirs by singers and producers of the past fifty years, as well as
biographies on various opera singers, have been published. Worth mentioning here are the
memoirs of stalwarts of Cape Town opera Desiré Talbot and Gregorio Fiasconaro.4
Percival Kirby shared his experiences as music director at the University of Witwatersrand
4

See Desiré Talbot, For the Love of Singing: 50 Years of Opera at UCT, Cape Town 1978, as well
as Gregorio Fiasconaro, I’d Do it Again, Cape Town 1982.
23

as well as producer and composer of opera in his book Wits End. Furthermore, individuals
active in the arts industry have published their memoirs, amongst others Donald Inskip,
Olga Racster, David Bloomberg and Jack Stodel. 5 More recently, biographies of some of
South Africa’s opera singers have been published, notably on Gé Korsten, Mimi Coertse
and Cecelia Wessels.6
Magazines focusing on South African cultural issues have published articles on opera
intermittently over the years, among them Lantern and Scenaria.7 The latter is a most
valuable source on arts in South Africa with information on local opera production in
almost every edition. Scenaria was published from 1977 until 1998 under the editorship of
Julius Eichbaum. Other sources are archival institutions such as the National Archives in
Pretoria, the archives of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), as well as
archives of the various (now defunct) Performing Arts Councils. In many instances
accessibility to these archival materials remains problematic, as archives in South Africa
are generally poorly funded, understaffed and much of the material has not been
catalogued. Fortunately, the Sound Archives at the SABC in Johannesburg are an
exception to this rule and it holds hundreds of recordings of programmes relating to opera
and arts and culture from 1960 onwards. This material is readily available to all members
of the public.

1.2

South African Opera: General Historiographic Points of Departure

In South Africa the development of opera production, and in later years local opera
composition, runs parallel with the establishment and gradual development of major cities
5

The following books have been written by individuals who were active in various arts in Cape
Town: Desiré Talbot, For the Love of Singing: 50 Years of Opera at UCT, Cape Town 1978;
Gregorio Fiasconara, I’d Do it Again, Cape Town 1982; Donald Inskip, Forty Little Years, Cape
Town 1972; Olga Racster, Curtain up! Cape Town 1951; David Bloomberg, My Times, Fernwood
Press, Cape Town 2007; Jack Stodel, The Audience is waiting, Cape Town 1962.
6
See Wouter de Wet, Onse Mimi, Johannesburg1986; Johan van Rooyen, Mimi, Pretoria 2002;
Mimi Coertse, ‘n Stem vir Suid-Afrika, Pretoria 2007; Sebastian Pistor, Gé Korsten, Portrait of a
Tenor, Bellville 2003; Hannes Haasbroek, Stem en Legende, die lewe van Cecilia Wessels, Pretoria
2005.
7
Neither of these magazines is still published today. Scenaria’s last edition was published in
December 1998 and Lantern in the spring of 1995.
24

in the country. Opera seems to require the stable infrastructure and population density of a
relatively powerful economic metropolis in order to exist as a living practice. The history
of opera in this country can therefore be traced following the economic and industrial
growth of cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria and Bloemfontein.
Besides the economic viability of the towns in question, many other factors also played a
role in the development of opera production, amongst others the interventions by specific
individuals and, especially in the twentieth century, various important political contexts.
One could conceive of a history of South African opera having to start with the
introduction of opera to the country by foreign touring companies, followed by the
emergence of local opera production and the gradual emergence of local opera
composition (the latter two processes being more important with regard to indigenization).
Furthermore, there are striking similarities between the development of opera locally and
in the so-called ‘New World’, i.e. those countries where Western civilization imposed
itself with force from the seventeenth century onwards and where opera was imported
from Europe. These countries include Canada, the United States of America, Australia,
Argentina and Brazil. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians has elaborate entries
on the history of opera in each of these countries, displaying similarities with regard to the
development of opera production and also opera composition. To simplify, and of course
simplify one must, the pattern seems to be the following. Opera developed in cities.
Initially, burlesques with singing and dancing, comic opera and operetta were produced by
touring groups from Europe. Performances of serious opera followed later, with
productions relying heavily on importing musicians from Europe. When local opera
production started, local companies usually consisted of amateurs who produced operetta
and comic opera with serious opera following only later on. Local opera composition was
only able to develop once a solid base for local opera production was established, such as
the establishment of music colleges, sustained vocal training and the implementation of
funding mechanisms.
Historical similarities between local circumstances and this generic historical
‘development formula’ are in some instances more remarkable than this writer initially
anticipated. The history of the Eoan Group from District Six in Cape Town, for example,
who produced opera as a racially segregated group from the 1950s onwards, finds a
surprising parallel in the Colored American Opera Company, active in the United States of
25

America some eighty years earlier.8 Furthermore, and maybe dissimilar in degree from
other New World countries, the history of opera in South Africa, especially that of the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries, cannot be discussed without taking cognisance of
politics. Opera is an expensive form of art, dependent on funding from external sources,
and in South Africa that has always meant funding from the government. From the advent
of National Party rule in 1948, right through the rise and fall of Apartheid and continued
into the new dispensation after 1994, the creation of opera in South Africa has been
influenced by political structures, an influence played out in particular through access to
state funding or the lack thereof.
As will become clear in this chapter, the Apartheid government generally had little interest
in the content of opera production, as long as it showcased White excellence.9 The editor
of the arts magazine Scenaria, Julius Eichbaum, remarked in 1981: ‘In South Africa the
nation’s leaders display scant interest in the Arts as a whole and it is only on a very rare
occasion that a Cabinet Minister is seen attending the theatre, opera or ballet.’10 However,
regardless of this lack of interest, by 1982 the image of the Performing Arts Councils, who
were responsible for the production of opera at the time, had been tarnished by the notion
of government control. Eichbaum again reported:
History has proven just how susceptible Arts Council Directors are to the whims of
politicians. It is, after all, these masters who control the purse strings which are the life and
death to the endeavours of any arts council, and quite naturally, an Arts Council Director is
placed in the invidious position of having to serve these political masters who provide the
funds on the one hand, and the public who look to his organization to provide artistic
productions of high standard and relevance on the other. The result is that the public now
8

This all-black opera company was based in Washington DC. In 1873 they advertised their first
opera production, The Doctor of Alcantara by Julius Eichberg, using amongst others these words:
‘We hope to be able to demonstrate that our race will in time be capable of taking rank musically
with our white brothers and sisters.’ Jacqueline Trescott, ‘From Church to Stage: Black Opera
Company Was The City's First’, Washington Post, 24 February 2007. This issue will be discussed
more elaborately in section 3.2.3 of this chapter as well as Chapter 2 of this dissertation, which
deals with opera production by the Eoan Group.
9
Government did interfere with productions if these were deemed critical of government policies.
See for example: No author, ‘The crisis at CAPAB’, Scenaria, September 1981, Issue no. 27, p. 9.
10
Julius Eichbaum, ‘Isolation through Patriotism’, Scenaria, September 1981, Issue no. 27, p. 3.
This tendency is well illustrated by the case of South African soprano Hanlie van Niekerk, who
had been singing in Kassel, Germany for a decade before she married a South African cabinet
minister, Lourens Muller, in 1968. After the marriage Muller forbade Van Niekerk to sing, because
‘minister’s wives do not sing opera’. See the Van Niekerk’s Archive housed at DOMUS at the
University of Stellenbosch. The story was also related to the present writer by Van Niekerk’s son,
Jan Smit, on 21 February 2009 at his home in Johannesburg.
26

views CAPAB and the Nico Malan Theatre as an ‘establishment’ entity, symbolizing the
11
voice and the attitudes of the governing political party.

Government structures after 1994 have become much more prescriptive with regard to the
content of the music produced and the forces by which it is produced. Pressure has been
exercised on producers and composers to include certain quotas of ‘previously
disadvantaged artists’ and preference is given to non-European topics and/or settings.12
Organizations currently producing opera in South Africa have subsequently had to deal
extensively with the myth that opera is an exclusively ‘Eurocentric’ form of art. As recent
as September 2005, the then Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, criticized the
notion of black South Africans singing Italian opera. During a visit to the Grahamstown
Festival, he was reported to have said that ‘what tends to happen in South Africa is that
when people are speaking about opera they are speaking about European opera, and what it
entails is usually teaching African kids to imitate Italians. What’s wrong with the way
Africans sing? Why should you teach them to sing like Italians? To make them into
imitation whites – and poor imitations as well?’13 Jordan did however concede that ‘there
is nothing wrong with someone from Soweto wanting to sing Verdi – but it’s a bit like
exporting “spaghetti to Italy”. What the Italians want to see is not someone imitating an
Italian composer. They want to see someone from Africa doing something African...’14
Tracing the way in which opera has been transferred to and appropriated by South Africa’s
indigenous cultures is of particular interest to the history of opera in South Africa. The
stirrings of this process can be found in the decades preceding 1994, occurring in cultural
activities of isolated sections of society, severely hampered by Apartheid. However, the
new dispensation of 1994 brought with it a freedom that enabled stripping the genre of its
European and elitist connotations. This opened the way for the so-called Africanization of
opera in the formal sector of opera production, as well as the appropriation of the genre in
township, Malay Choir and Coon music making. The rise and unquestionable dominance
of black opera singers in formal opera production today is closely linked to this process.

11

Julius Eichbaum, ‘Should our Arts Councils be Restructured?’, Scenaria, January 1982, Issue
no. 29, p. 23.
12
A more detailed perspective on this issue is provided in Chapter 4.
13
Celean Jacobson, ‘Disarming cultural weapons, Art’s place in a transforming land’, The Sunday
Times, 28 September 2005.
14
Ibid.
27

Through a degree of (forced or spontaneous) indigenization and possibly as a result of the
turbulent events in the history of the country, it appears that opera in South Africa has
gained a voice of its own, creating a ‘truly South African space’ in the world of opera. It is
with the following historical account as a backdrop that the trends of the indigenization of
opera in South Africa can be better contextualized and understood.

1.3

Towards a History of Opera in South Africa

1.3.1

Touring Companies: Introducing Opera to South Africa

Opera was first performed in the Cape shortly after the African Theatre, the first theatre in
the country, was built in 1801.15 In 1800 Sir George Young,16 the English governor at the
time, decided there was a need for an entertainment venue and the African Theatre was
completed on Hottentots Square in October 1801.17 This was the first building in the
country where theatrical works could be performed. Although European settlers performed
all sorts of musics in various circumstances since their settlement in the Cape in 1652, no
traces of opera-related activities in the Cape before 1802 have been found.
On 10 May 1802 musicians from the English garrison stationed in the Cape during the
English occupation staged the ballad opera The Devil to pay (composed 1728), by Charles
Coffey.18 The ballad opera is a distinctively English form in which spoken dialogue

15

Jan Bouws, Die musieklewe van Kaapstad 1800-1850, Cape Town 1965, p. 129.
According to F.C.L. Bosman, the governor was Sir George Yonge, not Young. See F.C.L.
Bosman, Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I 1652-1855. Cape Town 1928, p. 94. In his book
The Audience is waiting, p. 173, Jack Stodel also refers to Sir George Yonge.
17
The ‘Hottentots Square’ seemed to have had various names. The music historian Jan Bouws
refers to it as ‘Boereplein’. Today it is called ‘Riebeeck Square’, situated between Buitengracht
and Bree Street, opposite the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town. Sources vary
regarding the exact date when the African Theatre was opened. According to James May in Grove
Music Online, it is 1800. Jan Bouws’s writings, as well as information obtained by the present
writer from the committee currently restoring the original building, refer to it as October 1801.
Young’s superiors in London decided that he was spending money too lavishly and he was recalled
to England before the inauguration of the building.
18
Jan Bouws. Die musieklewe van Kaapstad, p. 130.
28
16

alternates with songs set to traditional or popular melodies sung by the actors themselves.19
The performance was repeated on 28 June of the same year and the group performed
another ballad opera, The Poor Soldier (1783) by John O’Keefe, on 6 September 1802.20
Taking the limited resources for opera production into consideration, the ballad opera was
an obvious choice for performance in the rough colonial conditions of early nineteenthcentury Cape Town. Above mentioned works were performed again by the English
garrison in 1818 and 1824. On 10 July 1802 a touring company from Europe, the
Hoogduitsche Toneel Gezelschap, performed Der Wildfang (composed 1798) by August
von Kotzebue. However, it is uncertain if it was performed as an opera or as a play with
ballet, but the local newspaper reported that the orchestra was to be conducted by the local
musician Carl Christoph Pabst.21
Touring opera companies from France often visited the Cape on their way to Mauritius,
performing one or two operas from their repertoire to the local settlers. During the first
decade of the nineteenth century French opéra comique was the most frequent form of
operatic entertainment at the Cape. The first opéra comique was performed in 1803 when a
French group staged Toinon et Toinette (1767) by Francois Joseph Gossec and Le tableau
parlant (1769) by André Grétry.22 In 1809 Une Folie (1802), a two act opera by Etienne
Nicolas Méhul, was staged by the French group De Boucherville. Within the first seven
years of the existence of the African Theatre audiences were treated to opéra comique by
19

John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera (1728) is probably the most famous example of this genre. The
genre and its related forms (pasticcio, comic opera, farce, pantomime, extravaganza, opera-ballet,
interlude and afterpiece) also dominated American entertainment in the eighteenth century.
20
Jan Bouws, Die musieklewe van Kaapstad, p. 130.
21
Ibid, p. 130.
22
Jan Bouws, Solank daar musiek is...., p. 24. The present writer has found considerable factual
differences between the writings of Jan Bouws and the article on touring companies in the South
African Music Encyclopedia (‘Touring Theatre Companies and Concert Artists’, SAME, Volume 4,
p. 350) written by J.P. Malan. Published in 1986, four years after Bouws's publication, Solank daar
musiek is... , Malan does not mention these performances at all. Malan mentions 1805 as the first
date that any opera was performed in the Cape, when two operas by François-André Philidor and
Pierre Alexandre Monsigny respectively were performed by the touring group Amateurs de l’Ile de
France. Bouws's own facts are also inconsistent with regard to the performance details of the first
opera comiques at the Cape. In his 1965 publication Die musieklewe van Kaapstad he mentions
three operas, Les deux Jumeaux de Bergame (Marc-Antoine Désaugiers, composed 1782), Arlequin
Afficheur (Jean-Claude Gillier, date not found) and La revanche forcée (composer or date not
found) on p. 131, which differs from his 1982 publication Solank daar musiek is.... Bouws’s lack
of references in his texts makes it impossible to retrace his steps, and the present writer has decided
to base her narrative on the facts provided in the latter publication. However, nowhere is it made
clear by Bouws that this latter publication repudiates or corrects the earlier published information.
29

composers such as Francois Joseph Gossec, André Grétry, Egidio Duni, Jean Benjamin De
la Borde, Adolphe Benoît Blaise, François-André Philidor, Pierre Alexandre Monsigny,
Dominique Della-Maria, Marc-Antoine Désaugiers and Chevalier d’Herbain.23
However, during the first half of the nineteenth century no consistent pattern of opera
production or other musical events at the Cape existed. The South African Music
Encyclopedia describes the musical life of the Cape during this time as ‘rather dull’.24
Musical events were often dependent on individuals and their initiatives. Charles Mathurin
Villet, a French cultural impresario who lived in the Cape at the time, staged most of the
opéra comique. Other notable examples are Frederick Lemming from Denmark and
Etienne Boniface from France who settled in the Cape for a number of years. Lemming
and Boniface produced a variety of cultural events together, but after their departure to the
Eastern Cape and Denmark respectively, local production ceased again.25 Bouws mentions
sixteen different groups performing no less than thirty two operas during the first fifty
years of the nineteenth century, most of them performed by French touring groups.26 After
the occupation of Mauritius and the Cape by Britain in 1806, visits by French groups
became less frequent, leaving a lacunae not filled by touring groups from Britain.
Although no reviews on the productions of these early years have been found, Bouws
refers to the quality of these performances as rather amateurish. He opens his chapter on
the beginnings of opera in the Cape in Solank daar musiek is... by referring to the high
standards of ‘proper’ opera production in Europe and speculating on the impossibility of
achieving similar standards in the Cape at the time.27 Bouws’s concern with ‘proper’ opera
raises an ontological question which is seminal to this study. Should the production of only
parts of an opera, or of opera changed and adapted to local conditions be considered
‘proper’ opera? Historical evidence emphasizes the relevance of this question. It seems
that many operas performed at the Cape were made into burlesques, or even carnivalesque
folk theatre in the style of John Gay’s A Beggar’s Opera of 1728 and it is evident that
opera comique and opera buffa provided the standard fare for Capetonians in the early
23

Jan Bouws, Solank daar musiek is..., p. 26. See also Jan Bouws, Die musieklewe van Kaapstad,
p. 133.
24
J.P. Malan, ‘Touring Theatre Companies and Concert Artists’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 350.
25
Jan Bouws, Solank daar musiek is...., p. 24.
26
Jan Bouws as referenced by Malan, ‘Touring Theatre Companies and Concert Artists’, SAME,
Volume 4, p. 350.
27
Jan Bouws, Solank daar musiek is...., p. 24.
30

nineteenth century. Clearly, this study would like to argue that it is the ‘idea of opera’ that
matters most in investigating the notion of indigenization, and that local adaptations and
performance practices become interesting precisely because they deviate from ‘proper’
opera conceived as, for example, Italian or French opera as staged in Milan or Paris. Still
more interesting would be the notion of ‘opera’ existing only as an idea in lieu of a
‘proper’ score.
The African Theatre has an interesting history of its own, exposing some of the roots of
cultural and artistic separation that would characterize much of the history of the
succeeding century in South Africa. As early as 1829, free blacks and slaves were banned
from visiting the theatre.28 Ironically though, in 1839 the theatre was changed into a
mission church for freed slaves.29 This decision caused such an outcry among theatre
patrons that they shattered the windows of the building with stones in protest. Because of
the stone-throwing incident, the church was named after St Stephen, the New Testament
martyr who was stoned to death.30
South Africa remained dependent on touring companies from abroad for opera productions
until the early twentieth century. From the point of view of the performers, South Africa
became increasingly attractive for opera performance from the 1860s onwards, especially
after gold and diamonds were discovered on the Witwatersrand after 1880. Malan
describes the influx of visiting opera groups at the end of the nineteenth century as
follows:
The last two decades (of the nineteenth century) saw a continuous stream of musicians,
dancers and entertainers disembark at one of the ports, with Kimberley and the City of
Gold as their main objectives. Among them were genuine artists, but also many
adventurers, effete performers and youthful bands eager for fame and fortune. All had to
face long distances and inadequate transport facilities and most of them preferred a
leisurely itinerary with stops for concerts. At these, they were generally dependant on local
pianists, singers and bandsmen to stage what must sometimes have been largely
improvised performances.31

44

The current writer was unable to establish who decided this and why.
D.O. Reinecke (ed). Gedenkbrosjure, Staatsteater Pretoria, Johannesburg 1981, page not
numbered.
30
St. Stephen’s now belongs to the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa. In what is perhaps an
unusual example of indigenization of theology, it is worth noting that it is unusual for a church in
reformed tradition to be named after a martyr. The African Theatre still functions as a church today
and was renovated in 2007-8.
31
J.P. Malan, ‘Touring Theatre Companies and Concert Artists’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 348.
31
29

As a result of the discovery of precious minerals, bigger cities developed and
concomitantly, larger European populations seeking opera as entertainment. Touring
companies now traveled throughout the country, often returning year after year with new
productions. A number of impresarios left their mark on the opera scene of South Africa.
The first of these groups was the Miranda-Harper group, touring the country from 1868
onwards, producing comic and serious opera for almost a decade.32 In 1869 the Trafalgar
Hall was constructed in Durban and in 1870 Verdi's Il Trovatore was performed by the
Miranda-Harper Opera Company, the first serious opera to be presented in full in
Durban.33 Due to internal conflict the Miranda-Harper group ceased to exist shortly after
this production. The Harper couple moved to Kimberley where they started a dramatic
club with whom they toured the Eastern Cape from 1873 to 1874, performing Verdi’s La
Traviata, amongst others. David Miranda and Annette Hirst (the couple married in 1869)
stayed on in Durban.34
In 1875 the Carl Rosa Group from London and the Italian Opera Company under the
direction of Signor Calli arrived in Cape Town. They were followed a year later by
Charles Lascelles with his opera company. Lascelles eventually settled in Natal,
pioneering opera production there until his death in 1883.35 His enthusiasm earned him the
nick name ‘father of opera’ in Natal.36 In 1876 the British opera singer, Ann Bishop,
travelled throughout South Africa, giving concerts in Cape Town, Bloemfontein,
Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Bishop, who was 66 years old at the time of this tour, not
only gave solo performances, but also initiated productions with local opera groups. She
was able to produce Vincenzo Bellini's La sonnambula as well as light operas such as La
Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein) by Jacques Offenbach
in Durban.37 Charles Lascelles was Bishop's accompanist on this tour. After finalizing his
concert tour with her, Lascelles decided to return to Pietermaritzburg where he settled.
Here he started the Philharmonic Society with whom he produced a number of operas by
1881, amongst others Gaetano Donizetti's La fille du régiment (Daughter of the Regiment).
The reviewer for the Natal Mercury was however not impressed by the performance,
32

Jan Bouws. Solank daar musiek is…, pp. 86-7.
G.S. Jackson, ‘Music in Durban’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 421.
34
There is no evidence of the Miranda couple continuing to perform opera in Durban.
35
J.P. Malan, ‘Lascelles, Charles’, SAME, Volume 3, p. 143.
36
G.S. Jackson, ‘Music in Durban’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 421.
37
Ibid.
33

32

commenting on the performance as follows: ‘Certainly Donizetti would not have
recognized that he had ever had acquaintance with the piece that was performed at the
Trafalgar Theatre on Monday night’.38
Enticed by the wealth discovered on the Witwatersrand, many opera companies toured the
interior, including those of Bob Bolder, James Henry Harper, Edgar Perkins, Luscombe
Searelle and Arturo Bonamici, to name but a few. While Perkins was active in
Johannesburg in the late 1880s, Searelle produced 162 operas in Cape Town in 1887.39 By
1889 Searelle moved his company to Johannesburg where he was active for more than a
decade, not only producing opera, but also building theatres and even composing three
operas during his stay in South Africa. Searelle was a highly productive impresario. From
August to November 1889 he produced fifteen different works in the Theatre Royal,40
amongst others Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Il Trovatore and Gounod’s Faust as well as two
of his own operas, Bobadil and Estrella.41 Together with Perkins’s Opera, Drama and
Burlesque Company, they made for a bustling operatic life in Johannesburg. Searelle also
took opera on tour throughout South Africa, extending his performances to Mozambique
and the then Rhodesia.42 By 1900 Searelle left South Africa again for Europe.43
In 1893 a new theatre was built in Cape Town at the cost of £90,000. Soon after its
inauguration as the New Theatre, it became known as the Opera House.44 In the late
nineteenth century Capetonians were still fully dependant on touring companies from
abroad for opera productions and for the first twenty years of its existence the Opera
House mainly staged operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan and French composers such as
Edmond Audran and Robert Planquette. Ironically not much ‘serious opera’ was produced
in the Opera House. The first such occasion was when the Arthur Rouse Company staged
38

Review in the Natal Mercury, 20 May 1881, cited in J.P. Malan, ‘Charles Lascelles’, SAME,
Volume 3, p. 144.
39
J.P. Malan, ‘Touring Theatre Companies and Concert Artists’, Volume 4, p. 362. This number of
productions sounds unusually high. Malan unfortunately did not reference his articles, so it is not
possible to trace whether this number is correct or whether it might be a mistake. However, this
amount is repeated by Malan in the entry on Luscombe Searelle in the same source. See J.P.
Malan, ‘Searelle, Luscombe’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 223.
40
This building was erected on Searelle’s initiative. J.P. Malan, ‘Searelle, Luscombe’, SAME,
Volume 4, p. 223.
41
Ibid, pp. 223-4.
42
Rinie Stead, ‘Opera in Suid-Afrika’, Lantern, Volume 8 nr. 2, December 1963, p. 12.
43
J.P. Malan, ‘Searelle, Luscombe’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 224.
44
J.P. Malan, ‘Theatres and Concerts Halls’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 332.
33

the first performance of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser in South Africa in 1899. 45 The
other occasions were in February 1912 and April 1913 respectively when the Thomas
Quinlan Opera Group46 toured the country. In 1912 they produced six grand operas in
Cape Town’s Opera House: Puccini’s Madam Butterfly and Aida, Gounod’s Faust,
Wagner’s Lohengrin and Tannhaüser and Bizet’s Carmen. The 1913 productions
coincided with the Wagner Centenary and Quinlan produced a Wagner Festival in both
Cape Town and Johannesburg47 where they produced Die Walküre (sung in English),
Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, Tannhaüser and Die Meistersinger.48 Of this Olga Racster
wrote, ‘to introduce into a void a cult which had taken centuries to grow elsewhere was
pioneer work indeed.’49 During the first two decades of the twentieth century it was
fashionable to produce Gilbert and Sullivan operettas performed by children. The
Lilliputian Opera Company from Australia consisting of thirty two juvenile singers
performed them to great acclaim in the Opera House in Cape Town. They also toured the
country after these performances.50 After 1920 the Opera House in Cape Town was used as
a cinema and later sold to the South African Post Office in 1937.51

1.3.2

Local opera production

Local opera production had a slow start in South Africa. By the late nineteenth century
amateur opera societies had been formed in many cities, including Bloemfontein, Durban,
Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Johannesburg. In Natal, the Durban Amateur Operatic
Society performed its first opera, Arthur Sullivan’s The Mikado, in 1886 and for the next
45

J.P. Malan, ‘Touring Theatre Companies and Concert Artists’, Volume 4, p. 364. According to
Olga Racster, the group was named Arthur Rousbey, not Arthur Rouse. Olga Racster, Curtain up!,
p. 88.
46
Thomas Quinlan was from Irish descent and an industrious opera impresario in the United
Kingdom. His group was nicknamed ‘Covent Garden on Wheels’. When the group visited South
Africa in 1912 it comprised 170 members. The stage props, equipment and wardrobe that travelled
with them weighed a staggering 350 tons. Rinie Stead, ‘Opera in Suid-Afrika’, Lantern, p. 16.
47
Rinie Stead, ‘Opera in Suid-Afrika’, Lantern, p. 16.
48
Ibid.
49
Olga Racster, Curtain up!, p. 132.
50
J.P. Malan, ‘Touring Theatre Companies and Concert Artists’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 364.
51
The building was sold to the South African Post Office in 1937 with the aim of erecting a new
central post office. See J.P. Malan, ‘Theatres and Concert Halls: Opera House’, SAME, Volume 4,
p. 332. According to Angelo Gobatto, the current main Post Office in Cape Town was built on this
site in 1950. See http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/history2008.html, accessed 27 July 2008.
34

thirty years such amateur opera performances flourished in Durban under the direction of
Ferguson Brown.

1.3.2.1 The Cape during the Nineteenth Century
Jan Bouws’s writings are the only secondary sources that mention any local productions
during the first fifty years of the nineteenth century. These were by all accounts isolated
musical happenings, dependant on the initiatives of specific individuals living in the Cape
at the time. During the early decades of the nineteenth century enough local musicians
existed to form an orchestra and overtures to operas were performed occasionally as
individual items on concert programmes. In 1806, for example, the overtures to Mozart’s
Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) and Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide
were part of a concert performed in the African Theatre under the direction of local
musician Johann Christoph Schrumpf.52
On 31 July 1824 a Dutch translation of Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais’s Le barbier de
Séville (The Barber of Seville) was performed under the direction of Frenchman Etienne
Boniface.53 According to Bouws the music used for this production was a mixture of the
opera setting by Giovanni Paisiello (composed 1782) and Gioacchino Rossini (composed
1816). The orchestral parts were managed by the orchestra of the English garrison. This
same group was also responsible for the first ballad opera productions in 1801. The
evening’s entertainment, which took place in the African Theatre, included the aria Di
tanti Palpitti from another Rossini opera, Tancredi.54
The first complete local production of a serious opera in the Cape took place in 1831.55
Ten years after its première in Berlin in 1821, Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz was
performed in the African Theatre by the local theatre group ‘All the World’s a Stage’. The
orchestral parts were taken care of by ‘The Amateur Band’, a local group of amateur
musicians under the direction of Wilhelm Brandt, the organist at the Lutheran Church. ‘All
the World’s a Stage’ had been active as a theatre group for a number of years and had also
tried their hand at ballad operas during the 1820s, at times collaborating with groups from
52

Bouws, Solank daar musiek is..., p. 28.
Bouws, Musiek in Suid-Afrika, pp. 37-8
54
Bouws Solank daar musiek is..., pp. 43-44.
55
Bouws, Die musieklewe van Kaapstad, p. 156.
53

35

abroad.56 In this way they staged The Poor Soldier by William Shield (composed 1783)
and The Duenna by Thomas Linley (composed 1775). The direction of Der Freischütz was
probably done by the London actor and singer, H. Booth.57 Once again, no information is
available on who the singers were. An English translation of the libretto was used and the
main characters’ names were changed from Agathe to Linda and from Max to Adolphe.
The production was staged on 29 October 1831 and repeated on 17 December the same
year. The Commercial Advertiser reviewed the performance favourably, stating that ‘the
scenery and contrivances in the Bullet Scene were got up with considerable effect and
ingenuity, and gave general satisfaction to the numerous audience.’58 The reviewer further
remarked that the orchestral accompaniment was ‘in many of the passages … extremely
difficult and require very great precision in executing’, and concluded that the Amateur
Band had offered ‘their services very handsomely’.59
Despite Malan’s reference to the Cape’s cultural life at this time as ‘rather dull’,60 not
everyone living in the Cape at the time agreed. At the end of 1833 the editor of the
Nederduitsch Zuid-Afrikaansch Tydschrift, a certain Professor Changuion, published an
article in which he questioned the wisdom of such a small city spending so much money
on expensive entertainment (‘kostbare genoegens zyn schadelyk voor kleine steden’).
Apparently there was much dancing going on and not learning a new dance was
considered worse than a child not learning how to write.61
In the mid-nineteenth century the Cape also produced an international singer who left for
Europe in 1865 to pursue a career. Pauline Bredell was born in 1842 and was the daughter
of an organ builder in Cape Town, Adam Bredell. According to Bouws, Pauline grew up in
56

Ibid.
Booth’s full names are not mentioned in any of the sources consulted.
58
Ibid.
59
Ibid. In a good example of the inconsistencies of South African opera historiography, neither
Malan in the South African Music Encyclopedia, nor May in Grove Music Online notes these
performances. They only refer to the fact that between 1810 and 1833 no touring companies visited
the Cape. Curiously enough, Bouws is also inconsistent in his treatment of these two performances.
In his books Musiek in Suid-Afrika (1946) and Solank daar musiek is … (1982), much is made of
the 1824 performance of Rossini’s Il Barbiere de Siviglia whilst the 1831 performance of Der
Freischütz is mentioned in just a few lines. Die musieklewe van Kaapstad (1965) pays substantial
attention (4½ pages) to the 1831 production and very little to the 1824 production.
60
Jacques Philip Malan, ‘Touring Theatre Companies and Concert Artists’, SAME, Volume 4, p.
350.
61
Bouws, Musiek in Suid-Afrika, pp. 41-2.
36
57

a musical family and made her debut as a singer in the Cape at the German Lieder Society
on 5 September 1864.62 In 1865 she traveled to Berlin where she studied vocal training at
the Julius Stern Conservatoire and sung in opera houses in the city. Later in her life she
worked in New York. In 1870 she earned favourable reviews in Berlin newspapers for her
interpretation of lieder by Mendelssohn and Schubert as well as an aria from Weber’s
Euryanthe. She married a German, Richard Sacksen, but was widowed in 1871. At some
stage in her career she changed her surname to Bredelli and toured South Africa in 1879
and 1883 with reviews in amongst others the South African Illustrated News, which
mentioned that no commentary was necessary as the singer was so well known locally and
abroad. In Durban her singing was extolled as ‘the finest ever heard in the city’.63
However, evidence of her ‘career’ in New York is slight. In the 1874 edition of the Cape
magazine Zingari, it is mentioned that Eduard Lefèbre, a Frenchman, who started the
German Lieder Society in the Cape and later became a saxophone virtuoso living in New
York, had met her in New York and wrote that she had made a singing career in opera and
church music in the city.64

1.3.2.2 The Twentieth century: The College of Music in Cape Town
Regular opera seasons by local production houses in the Cape only materialized from the
1930s onwards when various amateur opera groups had been well established. At the same
time the founding of institutions where voice training took place secured the gradual
development of indigenous opera production. The existence of adequate voice training,
then as now, is a criterion for sustained and consistent local production and Cape Town
was no exception to this general rule.
On 10 January 1910 the South African College of Music in Cape Town opened its doors
with thirty three registered students. Over the next half century the College had two
formidable directors, William Henry Bell and Erik Chisholm, who infused local opera
production with new life. The College initially functioned as an independent music school
until 1923 when it was incorporated into the University of Cape Town. Bell was appointed
head of the school in 1911 and stayed on as director until 1935. During this time he
62

Jan Bouws, Solank daar musiek is …pp. 100-2.
Ibid. See also: Jan Bouws, ‘Pauline Bredell’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 231.
64
Ibid.
63

37

founded and directed the Cape Town Little Theatre, nurturing the public’s interest in opera
and ballet, and in 1933 he started producing opera with students. In 1931 Bell had secured
an old chemistry building and converted it into the Little Theatre, a venue where opera
could be performed. The first student production was Domenico Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio
segreto (Secret Marriage) which took place in 1933 under the direction of Guiseppe
Paganelli (1882-1956), followed by Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
in 1934.65 Paganelli was born in Forli, Italy and had a successful early career as a worldclass tenor before settling in South Africa in 1926 where he taught voice training at the
South African College of Music.66
Although opera had been part of the College’s activities since the 1920s, it became a more
prominent activity after the Second World War when Erik Chisholm, a prolific opera
composer and an enterprising and experienced musician, became its director in 1946 (the
year of Bell’s death). He established the University Opera Company in 1951 as well as the
Opera School in 1954 with the Italian, Gregorio Fiasconaro, as full-time director. During
this time Cape Town experienced an explosion of opera productions unequaled to this day,
as the Company staged many operas from the standard repertory. In less than a decade
students produced forty different operas in 650 performances – all accompanied by the
University Orchestra under the direction of Chisholm himself. Many of these
performances took place in the Little Theatre.67 The Opera Company toured throughout
South Africa, also embarking on extended tours to Northern and Southern Rhodesia (today
Zambia and Zimbabwe) and the United Kingdom. In the 1956 to 1957 London season the
company presented the first staged performance of Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle in
England. Notable premières of locally composed operas included Chisholm’s The
Pardoner’s Tale (1961) and John Joubert’s Silas Marner (1961).68
However, in spite of many initiatives during the early parts of the twentieth century, local
opera production in Cape Town remained heavily dependent on expertise from artists from
abroad. This was not restricted to singers, but also included educators. In Cape Town the
65

Donald Inskip, Forty Little Years, Cape Town 1972, p. 16.
H.H.van der Spuy, ‘William Henry Bell’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 153. See also J.P. Malan,
‘Paganelli, Giuseppe’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 3.
67
J.P. Malan, ‘Erik Chisholm’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 272. See also the list of opera productions
held in the Little Theatre in Donald Inskip’s Forty Little Years, pp. 119-157.
68
Ibid.
66

38

Italians had dominated vocal training since the inception of the opera school at the
University of Cape Town, extending it to the Eoan Group as well, thus establishing a
tradition that continues to this day.69

1.3.2.3 The Eoan Group in District Six
In 1933, the year the College of Music at the University of Cape Town started student
opera productions, a cultural and welfare organization amongst the Coloured population in
District Six was started by Helen Southern-Holt.70 The organization taught drama, music
and ballet and throughout the Apartheid years the organization played an important yet
ambivalent cultural and educational role in the Coloured community who performed under
the strictures of the government’s policy of ‘separate development’ until the end of
Apartheid.
In 1943 Joseph Manca (a South African of Italian descent) became musical director of the
Eoan Group, a position he held for 34 years. Manca was initially co-opted to coach the
small choir that had been cobbled together from the community. He started performing
small choral works and at the same time trained individual singers. The choir’s numbers
and skills grew spectacularly and in 1949 the group’s first operatic production, the operetta
A slave in Araby,71 using no less than seventy five performers, was staged. After a decade
of voice training and ever more ambitious musical productions including light operas and
large scale choral works, Manca started producing serious opera with the Eoan Group in
1956.72
Under Manca’s direction the Eoan Group experienced impressive growth as a cultural
organization, offering singers many opportunities to perform and excel in operatic singing.
The number of choristers alone grew to one hundred and fifty singers within a few years
after he started directing the choir. In 1955 the group decided to set up an Arts Festival
which took a year to prepare. As part of the 1956 Festival the group staged a historic
69

One of Cape Town’s most prominent educators and opera producers, Italian-born Angelo
Gobbato, has been affiliated with CAPAB and Cape Town opera since 1965.
http://saoperasingers.homestead.com/Angelo_Gobbato_Bio.html, accessed 4 February 2009.
70
Southern-Holt named the organization the Eoan Group after the Greek word ‘Eos’, meaning
‘dawn’. Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ in SAME, Volume 2, pp. 26–29.
71
Composer and date of composition unknown.
72
Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ in SAME, Volume 2, pp. 26–29.

39

performance of Verdi’s La Traviata, sung in Italian.73 At least six more Italian operas were
produced in the decade following the success of La Traviata. The second festival took
place in 1962. The group also toured the country twice and performed opera in Aberdeen
and London in 1975.74
For thirty years Eoan was a thriving local opera production company taking centre stage in
Cape Town’s cultural life, despite being plagued by political problems. The organization’s
infrastructure and the manner in which it fitted into the cultural environment of the country
as a whole was an unhappy reflection of the political and cultural schizophrenia of the
country during the Apartheid years. Throughout these years the Eoan Group’s musical
activities functioned independently and separately from the operatic activities of the white
community of Cape Town. In practice this meant that, although whites like Joseph Manca,
Allesandro Rota and Gregorio Fiasconara (who directed some productions) helped with
training, there was no exchange between the White and Coloured opera performers. Eoan
singers, who were all Coloured, did not perform with Chisholm’s Cape Town Opera
Company or vice versa.75
An interesting parallel to the Eoan Group finds itself in opera production in the United
States between 1872 and 1882: a unique all-black opera troupe, the Colored American
Opera Company from Washington DC, produced opera and toured with a wide-ranging
repertory including Julius Eichberg’s The Doctor of Alcantara (1862) and Gilbert and
Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore (1878). The group developed from a church choir at the St.
Augustine Roman Catholic Church and seemed to have been musically well educated.
According to Dena Grant, an archivist for St. Augustine's ‘they were self-sufficient,
literate people who knew music ... we forget there were black people who knew classical
music.’76

73

Ibid.
The ballet section of the Eoan Group also premiered Stanley Glasser’s ballet The Square.
75
The implications of Apartheid and the Group Areas Act for the Eoan Group’s opera productions
(including their tours through the country) will be explored in Chapter 2 of this dissertation.
76
Jacqueline Trescott, ‘From Church to Stage: Black Opera Company Was The City’s First’, The
Washington Post, 24 February 2007.
40
74

1.3.2.4 Durban, Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth
George Stoney Jackson is the only scholar who has systematically researched the history
of classical music in Durban. His research was published between the 1960s and 1980s and
it covers the period from the mid-nineteenth century, when the number of British settlers
started increasing, until the beginning of the Second World War.77
According to Jackson, local opera production in Durban was dominated by light opera for
more than eighty years, starting in 1886 when the Durban Amateur Operatic Society was
founded by Ferguson Brown. Their first production was Arthur Sullivan’s The Mikado
(composed 1885, libretto by William S. Gilbert), staged in the Theatre Royal. The artists
seemed to have been ‘ladies and gentlemen who placed themselves under the tuition of Mr.
J. Ferguson Brown’, the orchestra comprising a mere five musicians, ‘two violins, a
cornet, and a double bass, was supported by a piano at which Mr. Brown himself was
seated in the capacity of conductor’.78 Playing to packed houses, this production was
repeated seven times, and The Mikado remained a firm favourite with the Durban public
for years to come. The society expanded its repertoire, producing Ruddigore (Gilbert and
Sullivan, 1887), Olivette (composer & date unknown), Les cloches de Corneville
(composer & date unknown) and Dorothy (composer & date unknown) in the following
decade. By 1897 the society changed its name to the Diamond Jubilee Opera Company.79
Around the turn of the century, local amateur opera production had to compete with the
many touring companies from Britain producing the same genre of opera in the city of
Durban. Amongst these were the companies of Luscombe Searelle, Edgar Perkins and
Frank Wheeler. A number of local amateur singers were however recruited by the visiting
companies, Ferguson Brown being one of them.80 The D’Oyle Carte Opera Company, who
was responsible for the premières of many Sullivan operettas in Britain, also toured

77

See his doctoral dissertation, Music in Durban from 1850 to 1900 (University of the
Witwatersrand 1961, published by the Human Science Research Council in 1970 as Music in
Durban: an account of musical activities in Durban from 1850 to the early years of the present
century) and his subsequent contributions in the South African Music Encyclopedia (ed. J.P.
Malan).
78
G.S. Jackson, ‘Durban Amateur Operatic Society’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 411.
79
Ibid. p. 412.
80
G.S. Jackson, ‘Music in Durban’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 435.

41

Durban during the first decade of the twentieth century and presented most of the Gilbert
and Sullivan repertoire there .81
By 1919 local opera production was revived by Ferguson Brown’s son, Gus Brown. The
society was renamed the Durban Opera Society and continued the tradition of staging
Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.82 By 1928, an attempt was made to start the production of
grand opera by local singers when Dan Godfrey started up yet another society, the Durban
Amateur Grand Opera Society, staging Gounod’s Faust and Verdi’s Il Trovatore .
Towards the end of the Second World War another society was formed, this time the
Municipal Choral and Light Opera Society who produced more Gilbert and Sullivan at the
Criterion in 1946.83 In the same year John Connell from Johannesburg made Italian opera
popular by conducting a series in April. According to Jackson, many Durbanites had been
soldiers in Italy during World War Two and were introduced to Italian opera there.84
After 1952, the newly opened Alhambra Theatre became the venue for operetta production
by local groups. At the same time, yet more societies were formed. The Durban Opera and
Drama Society ventured to revive musical comedy from 1954 onwards and The Durban
Municipal Light Operatic and Choral Society produced Gilbert and Sullivan’s The
Gondoliers (composed 1889) as well as The Mikado under the direction of Teddy Browne
and William Pickerill.85 The latter two organizations continued to produce light opera until
the early 1960s. In 1959 Heinrich Haape launched the Durban Opera Company, the first
local opera group to tour to the (then) Transvaal. In 1964 this company was taken over by
the Natal Performing Arts Council (NAPAC) who initiated most opera production after
this date.86 Haape became the chairman of the NAPAC Opera Committee and was the
main driving force behind NAPAC’s decision to buy the Alhambra Theatre.87 Amateur
81

Mr Richard D’Oyle Carte built the Savoy Theatre in London where many of Gilbert and
Sullivan’s operettas where produced. The D’Oyle Carte Opera Company also held sole copyright
to professional productions of Sullivan’s operas until 1961. See Robert D. Hume, & Arthur Jacobs,
'London II, I, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company’, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy,
http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed 27 November 2007 and David Russell Holme, ‘Arthur
Sullivan’ Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed 27 November
2007.
82
G.S. Jackson, ‘Durban Amateur Operatic Society’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 412.
83
Ibid. p. 412.
84
G.S. Jackson, ‘Music in Durban’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 435.
85
G.S. Jackson, ‘Durban Amateur Operatic Society’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 413.
86
G.S. Jackson, ‘Music in Durban’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 439.
87
J.P. Malan, ‘Heinrich Haape’, SAME, Volume 2, p. 151.
42

organizations, however, still continued their activities and yet another organization with
this aim, The Durban Opera Group, was formed in 1968 under the direction of Olive Peel.
This group staged two productions annually in a number of towns in Natal. 88
The development of local opera production in Durban is characterized by the continuous
formation of new opera societies,89 a prevalence of amateur groups right up to the
formation of the Performing Arts Councils in 1963 and the seemingly lasting popularity of
operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1971 George Jackson wrote in the South African
Music Encyclopedia that ‘Durban is still very British’.90 He probably referred to the white
population only, and the popularity of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas up to this date
supports this claim. David Russell Hulme writes in his article on Sullivan in Grove Music
Online that Sullivan’s operas never quite gained popularity outside English-speaking
countries because of the peculiar use of the English language. Furthermore, Hulme notes
that ‘[Sullivan’s] synthesis of Victorian musical predilections was undoubtedly a factor in
the enormous contemporary popularity his music enjoyed in Britain’, indicating that
Sullivan’s style would be better understood and appreciated by the British (and those
familiar with the culture) than those unaccustomed to British culture.91 Notwithstanding
the fact that the Durban productions were essentially amateur productions, Gilbert and
Sullivan operetta seemed to appeal and contribute to a specific Durbanite culture, and
within the Durban society at large, to a specific population group. These operetta
productions also never toured through the country. Although light opera was often
performed in Cape Town, it did not achieve the sustained popularity as it did in Durban.
Introducing Western classical music, and specifically opera, to other South African
cultures slowly took hold in Durban, although the city pioneered this effort in the country.
Under the guidance of Dr Charles Hoby, the Durban Municipal Bantu Brass Band not only
produced instrumentalists, but also singers such as the tenor Joseph Dhlamini and the
mezzo-soprano Esther Makhoba.92

88

G.S. Jackson, ‘Durban Amateur Operatic Society’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 413.
This is also true for choral societies, chamber music and orchestral societies. See also G.S.
Jackson, ‘Music in Durban’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 418-41.
90
G.S. Jackson, ‘Music in Durban’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 440.
91
David Russell Holme, ‘Arthur Sullivan’ Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy, accessed 27
November 2007, http://www.grovemusic.com.
92
G.S. Jackson, ‘The Durban Municipal Bantu Brass Band’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 415.
89

43

As was the case in Durban, local opera production in the towns of Bloemfontein and Port
Elizabeth were in the hands of amateur societies. Port Elizabeth’s Gilbert and Sullivan
Society was established in 193293 and produced at least one operetta per year.94 After
World War II, the Port Elizabeth Musical and Drama Society also presented light opera.
Built in 1892 and funded by a group of local businessmen, Port Elizabeth has one of the
finest opera houses in the country. The first opera performance was Gilbert and Sullivan’s
The Mikado, produced that same year.95 In Bloemfontein light opera was presented
occasionally by the Free State Music Society.96 Serious opera was not attempted until the
formation of the Arts Councils in 1963.

1. 3.2.5 Opera in Johannesburg
Local opera production in Johannesburg owes much of its development to the efforts of the
Scotsman, John Connell. Connell settled in Johannesburg in 1916 as an organist and was
active in the music industry until his death in 1955. Initially his energies were focused on
choral singing, and he soon extended them to Pretoria, Kroonstad, Bloemfontein and
Germiston. However, from 1925 onwards he actively started producing opera and by 1950
Connell staged an average of nine to ten operas per year. He not only directed these
productions, but also took responsibility for the entire technical support of each
production.97 Connell introduced ‘Music Fortnights’ to Johannesburg, musical evenings
which were held free of charge, presenting a variety of musical events.98 In 1930 he
produced Bizet’s Carmen as part of this initiative. In 1936 the Rand Daily Mail reported
under the heading ‘Johannesburg’s Free Week of Opera’ that ‘Every year Mr. Connell
assembles a cast, a chorus and an orchestra and presents opera during Music Fortnight. He
does this not for the sake of the box office, not for charity, but solely for the love of the

93

http://www.peoh.co.za/content.asp?pageid=30, accessed 7 February 2009.
Rinie Stead, ‘Opera in Suid-Afrika’, Lantern, Volume 8 nr. 2, December 1963, p. 19. Connell’s
surname is spelt with one ‘l’ in Stead’s article.
95
http://www.peoh.co.za/content.asp?pageid=30, accessed 7 February 2009.
96
Rinie Stead, ‘Opera in Suid-Afrika’, Lantern, p. 19.
97
J.P. Malan, ‘Music in Johannesburg’, SAME, Volume 3, p. 36.
98
Rinie Stead, ‘Opera in Suid-Afrika’, Lantern, p. 20.
44
94

thing and for the sake of bringing music a little nearer to the people.’99 During that season
12,000 people attended Music Fortnights.100
Gounod’s Faust, Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor,
Wagner’s Tannhaüser and Lehar’s The Merry Widow count among Connell's many
productions.101 He was also able to stage Modest Mussorgsky's large scale opera Boris
Gudonov in 1939 and 1942 respectively. Despite criticism that he produced ‘too many
operas ... in an unfinished manner’, patrons in the city kept flocking to his productions.102
Connell's dream was to build a national opera company with its headquarters in
Johannesburg with smaller units in the larger cities of the country and he steadily worked
towards this goal. The 1942 season was set up as a national opera event, a collaborative
effort embracing the main centers in South Africa. The productions during this year
included Verdi’s Aïda, Rossini’s Il Barbiere de Siviglia, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and
Carl Maria von Weber’s singspiel Abu Hassan (composed 1811). The forces comprised the
orchestras of Cape Town, Johannesburg and the South African Broadcasting Corporation
(SABC) together with singers and dancers from all over the country. The productions
toured from Johannesburg to Pretoria and Cape Town and in each city local choruses and
dancers were used. The ever growing scope of productions included operas such as
Wagner’s Lohengrin, Puccini’s Tosca and Rimsky-Korsakov's Snow Maiden being
introduced and independent ballet productions being added as part of the tour. In 1946
Connell even staged Bizet’s Carmen sung in a mix of both Afrikaans and English, an
innovation lauded in the newspapers who lauded it with headlines like ‘Ovation for
operatic invasion’.103 In Johannesburg the Empire Theatre was booked out night after night
during this season despite criticism of mediocre performing standards.104
Connell managed to stage operas on small budgets. Although there were no institutions
formally funding professional orchestras, dancers, choirs or singers, Connell received a
small subsidy from the Johannesburg Municipality with which he was able to hire local
and foreign soloists. He further used the orchestral resources of the SABC and the
99

J.P. Malan, ‘Connell, John’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 296.
Rinie Stead, ‘Opera in Suid-Afrika’, Lantern, p. 20.
101
J.P. Malan, ‘Music in Johannesburg’, SAME, Volume 3, p. 36.
102
Ibid.
103
Ibid.
104
Ibid. p.37.
100

45

Johannesburg City Orchestra and dancers from the principle dance studios in town.
However, even after several very successful opera seasons, he lamented the constraining
financial situation in the Spotlight of 31 May 1946:
Opera in South Africa has progressed from sand-bags to shoe strings, existing on a small
subsidy from the Johannesburg Municipality and the proceeds of the annual seasons.
African Consolidated Theatres, who have rendered great services to the growth of opera,
105
take literally not a penny profit.

Independent from Connell's initiatives, a number other institutions also produced opera in
Johannesburg, albeit on smaller scale. Percival Kirby (a composer of opera as well)
produced several small scale operas at the University of the Witwatersrand and the
Johannesburg Operatic Society's endeavors were successful to a lesser degree.
Connell’s 1947 season included the staging of ten operas and four ballets. In an eight week
period, fifty-three thousand people attended these concerts in Johannesburg and eighteen
thousand attended an eleven-day season in Pretoria. Connell stated that ‘Opera has been
established, and has persisted in a way comparable with no other city of similar size in the
Empire’.106

1. 3.2.6 A national body for opera: the Performing Arts Councils
From 1940 onwards a genuine need was developing for a national infrastructure in the
interest of opera. A variety of interest groups initiated national organizations during the
1940s and 50s with the aim to sustain opera production in the country. In 1940 Allesandro
Rota in Cape Town launched the ‘National Opera Company’, an organization that
floundered due to his internment when Italy joined the Second World War.107 In the north
of the country, John Connell set up a ‘National Opera Society’ in Johannesburg in 1946,
another venture that could not establish itself in durable fashion.108 In 1948 the newly
elected South African government established the first state-funded organization to support
105

Ibid.
Ibid, p. 38.
107
Rota was an Italian national and therefore interned during the Second World War. See Malan,
‘Allesandro Giuseppe Rota’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 198.
108
Pieter Kapp, ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, Jaargang 48, no. 1,
March 2008, p. 5.
46
106

the arts, the National Theatre Organisation (NTO). Its mandate was to serve all the arts in
the entire country. However, based in Pretoria, this organization was largely ineffective
due to insufficient funding and the huge geographical area which needed to be covered.109
Furthermore, most funding seemed to be invested in theatre productions with small
amounts channeled to orchestral music, opera and ballet.110
In the 1950s two new private organizations were launched, this time with more success.
The ‘National Opera Association of South Africa’ was launched in Johannesburg in
August 1955 with the aim ‘to encourage indigenous opera and ballet and to encourage
South African artists to remain in the country’.111 Rota was the driving force behind this
organization, having moved to Johannesburg in 1950 in an attempt to revive Connell’s
opera activities there. A year later its counterpart for Afrikaans speakers, the
‘Operavereniging van Suid-Afrika’ (OPSA) was launched in the same town, with the aim
to:
Promote the art of opera in all its facets and, in particular, to encourage the performance of
operas in Afrikaans in order to make opera more intelligible to Afrikaans-speaking
112
members of the public, and to encourage the development of an indigenous operatic art.

These two societies collaborated in several productions and both applied for subsidy from
the Department of Education, Arts and Science. However, the Department was not willing
to subsidize two separate bodies and the societies decided to merge. In October 1958 the
‘South African Opera Federation’ was launched.113 However, it was evident that the
merger took place on the basis of financial convenience rather than principled conviction.
After the merger the original societies did not, in fact, disband and both continued
producing opera with much friction between them as each pursued their initial interests.
The South African soprano, Cecilia Wessels, and her husband Ernest Beecroft, invested

109

Elizabeth Blanckenberg, The Music Activities of the Cape Performing Arts Board, Masters
dissertation, University of Stellenbosch, May 2009, p. 7.
110
Ibid.
111
Fanny Emdon, ‘Opera Societies in the Transvaal – National Opera Association of South Africa’,
SAME, Volume 3, p. 312.
112
Ockert Botha, ‘Opera Societies in the Transvaal – Opera Society of South Africa’, SAME,
Volume 3, p. 313.
113
Pieter Kapp, ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, p. 6. According to
Emdon though, the year was 1957, see Fanny Emdon, ‘Opera Societies in the Transvaal - National
Opera Association of South Africa’, SAME, Volume 3, p. 312.
47

money in one of Rota’s failed attempts to create a national body for opera.114 Wessels’s
comment on the situation was indicative of the deep divisions that existed between
individual role players at the time: ‘But through lack of co-operation it was a failure, like
so many other opera companies that have been started in South Africa, and I lost all my
money.’115
Two groups based in the Cape Province also continued to produce opera, both locally and
nationally. The Opera Company of the University of Cape Town as well as the Eoan
Group from District Six existed separately, touring not only the bigger cities of South
Africa, but also rural towns. The former extended their tours to Northern and Southern
Rhodesia. In 1957 the Afrikaanse Kultuurraad of Pretoria launched yet another
organization named the ‘Opera-organisasie van Suid-Afrika’ (OPEROSA). Its stated aim
was to grow into a national organization and to lobby for funding from the state.116
In 1960 the government held a conference in Pretoria to discuss the need for a centralized
body to manage and support the arts on a national level. It was attended by 150 delegates
representing cultural organizations and universities across the country. At this meeting the
model of four decentralized arts councils funded by national and provincial governments
was proposed, a principle on which the management of the Arts Councils was eventually
based.117 During this time both OPSA and OPEROSA lobbied extensively with the
government for a national arts body. On the 1st of April 1963 four Performing Arts
Councils were established in each of the provinces of the Republic of South Africa:118 the
Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) in the Cape Province, the Performing Arts Council
of Transvaal (PACT) in Transvaal, the Natal Performing Arts Council (NAPAC) in Natal
and the Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State (PACOFS) in the Orange Free

114

Hannes Haasbroek, Stem en Legende, die lewe van Cecilia Wessels. Litera Publications,
Pretoria, 2005, pp. 80-81. It is not clear from the source to which opera company Haasbroek
referred here, or how much money was involved.
115
Hannes Haasbroek, Stem en Legende, die lewe van Cecilia Wessels, p. 81.
116
Pieter Kapp, ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, Jaargang 48, no. 1,
March 2008, p. 6. According to Basil Taylor this happened in 1955 and was called the Pretoria
Opera Group. See Basil Taylor, ‘Opera Societies in the Transvaal – Pretoria Opera Group’, SAME,
Volume 3, p. 313.
117
Elizabeth Blanckenberg. The Music Activities of the Cape Performing Arts Board, p. 8.
118
Ibid. South Africa had four provinces until 1994.
48

State.119 These councils were not about government control in the first place, but answered
to a genuine need for support within the artistic community. However, government control
became easier through these institutions, as the management of each council resided in a
Board of Directors appointed by the Minister of Cultural Affairs.120 With secure state
funding, opera in South Africa was, for the first time, able to offer professional and
sustainable careers to local artists. However, within the framework of the government’s
Apartheid policy, these councils provided opportunities for white singers, dancers and
instrumentalists only. Until 1980, access to their productions was likewise only for Whites.

1.3.2.7 Opera in translation
From the 1940s a strong movement existed amongst Afrikaans-speaking intellectuals and
art patrons to have operas from the standard canon performed in Afrikaans. This is a
particularly interesting aspect of the indigenization of opera in South Africa. The
development of the Afrikaans language dates back to 1875 when the ‘Genootskap vir
Regte Afrikaners’ was established.121 However, the promotion of the language must be
seen against the backdrop of its emancipation from both the Dutch and English languages,
an emancipation not innocent of political motives. The negative association of political
oppression with the Afrikaans language in later years was a result of the segregationist
politics of the government after 1948. However, the argument in favour of translating
opera was that of accessibility of opera for the general public, hence operas were translated
in both Afrikaans and English.122
The first opera performed in Afrikaans was Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. The work
was translated into Afrikaans by Cornelius de Villiers123 and performed in Stellenbosch in
119

In Afrikaans the names of the four organizations were as follows: KRUIK (Kaapse Raad vir
Uitvoerende Kunste), TRUK (Transvaalse Raad vir Uitvoerende Kunste), NARUK (Natal Raad vir
Uitvoerende Kunste) en SUKOVS (Streeksraad vir Uitvoerende Kunste van die Oranje Vrystaat).
120
No author, Performing Arts in South Africa, cultural aspirations of a young country, Issued by
the Department of Information. Pretoria 1969. The pages in the book are not numbered; see section
under ‘Performing Arts’.
121
Daniel Hugo, ‘Die Afrikaanse Taal, ‘n liefdesgeskiedenis.’, published on Litnet, 2 April 2008.
http://www.litnet.co.za/cgibin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&news_id=35711&cause_id=1270. Accessed 8 February
2009.
122
No author, ‘Scenaria interviews Mimi Coertse’, Scenaria, June-July 1977, Issue no. 1, p. 31.
123
Also known as Dr. Con de Villiers.
49

April 1940 by the Afrikaans National Student Association and the Radio Association.124 It
was produced by Allesandro Rota who also sang the tenor role of Turrido. At the time
Rota (an Italian national who settled in South Africa) learnt the Afrikaans language to be
able to take part in the production.125 In Johannesburg John Connell was responsible for a
1946 production of Bizet’s Carmen,126 sung in English and Afrikaans.127 In 1948 Connell
also produced Wagner’s Tannhäuser and in 1950 Mozart’s Magic Flute, both in
Afrikaans.128 All of these productions were directed by non-Afrikaans speakers.
In 1951 OPSA was established, amongst others, with the explicit aim to promote
performance of opera in Afrikaans and to popularize opera under Afrikaans speakers.129
They committed themselves to producing at least one opera in Afrikaans per year. It is not
clear to what extent they succeeded in this goal, but in 1958 they produced Verdi’s La
Bohème in Afrikaans.130 In 1959-60 a series of operas in Afrikaans was launched during an
opera tour in towns surrounding Johannesburg.131 Among them were Mozart’s Cosi fan
tutte and Entführung aus dem Serail, Smetena’s Bartered Bride and Puccini’s Madam
Butterfly. During this same tour Verdi’s Rigoletto was performed in English.132
In the former Transvaal a division between the Afrikaans-speaking and English-speaking
partisans of opera developed over time. The latter preferred Italian opera and the former
prioritized opera translated into Afrikaans. Combined with a number of headstrong
individuals working in the industry, this resulted in a general lack of co-operation and
distrust between the two groups.133 The formation of the Performing Arts Councils

124

Pieter Kapp, ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, p. 4. The source
does not elaborate on the nature of these organizations.
125
Ibid.
126
According to Stead the opera was in Afrikaans only and the translation was done by Gideon
Roos. Rinie Stead, ‘Opera in Suid-Afrika’, p. 22.
127
J.P. Malan, ‘Music in Johannesburg’, SAME, Volume 3, p. 37.
128
Pieter Kapp, ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, p. 2. It is not clear
from this source who did the translations.
129
Ockert Botha, ‘Opera Societies in the Transvaal – Opera Society of South Africa’, SAME,
Volume 3, p. 313.
130
Pieter Kapp, ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, p. 6.
131
These towns were, amongst others, Randfontein, Brakpan, Rustenburg, Bethal, Alberton,
Ontdekkers and Springs. Pieter Kapp, ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir
Geesteswetenskappe, p. 7.
132
Ibid.
133
Ibid, p. 6.

50

resulted in a truce between the historically antagonistic camps of Afrikaans and Englishspeaking opera interests.
The translation of opera was generally unpopular with singers and staunch opera lovers.
Criticism against it was often published in the arts magazine Scenaria throughout the
1970s and 80s.134 By 1982 opera translations had been abandoned by PACT and described
by Scenaria as ‘an outdated practice’, although CAPAB continued to perform operas
translated into Afrikaans and English.135

1.3.2.8 Opera production by the Arts Councils 1963 to 1994
After the formation of the Performing Art Councils, opera production was predominantly
taken over by these well-funded and organized structures. Not all councils were ready to
produce opera immediately. PACT’s first opera production was Mozart’s The Marriage of
Figaro and Puccini’s Tosca in 1963, PACOFS and NAPAC followed a year later with
Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Puccini’s Madam Butterfly respectively and CAPAB’s first
production took place in February 1965 with Smetena’s The Bartered Bride.136 Within the
first five years of their existence, all four Arts Councils produced an average of three
operas and/or operettas annually.137 From 1963 until the demise of the Arts Councils in
1998, opera production experienced a period of stabilization during which the gradual
development of local talent and the expansion of opera repertoire took place.
The establishment of the Arts Councils influenced the activities of companies who
produced opera prior to 1963. Although most companies dissolved and found new avenues
for opera production via the Arts Councils, in the Cape Eric Chisholm’s UCT Opera
Company redirected their activities towards training, moving away from the performances
it had been so actively involved with during the fifty years prior to the establishment of

134

See for example an interview with Mimi Coertse in Scenaria, May-June 1977, Issue no. 1, p.
40, as well as Julius Eichbaum’s article ‘A Language of love, some thoughts on the translation of
opera’ in Scenaria, July 1978, Issue no. 8, p. 3.
135
Julius Eichbaum. ‘Scenaria and the Performing Arts, The Past Five Years’, Scenaria, May
1982, Issue no. 31, p. 7.
136
No author. Performing Arts in South Africa, cultural aspirations of a young country. Issued by
The Department of Information. Pretoria 1969. See lists under ‘Presentations by the Performing
Arts Councils’ at the end of the book, no page number.
137
Ibid.
51

CAPAB.138 However, the Eoan Group continued to provide annual opera seasons in the
City Hall, independent from CAPAB. Since they were classified as a Coloured group,
Apartheid legislation prevented them from taking part in CAPAB’s productions, using its
venues or benefitting from CAPAB’s subsidies. Eoan’s 1965 opera season took place in
April and their performance of Verdi’s Il Trovatore was well received. Chisholm wrote a
letter to the group, complementing them on a sterling performance.139 In relation to
CAPAB’s government sponsorship for opera production, which in 1969 for example
amounted to R700,000 ,140 Eoan’s subsidies until the late 1980s were on average R35,000
per annum.141
One of the less attractive side effects of the new system was the possibility for government
to manipulate the content of productions through funding. One example, which will be
explored further in Chapter Two of this dissertation, was the government’s political and
ideological control over access to first-class cultural education and exposure to the
international arts as exercised in financial support for the Eoan Group. Abiding by the
government’s strategy of segregation provided Eoan with funding to educate singers,
develop their skills and tour the country whilst performing opera, albeit in severely limited
capacity. An example of what could happen if arts organizations refused to consent to
segregationist policies is the withdrawal of government funds from the National Arts
Gallery in Cape Town, an institution that refused to be classified as a white ‘own affairs’
cultural concern. The result was that government funding for the National Gallery was
practically stopped.142

138

Desire Talbot, as referenced by Pieter Kapp. ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir
Geesteswetenskappe, p. 6.
139
At the bottom of the letter he wrote by hand: ‘… as for CAPAB??’ indicating his doubts about
the quality of CAPAB’s opera performances. Letter from Erik Chisholm to Manca, dated 19 May
1965. Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 23.
140
Elizabeth Blackenberg, The Music Acitivities of CAPAB, p. 15.
141
Throughout their existence Eoan’s singers were never salaried.
142
See M.A. Nolte. ‘SA Kunsmuseums (steeds) erg afgeskeep’, Die Burger, 11 November 2007. In
this article Nolte relates that in 1980 the curator of the National Arts Museum, Raymond van
Niekerk, refused to have the museum classified as ‘own affairs’. In practice this meant that it
refused to exclusively collect and exhibit art by White painters only. Government retaliated
immediately. Van Niekerk was apparently threatened by Pretoria officials and the museum
received only ZAR 30,000 of the 1980 budget which earmarked ZAR 16.5 million for ‘white ownaffairs arts and culture’. In the same budget ZAR 170,000 was allocated to the maintenance of
campsites.
52

State funding was also made available for the building of new theatres, providing much
needed new technology and stimulus to arts production as a whole. In May 1971 the Nico
Malan Theatre was inaugurated in Cape Town, a performance complex including a 1204seat opera house and various other venues for the performance of theatre, music and ballet.
In Pretoria the State Theatre was opened in May 1981, a huge state-of-the-art building
comprising five auditoriums, including an opera house with 1300 seats. In Bloemfontein
the Sand du Plessis Theatre Complex was completed for PACOFS in 1985.143 In 1986 the
new theatre complex for NAPAC, The Playhouse, was opened in Durban.144
The Nico Malan Theatre Centre was the first modern arts complex to be built in the
country. Its inauguration in May 1971 coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Republic
of South Africa and was celebrated with a performance of Verdi’s Aida. However, during
the inauguration protests were held and performances boycotted due to the venue’s racially
exclusive policy.145 The Nico Malan was formally declared open to all races in 1975.146
However, it took five more years before singers of other races joined CAPAB’s opera
chorus. In 1980 a few former Eoan members, Ronald Theys and Sidwell Hartmann,
accepted employment as members of CAPAB Opera Company.147 In Pretoria the State
Theatre was inaugurated in May 1981. Already in 1978, three years prior to its opening, a
public outcry was caused when the Administrator of the then Transvaal, Sybrand van

143

www.pmg.org.za/docs/2007/070529pacofspres.ppt, accessed 7 February 2009. The building
was inaugurated on 1 August 1985.
http://www.pacofs.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=55, accessed
7 February 2009.
144
www.playhousecompany.com, accessed 7 February 2009.
145
During an interview with John Orr from the SABC, David Poole explained that many of
CAPAB’s staff considered leaving CAPAB because of its racial policy. Others hoped to reform the
company from within. At the time of the inauguration, Poole made a public statement that he
hoped the Nico Malan Theatre would soon open its doors to all races. After his comment was
published in the newspapers he was reprimanded by the Administrator of the Western Cape who
demanded an apology. Poole replied in a letter that he was sorry to have upset the Administrator
but felt that he had to mention the matter. John Orr in conversation with David Poole, ‘CAPAB –
25th Anniversary’, as broadcast on Radio South Africa on 19 April 1988, Sound Archives of the
SABC, Catalogue no. T 88/418. This is all the more poignant as Poole grew up classified as a
Coloured. He studied balled in England and had himself re-classified as a ‘White’ before his return
to the country.
146
No author, ‘Nico Malan Theatre Centre’, Scenaria, December 1977/January 1978, p. 14.
147
Veronica Allen, ‘Eoan Annual General Meeting, Chairman’s report’ date 15 June 1980. Eoan
Archive, box 4, folder 30.
53

Niekerk, proclaimed that the building was to be earmarked for Whites only.148 However,
when the theatre was inaugurated, the government declared the State Theatre multi-racial.
During the thirty year life-span of the Performing Arts Councils in South Africa, opera was
most consistently produced by CAPAB in Cape Town and PACT in Johannesburg and
Pretoria.149 CAPAB was the first Arts Council to benefit from modern production facilities
and also benefitted from the UCT Opera School, providing the Arts Council with able
singers. Despite many managerial and financial problems,150 CAPAB was able to stage an
average of eight to ten opera productions annually.151 The repertoire performed during the
first twenty years of CAPAB’s existence showcased the Italian repertoire predominantly, a
fact for which they often were criticized.152 The appointment of Murray Dickie153 as head
of CAPAB’s opera section in 1982 paved the way for the stabilization and expansion of a
local opera corps. Dickey was responsible for the much needed development of local
singers from chorus members to principle singers. It was during this time that the first
black singers joined the CAPAB chorus, of which at least two, Virginia Davids and
Sidwell Hartman, progressed to principle singers.154 During Dickie’s reign of seven years,
the repertoire of the company included a balance of Italian and German opera. They
performed many Mozart operas and Dickey was responsible for the South African

148

An interview with the Administrator was published in the Rand Daily Mail. Julius Eichbaum,
‘An open letter to Mr. Sybrand van Niekerk’, Scenaria, April/May 1978, p. 3.
149
PACT moved to Pretoria after the State Theatre was opened there in 1981.
150
In 1981 CAPAB was declared bankrupt. No author, ‘Scenaria interviews CAPAB’, Scenaria,
March-May 1981, Issue no. 22, p. 25. See also Julius Eichbaum, ‘The Maestro, the Deputy
Director and the Singer’, Scenaria, January 1982, Issue no. 29, p. 3. CAPAB’s managerial and
financial misfortunes are also extensively discussed in Elizabeth Blanckenberg’s Masters
dissertation, The Music Activities of the Cape Performing Arts Board, University of Stellenbosch,
May 2009.
151
Julius Eichbaum, ‘Pact Opera, the facts’, Scenaria, March-May 1981, Issue no. 22, p. 2.
152
Amanda Botha, ‘In die Voorportaal’, a radio programme that discussed the achievements of
Murray Dickey at CAPAB, broadcast on Radio Suid-Afrika on 10 January 1989, Sound Archives of
the SABC, Catalogue no. T 89/428.
153
Dickey was imported from the Vienna State Opera where he had been singing for thirty years.
No author, ‘Scenaria interviews Murray Dickie’, Scenaria, September 1982, Issue no. 33, p. 36.
154
Amanda Botha, ‘In die Voorportaal’, a radio programme that discussed the achievements of
Murray Dickey at CAPAB, broadcast on Radio Suid-Afrika on 10 January 1989, Sound Archives of
the SABC, Catalogue no. T 89/428.
54

premières of a number of Wagner’s operas, amongst others Die Walküre, Tristan und
Isolde, Die Meistersinger and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.155
During the first twenty years of its existence, PACT had been performing mainly in the
Civic Theatre in Johannesburg, producing an average of four operas every year. Like
CAPAB, they also performed predominantly Italian repertoire, including operas by Verdi,
Puccini and Donizetti.156 During the first decade other external factors contributed to
PACT’s lower output as the organization had no permanent opera company and the then
Transvaal also had no opera school to provide trained singers to PACT. Because PACT did
not offer professional careers to local singers, they lost much local talent to countries
abroad.157 It was only with the inauguration of the State Theatre in Pretoria in May 1981
that PACT’s productions increased. The first opera season held at the State Theatre
consisted of four Italian operas, Verdi’s Othello and La Traviata, Mascagni’s Cavalleria
Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci. All principal roles were sung by singers
imported from Europe.158 In an interview broadcast on the SABC, Eghard van der Hoven,
head of PACT at the time, discussed the company’s scope of activities. During this
interview he stated that within one year after its opening, the complex had hosted 430
performances and admitted 300,000 patrons through its doors.159 Apart from productions
in the State Theatre itself, they had also done 600 productions in schools and toured many
smaller towns in the area, bringing the total number of productions to 1800 for that year.
By early 1982 the State Theatre had 900 full-time employees and 800 ad hoc employees
and their budget for the year amounted to ZAR12 million. 160

155

Ibid. A number of Wagner operas were performed in Cape Town by the Thomas Quinlan Opera
Group from the UK who toured the country in 1913.
156
No author, Decade, a pictorial review, PACT, 1972. No page numbers, see the lists under
OPERA at the end of this source.
157
Ibid.
158
U.G. Starck, Gedenkbrosjure, Staatsteater Pretoria, Penrose Press, Johannesburg, 1981. No
page numbers.
159
Evelyn Levison in conversation with the head of PACT, Eghard van der Hoven, ‘Women’s
Forum’as broadcast on Springbok Radio on 17 February 1982, Sound Archives of the SABC,
Catalogue no. TM 89/1064.
160
Ibid. These statistics are rather staggering and the current writer has not been able to check these
facts with other sources.
55

Until the early 1980s, the Natal Performing Arts Council (NAPAC) in Durban was deemed
the ‘graveyard of the performing arts in South Africa’.161 Between 1963 and 1970 NAPAC
had no fixed venue for their productions, but they settled into the Alhambra Theatre on 23
April 1970 after this historic building was renovated.162 James Conrad was appointed as
NAPAC’s opera director in 1963 and by 1979 he had produced twenty operas, an average
of little more than one opera per year.163 It was only in 1982, when Rodney Phillips joined
NAPAC, that the Arts Council was placed on a more solid managerial and artistic
footing.164 He created the NAPAC ballet company, launched the Natal Philharmonic
Orchestra and provided much needed managerial structures.165 In1987 the Natal Playhouse
was inaugurated as NAPAC’s new home. James Conrad produced Wagner’s Der
Fliegende Holländer for the opening of the Playhouse.166 Because musicals and operetta
had been very popular in Natal for many years, NAPAC also created a Musicals
Department which continued to supply light opera to Natal audiences.167
The operatic output of PACOFS in Bloemfontein was, compared to the other councils, also
rather small. By 1987 the average annual output of opera production was two operas, one
musical and one operetta per year.168 However, financial constraints at the time were huge
and the opera board was considering operatic concerts in order to produce more opera and
stimulate public interest.169 A fifth and independent opera company, the Roodepoort City
Opera under the guidance of Weiss Doubell, also produced opera for a number of years
during the 1980s in the then Transvaal.170
Until the late 1980s Italian opera dominated the choice of repertoire performed by all four
Arts Councils by a margin of 75%, with works performed by Rossini, Verdi, Puccini,
161

Don Ridgway in conversation with Rodney Phillips, ‘25th Anniversary of NAPAC’, as
broadcast on Radio South Africa on 14 April 1988, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. T
88/750.
162
Don Ridgway in conversation with John Moss, ‘25th Anniversary of NAPAC’, as broadcast on
Radio South Africa on 14 April 1988, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. T 88/750.
163
No author, ‘Scenaria interviews James Conrad’, Scenaria, May 1979, Issue no. 13, p. 30.
164
Don Ridgway in conversation with Rodney Phillips, ‘25th Anniversary of NAPAC’.
165
Ibid. Phillips left the country in 1986 to become head of Queensland Opera in Australia.
166
Ibid.
167
Ibid.
168
Tony Ulliat in conversation with Hans van Heerden, ‘25th Anniversary of PACOFS, as
broadcast on Radio South Africa on 05 April 1988, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no.
T88/751.
169
Ibid.
170
Henning Viljoen, ‘Roodepoort’s Hansel und Gretel’, Scenaria, December 1986, p.11.
56

Bellini and Donizetti. German opera by Mozart, Wagner and Strauss were in second place
although Bizet’s Carmen was always a firm favourite with all companies. Occasionally an
opera by Britten, Smetena or Janá ek was performed.171 Julius Eichbaum, editor of the arts
magazine Scenaria, criticized this trend in 1987 when he wrote: ‘For the best part of
twenty-five years, the Performing Arts Councils pursued an artistic policy, which stated
with every assurance that opera in South Africa had to be predominantly Italian by
nature.’172
To be sure, professional opera production by the Arts Councils faced significant problems.
One of the main issues that had a major influence on the logistics of opera production, was
the cultural boycott that was instituted during the 1980s.173 Neels Hansen, director of
PACT opera in 1987, mentioned that although some European artists, singers, conductors
and producers with good capabilities did accept invitations at the time, the big names in
the industry stayed away from South Africa.174 The boycott also played havoc with
planned productions as finalized contracts with singers and conductors from abroad were
often cancelled on short notice.175 In the long run the boycott resulted in cultural isolation
and a lack of development for opera in South Africa. 176 Hansen further noted that ‘I do
believe we do good work, the standard of opera is high in this country. I do believe that we
171

Henning Viljoen, ‘Opera planning and repertoire in South Africa’, Scenaria, August 1988, p.
41. According to Viljoen, these percentages corresponded closely with the choice of repertoire at
the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
172
Julius Eichbaum, ‘Opera in South Africa – a quarter of a century of swimming against the tide’,
Scenaria, August 1988, p. 39.
173
In the United Kingdom the ‘Equity Ban’ was put in place in 1985. Equity was the name of the
organization to which all artists performing in England belonged to by law. The ban stipulated that
all artists from the UK who accepted invitations to take part in arts productions in South Africa
would be penalized. In reaction to this, an anti-Ban campaign was also launched as some artists in
the UK felt that the ban was instituted by the minority of artists. Peter Gelling, as interviewed in
‘The PM Show’, as broadcast on 14 April 1986, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no.
TM2783 (86).
174
Judith Krummeck in conversation with Neels Hansen, ‘25th Anniversary of PACT’, as broadcast
on Radio South Africa on 29 March 1988, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. T88/751.
However, some stars did visit South Africa, amongst others sopranos Victoria de los Angeles in
1977 and Birgit Nilsson in 1980, pianist Alicia de Larrocha in 1980 and guitarist Narciso Yepes in
1984. See David Tidboald, People I made music with, Umuzi, Cape Town 2008, pp. 84-92.
175
Barry Jones in conversation with Murray Dickie, ‘The cultural boycott and its effect on South
African opera’, as broadcast on Radio South Africa on 07 November 1985, Sound Archives of the
SABC, Catalogue no. TM2238(85).
176
Judith Krummeck in conversation with Neels Hansen, ‘25th Anniversary of PACT’, as broadcast
on Radio South Africa on 29 March 1988, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. T88/751.
The issue was also discussed by Hansen in an interview Krummeck, broadcast on Radio Allegro on
04 July 1987, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. TM3568 (87).
57

are miles behind in the development. We are now where German opera production was in
1966. We are twenty years behind. Not in standard, not in quality, but in development’.177
South African opera singer, Elizabeth Connell, who sang with the English National Opera
in London at the time, commented on the local opera scene as follows:
What really struck me is the tremendous isolation … call it artistic isolation.
Geographically South Africa is, of course, far away from Europe and America, but today
that is no excuse for being isolated. People here, opera people, just don’t seem to know
what is going on overseas. They have little knowledge of the development of opera over
the last decade or so; they don’t seem to know of the singers that are at the top today, and
178
have little cognizance of directors and conductors.

Another issue was the lack of sufficient local singers and musicians, an essential part of
the infrastructure needed for first-class opera production. Orchestral players had to be
imported from Europe, an expensive exercise exacerbated by an ever weakening South
African currency and the fact that many of these players stayed in the country for a short
time only. Furthermore, locally trained singers, musicians and ballet dancers often found
more lucrative and interesting jobs in Europe.179 Training centers for local singers were
also insufficient. By 1977 only two cities in the country offered opera training, one in Cape
Town and the other in Pretoria.180 The treatment of local singers by opera companies also
came under fire. In an interview with various leading figures in the world of South African
opera broadcast on SABC Radio in 1985, several participants mentioned that singers were
not guided carefully from one role to another in order to grow into mature opera singers
and that they were moved from a role which they could not manage to another which was

177

Judith Krummeck in conversation with Neels Hansen, ‘Words and Music’, as broadcast on
Radio Allegro on 04 July 1987, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. TM3568 (87). Both
Eghart van den Hoven, head of PACT, and Francois Swart of the PACT Orchestra, denied these
claims on air. They argued that the reason why artists did not come was the huge distance between
South Africa and Europe and that politics played a negligible role. See ‘25th Anniversary of
PACT’, as broadcast on Radio South Africa on 29 March 1988, Sound Archives of the SABC,
Catalogue no. T88/751 as well as ‘Women’s Forum’as broadcast on Springbok Radio on 17
February 1982, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. TM 89/1064.
178
No author, ‘Scenaria interviews Elizabeth Connell’, Scenaria, January-March 1980, Issue no.
17, p. 7. Connell also sung in various Bayreuth productions in 1979.
179
Judith Krummeck in conversation with Leo Quayle, ‘25th Anniversary of PACT’, as broadcast
on Radio South Africa on 29 March 1988, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. T88/751.
180
No author, ‘Scenaria interviews Mimi Coertse’, Scenaria, June-July 1977, Issue no. 1, p. 31.
58

far below their capabilities. Criticism was further raised that the Arts Councils did not do
enough to promote the stature of local singers.181
It is interesting to investigate the model that South African opera companies followed
during these years. Opposing views can be found in a 1987 panel discussion broadcast on
SABC Radio. Neels Hansen of PACT opera challenged the idea that La Scala in Italy or
the Metropolitan in New York should be models for South African opera production and
said that ‘our biggest endeavor here is to create something which is South African, which
fills the opera world with a small piece of South Africa.’182 The tension between creating
an own identity on the one hand, exposure to European standards and following that as
closely as possible on the other hand, came to the fore in the same interview. One of South
Africa’s stalwarts of the operatic world, soprano Emma Renzi, noted that ‘opera is not
South African, … we have to see to it that we can get that far that we can do [opera]
stylistically correctly, as far as we can possibly get’.183
Contrary to what one might expect, the ideal of the only opera group in the country that
consisted entirely of non-European singers, the Eoan Group, was that of Italian opera
produced in ‘true Italian fashion’.184 Led by Joseph Manca, a South African-born Italian,
this ‘Coloured’ opera company produced the first all-Coloured cast of Verdi’s La Traviata
in 1956.185 Their 1965 opera season included Verdi’s La Traviata and Il Trovatore, as well
as Puccini’s La Bohème and Donizetti’s L’Elisire D’Amore.186 Of this programme, Manca
wrote in his press release that ‘this is indeed an ambitious programme equal to seasons
presented by the more famous Opera Houses in Europe.’187
Surveying the history of opera in South Africa, it is clear that little has been done to
stimulate indigenous art production. Black and Coloured principle singers started emerging
181

Barry Jones in conversation with Murray Dickie and Emma Renzi, ‘The cultural boycott and its
effect on South African opera’, as broadcast on Radio South Africa on 7 November 1985, Sound
Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. TM2238(85).
182
Barry Jones in conversation with Neels Hansen, ‘The cultural boycott and its effect on South
African opera’, as broadcast on Radio South Africa on 07 November 1985, Sound Archives of the
SABC, Catalogue no. TM2238(85).
183
Ibid.
184
See the Press Release to the 1965 Eoan Opera Season, p. 5. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 9.
185
See the 1956 Eoan Arts Festival Brochure in the Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 4.
186
See Minutes of the 32nd Eoan Group AGM held on 29 September 1966, pp. 3-4. Eoan Archive,
box 1, folder 3.
187
See the Press Release to the 1965 Eoan Opera Season, p. 5. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 9.
59

only by the late 1980s and experiments with indigenous interpretations of the standard
repertoire only occurred after the demise of the Arts Councils by 1998. No local opera
compositions were commissioned or performed by the Arts Councils before 1994. The first
locally composed opera performed by an Arts Council was Roelof Temmingh’s Enoch,
Prophet of God, performed by CAPAB in 1995. Apartheid legislation had further severely
hampered the growth of indigenous audiences, a legacy still painfully obvious today.
In comparison, local theatre production was on the forefront of indigenization during the
existence of the Arts Councils. In 1980, Pieter Fourie, Artistic Director of CAPAB’s
drama Department, had clashed with the government frequently due to his drive to
stimulate indigenous theatre. Of this he said ‘I will do anything in my power to see that a
South African play of merit reaches production stage, and it is on this issue that I have
clashed with the authorities.’188 Admittedly, strategies of indigenization in opera
production are somewhat more complicated and therefore financially more risky than in
theatre, but glimpses of a truly South African opera tradition during the thirty years of Arts
Council productions are almost impossible to find.

1. 3.2.9 South African opera singers during and after Apartheid
During the course of the twentieth century a number of quality local singers started to
emerge in South Africa, some of whom pursued successful careers in Europe. The first
singers who trained at the UCT Opera Company were sopranos Cecilia Wessels, Desiree
Talbot, Emmarentia Scheepers (stage name Emma Renzi) and Nellie du Toit, and the tenor
Albie Louw.189 Singers who had emerged by the mid-1950s and who were active in local
opera production well into the 1980s, included Mimi Coertse, Hanlie van Niekerk, Wendy
Fine, Carla Pohl, Marita Napier, Joyce Barker, Frederick Dahlberg, Gé Korsten, Hans van
Heerden, Dawie Couzyn, George Kok and Louis Knobel.190 The main problem facing
singers wanting to pursue a professional career locally was the limited professional
possibilities offered by opera production in South Africa. Furthermore, an opera career in
188

No author, ‘Scenaria interviews Pieter Fourie’ Scenaria, Volume 20, July-September 1980, p.
15.
189
Pieter Kapp, ‘Die akademie en opera’, in Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, Jaargang 48, no. 1,
March 2008, p. 3.
190
A more extensive list of local artists is mentioned in Rinie Stead’s article ‘Opera in SuidAfrika’, Lantern, Volume 8 no. 2, December 1963, pp. 20-7.
60

Europe, for many the true home of opera, was naturally prized above a career at home.191
Even after the Arts Councils were established in 1963, budgets were tight and few of the
councils were in a position to pay full-time principles.
From the 1950s until the late 1970s, Cape Town-based vocal trainers, Allesandro Rota and
Olga Magnoni, trained many singers of the Eoan Opera Group. A number of these singers
established national reputations and some also went abroad to pursue careers in Europe.
Most notable among them were Joseph Gabriels, May Abrahamse, Ruth Goodwin, Lionel
Fourie, Abeeda Parker, Vera Gow, Winifried du Plessis, Patricia van Graan, Gerald
Samaai, Cecil Tobin and Sidwell Hartman. Despite Apartheid legislation preventing them
from taking part in opera productions by the Arts Councils and the resulting isolation
within which they had to operate, Eoan’s reputation as a first-rate opera company was well
established. In June 1969 Vera Gow was invited to sing with the SABC Symphony
Orchestra in Johannesburg. The local newspaper described Gow as ‘one of South Africa’s
outstanding Coloured soprano’s’.192 She was also awarded the Players Club Award in
1971.193
Since the 1980s opera schools in both Durban and Cape Town started training black
singers as students of these traditional white institutions. David Smith informed the current
writer that by 1987 at least 50% of NAPAC’s singers were black performers.194 In the
Cape, the training of black singers was started on the initiative of Angelo Gobbato. Of this
he wrote:
The existence of large numbers of exceptional operatic vocal talent among the black
community could no longer be denied. What became a pressing artistic issue, however,
was the creation of a suitable operatic repertoire for these singers and the possible
adaptation of the production styles of the standard repertoire to create novel dramatic

191

This point is well illustrated in arts and cultural magazine Scenaria. Interviews with South
African opera singers published between 1977 and 1979 in this magazine invariably start with
‘Welcome back in South Africa’. See interviews with Mimi Coertse (Scenaria, Issue no. 1,
June/July 1977, pp. 30-1), Marita Napier (Scenaria, Issue no. 6, April/May 1978, pp. 30-1), Emma
Renzi (Scenaria, Issue no. 12, September 1978, pp. 22-3) and Wendy Fine (Scenaria, Issue no. 13,
May 1979, pp. 5-7).
192
Staff reporter. ‘Mayor to hear top soprano’, Newspaper unknown. Eoan Archive, box 36, folder
270.
193
John Orr in conversation with David Poole. ‘CAPAB – 25th Anniversary’, as broadcast on
Radio South Africa on 19 April 1988, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. T88/418. The
interview did not elaborate on the nature of the prize.
194
Personal email to the current writer on 12 September 2007.
61

possibilities and credibilities, given the sudden transformation of operatic casts from being
195
98% white to casts being 98% black.

Since 1994, a substantial number of singers emerged from population groups categorized
as ‘formerly disadvantaged’. Among them are the singers Sibongile Khumalo, Angela
Kerison, Pretty Yende, Given Nkozi, Golda Schulz and Fikile Mvinjelwa. The promising
numbers of talented black singers enrolled at the UCT Opera School and the Pretoria
Technikon bears testimony to the substantial interest for opera within the indigenous
population groups of South Africa.

1. 3.2.10 Opera production after 1994
After the first national democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, governance in the
country changed radically. Due to the fundamental shift in state power and the nature of
the history that preceded it, much that was achieved by the previous government, also with
regard to the arts, was viewed with suspicion.196 The years following 1994 saw the demise
of the four Performing Arts Councils as the new government set other criteria and revised
subsidy policies for arts production fundamentally. 197 One of the major challenges
following the new dispensation was the restructuring of arts funding. Several theatres and
orchestras were on the threshold of bankruptcy or closure, many orchestras had to merge
or start performing on an ad hoc basis. As opera is an expensive form of art, heavily
dependent on institutional subsidies, local opera production companies were forced into
transforming financial strategies.
During the first three years following 1994, the Arts Councils continued to function under
the existing structures. In the case of CAPAB, 1995 even showed an upsurge in opera
production as the company launched its first Opera Festival from 18 January to 6 February.
195

Angelo Gobbato, The history of Cape Town Opera,
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/history2008.html, accessed 27 July 2008.
196
Julius Eichbaum, ‘A necessary blessing’, Scenaria, September 1998, p. 3.
197
An interesting parallel regarding the cessation of opera activities after the withdrawal of
government subsidies can be found in India. All opera activities were brought to a halt after the
Indian Government discontinued its subsidies for opera production in 1985. See entry by Charles
Pitt, ‘India’, in Grove Music Online, OUP 2007, accessed 29 July 2007. In the light of India’s
history as a country colonized by the West, this is an interesting act of post-colonial resistance,
albeit alarming for opera production. It is furthermore interesting because of the real possibility of
this happening in South Africa.
62

The festival included four operas and a number of fringe productions.198 Angelo Gobbato
initiated the festival and one of its aims was to break down the image of opera as a eurocentric cultural activity.199 Apart from the production of three Italian operas, this festival
also saw the première of a new locally composed opera, Roelof Temmingh’s Enoch,
Prophet of God, with Fikile Mvinjelwa singing the title role.200 CAPAB was disbanded in
1998 and its existing opera corps was transformed into a private organization called Cape
Town Opera.201 This smooth transition guaranteed uninterrupted opera production in Cape
Town. Furthermore, the city has always been fortunate to have ready access to singers
trained by the UCT College of Music and the Opera Studio. More than anything else, this
connection between the training institute and the opera company had secured a continued
stream of opera productions from the early-twentieth century until this day.
In Pretoria, PACT Opera was transformed into the State Theatre Opera Company in
1996.202 The State Theatre Opera Company continued to produce opera on a smaller scale
until the State Theatre was temporarily ‘mothballed’ by the government in 2000 after the
exposure of alleged financial mismanagement. A government finding furthermore
suggested that ‘the board and management of the State Theatre did not restructure itself in
line with the principles laid out in the White Paper nor has the Institution shown much
public impact.’203 Both PACOFS and NAPAC continued to produce opera, albeit on small
scale. In 1997 PACOFS managed to stage Puccini’s Madame Butterfly with former Eoan
singer, Virginia Davids in the leading role. It was, however, their only production for that
year.204
On 4 June 1996, the Department of Arts, Culture and Technology released its White Paper
on Arts, Culture and Heritage, a document stipulating the new government’s policy on the
development and funding of arts in South Africa. The far-reaching implications of this
198

Nancy Richards in conversation with Christine Crouse, ‘Woman’s World’, as broadcast on 13
January 1995, Sound Archives of the SABC, Catalogue no. T2001/7.
199
Ibid. CAPAB’s strategy to achieve this is unfortunately not discussed in this interview.
200
Ibid. The work was described by Crouse as a mix between opera as a European art form and
African rhythms. Additional African music for this opera was composed by Lungile Jacobs.
201
Angelo Gobbato, The history of Cape Town Opera,
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/history2008.html, accessed 27 July 2008.
202
No author, ‘George Kok – spreading one’s wings’, Scenaria, September 1998, p. 11.
203
No author, State Theatre to be mothballed,
http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2000/000615410p1006.htm, accessed 30 June 2007.
204
Julius Eichbaum, ‘Madama Butterfly in Bloemfontein’, Scenaria, July 1997, p. 21.

63

document on the performing arts in general and on opera in particular cannot be discussed
in depth this chapter. However, a few quotations from Chapter 4 of the White Paper will
illustrate the direct implications of the new policy on opera production in the new South
Africa:
18. In 1995/96, the Performing Arts Councils operating income was R160m, of which box
office receipts accounted for 18%. R112m was granted by the State, which represents a
very high level of subsidy.205
19. Analysis of box office returns shows these do not even cover administrative costs. The
inescapable conclusion is that government is subsidizing expensive art forms and
infrastructure for a small audience at an unaffordable level. The activity based costing
exercise indicates that ballet and opera consume in the order of 30% of the total
expenditure. These activities are exclusive to PACT and CAPAB.206
23. This strategy involves an immediate cut of 22% in the 1996/97 subsidy to the
Performing Arts Councils.207
24. In this way, the existing performing arts infrastructure is geared toward reconstruction
and development, and all forms of dance, music and theatre are recognized as legitimate
components of our cultural heritage.208

In the light of these changed circumstances, some of the former Arts Councils reinvented
themselves as private opera companies (of which CAPAB experienced the smoothest
transition and became Cape Town Opera).209 Angelo Gobbato, formerly of CAPAB,
described the transition as follows:
While the opera companies attached to the Arts Councils operating in Pretoria, Durban and
Bloemfontein simply disappeared, in Cape Town we were fortunate that our efforts in the
transformation of opera had been welcomed and was backed by a number of opera loving
and sympathetic businessmen. Under the determined chairmanship of Jan Kaminski, a
Board of Directors was canvassed and the entire staff and functions of CAPAB Opera were
re-registered as CAPE TOWN OPERA, a section 21 company not for gain.210

Gobbato also explained the difficult financial situation which the private opera companies
had to deal with since the tabling of the White Paper:
With the Government’s declining to increase the total amount of funding available for the
performing arts and assigning the entire budget for this funding to a body known as the
205

www.dac.gov.za/white_paper, accessed 16 March 2009.
Ibid.
207
Ibid.
208
Ibid.
209
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/history2008.html, accessed 27 July 2008.
210
Ibid.
206

64

National Arts Council while permitting any and all performing groups to apply for […]
funding, it hardly came as a surprise that Cape Town Opera was at first refused any form
of funding from this national source. Even now, after many applications and evidence of
job creation for underprivileged communities, Cape Town Opera receives an amount of
211
less than 5% of its total annual budget from national sources.

Although times have been very trying for opera companies in South Africa since 1994, the
door to radical indigenization has been opened wide, a transition that happened as a matter
of urgency and not without political motives. In 1998 Cape Town Opera produced a boldly
indigenized version of Verdi’s La Bohème. Re-named La Bohème Noir, Verdi’s music was
kept intact, but the libretto was re-written and set in Johannesburg during the 1976 student
boycotts. Furthermore, the production included black singers only.212 Although a risky
undertaking, exposing the company to potential loss of support from a largely white
audience, the production was successful. The issue of ‘black singers only’ was branded as
Apartheid-in-reverse, but critics like Scenaria’s Julius Eichbaum wrote that ‘despite my
already stated reservations regarding the policy behind such exercises, I enjoyed La
Bohème Noir enormously’.213 After this successful attempt, a number of strongly
indigenized versions of operas from the standard canon were produced by local companies.
These include an ‘Africanized’ version of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth, which was set in a
guerilla war in Sierra Leone. Although sung in Italian, the opera was substantially
shortened with the specific goal of highlighting a post- colonial message. Sections of
Verdi’s music were also transcribed for alto saxophone, marimba and djembe and stage
props included, amongst others, that ubiquitous symbol of post colonial Africa, the
AK47.214 In recent years two strongly indigenized operas, Georges Bizet’s Carmen
(translated into uCarmen eKhayelitsha) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic
Flute by the Cape based opera company Dimpho Di Kopane, pocketed prestigious
international accolades such as the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival in
February 2005 and the Laurence Olivier Award in London in March 2008.

211

Ibid.
Ibid.
213
Julius Eichbaum, ‘La Bohème Noir’, Scenaria, February 1998, p. 11.
214
Herman Wasserman. ‘Opera ’n onredbaar Eurosentriese kunsvorm?’ No date.
www.oulitnet.co.za/klank/09opera.asp, accessed 08 April 2008.
212

65

The private companies currently producing regular opera in the country are Cape Town
Opera215 and Dimpho Di Kopane,216 both situated in the Western Cape, and Opera
Africa217 and The Black Tie Ensemble,218 situated in Johannesburg and Pretoria
respectively. Cape Town Opera will be discussed in-depth in Chapter 4 as a case study of
institutional and structural responses to indigenization of opera in post-1994 South Africa.

1.3.3

Local opera composition

In the interest of clarity, the present writer chose to discuss the composition of opera in
South Africa as a separate issue to that of local production of opera. This subsection will
therefore revert to the beginning of the nineteenth century to trace the roots of local opera
composition in the country.
Compared to other New World countries, local opera composition developed late in South
Africa. In the United States operas were composed regularly as early as the late-eighteenth
century.219 Brazil,220 Argentina221 and Canada222 followed a century later. However, it is
difficult to speak conclusively to the question as to what constitutes a South African opera.
Is South African-ness a matter of place, or a matter of content, or both? Is it convincing to
classify an opera composed by William Henry Bell in 1910 (shortly after his arrival in
Cape Town) as a South African opera? On the other hand, should John Joubert’s operas,
composed after he had left South Africa, containing no apparent reference to local content,
still be considered South African operas? This is perhaps a less vexing problem when
215

See website on www.capetownopera.co.za.
This company produces film, theatre and opera. See website on www.ddk.etownship.co.za.
217
See website on www.operaafrica.co.za.
218
This company has been active since 1999 and was set up by the former manager of PACT
Opera, Neels Hansen and South Africa soprano Mimi Coertse. See their website on
www.blackties.co.za.
219
See entry by Elise K. Kirk, ‘United States of America’, in Grove Music Online, OUP 2007,
accessed 29 July 2007.
220
See entry by Gerard Béhague, ‘Brazil’, in Grove Music Online, OUP 2007, accessed 29 July
2007.
221
See entry by Juan Pedro Franze, ‘Argentina’ in Grove Music Online, OUP 2007, accessed 29
July 2007.
222
See entry by Gaynor G. Jones, ‘Canada’ in Grove Music Online, OUP 2007, accessed 29 July
2007.
216

66

considering the process of indigenization, which assumes a process in which culture is
always becoming more adapted to its context. For the discussion at hand, the present writer
decided to include all operas composed on South African soil, irrespective of their frame
of reference or musical ‘language’, as well as operas composed by composers originating
from South Africa but residing outside the country.223

3.3.3.1 The Nineteenth Century
According to Bouws, Frederick Carl Lemming, a Danish musician living in the Cape
between 1810 and 1817, composed and produced Sapho, a musical work in three acts for
theatre in 1815.224 The first performance of Sapho was described in the local newspaper as
‘mixed with speech, song and dance’ and Bouws describes this work as an opéra-ballet.
Bouws is of the opinion that this work may well have been the first opera composed on
South African soil.225 The text was written by Charles Etienne Boniface, a gifted
Frenchman who lived in the Cape between 1807 and 1844. Boniface’s French text was
translated into Dutch by the local schoolmaster P.C. Schonegevel and on 4 July 1815
Sapho was performed in the African Theatre by local musicians belonging to the
Nederduitsche Genootschap, including the only dance master in the Cape at the time,
Johann Ludwig Petersen.226 The performance was repeated twice, on 19 and 29 July
1815.227 Lemming returned to his native Denmark in 1817, presumably taking the score of
this work (as well as his South African wife Rosina Fredrica Heyns, daughter of the local
butcher Joseph Heyns) with him. Bouws did attempt, in vain, to trace the composer and his
work in Denmark, but it seems that the score of Sapho is now lost. Except for notices in
the local newspaper of the time, there is no other information available on the content of
this work.

223

See the Appendix for a list of South African operas and operettas.
Bouws, Solank daar musiek is..., p. 30.
225
Ibid, p. 30. Bouws describes it as ‘gemengd met Zamenspraken, Zang en Dans’.
226
Jan Bouws, ’Johann Ludwig Petersen’ SAME, Volume 4, p. 12. Initially Petersen held a position
in the military and later became a cobbler after leaving the Dutch East India Company. He
presented various ballets in the African Theatre from 1804 onwards.
227
Ibid, p. 30.
67
224

Although there were a few South African-born composers active in the Cape during the
nineteenth century, none of them composed opera.228 The only operas currently known to
have been composed in South Africa during the remainder of the nineteenth century were
those of the British opera impresario Luscombe Searelle who lived in South Africa
between 1887 and 1899. During this time he composed three operas, Black Rover, Kisses
of Circe and Evalina, all performed in Durban in 1899, the year of his return to England.229
The critic of the Natal Mercury dismissed these works, describing Circe as a ‘curious
compound of crude cleverness and monotonous musical drivel’ and Evalina as ‘a musical
mélange and that not of a very high order’.230

3.3.3.2 The Twentieth Century
A trend similar to the development of local opera composition in other countries of the
‘New World’ can be traced in South African opera composition. The generation of homegrown composers initially took on smaller and lighter opera, with operetta for schools and
musical comedy being followed by serious opera some years later. Nevertheless, as a result
of the migration of European musicians to South Africa, the first serious operas composed
in South Africa were those by William Henry Bell (Hippolytus, Isabeau, The Mousetrap,
Doctor Love, The Wondering Scholar, The Duenna and Romeo and Juliet),231 Erik
Chisholm (The Inland Women, Murder in Three Keys, The Midnight Court, The
Canterbury Tales, The Causcasian Chalk Circle, The importance of being Ernest and The
Life and Loves of Robert Burns),232 Albert Coates (The boy David, The Duel and Van
Hunck and the Devil)233 and Percival Kirby (Open or shut and A Maid of Amsterdam).234
Renowned English conductor and composer, Albert Coates, settled in South Africa with

228

They were mainly from the De Villiers family, the most notable being Jan Stephanus de Villiers
(1827-1902), a church musician and composer, also called ‘Jan Orrelis’. De Villiers composed four
oratorios. J.P. Malan, ‘De Villiers, Jan Stephanus’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 339-45.
229
J.P. Malan, ‘Searelle, Luscombe’, SAME, Volume 4, p. 224.
230
Ibid.
231
Hubert van der Spuy, ‘Bell, William Henry’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 152-60.
232
J.P. Malan, ‘Chisholm, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 271-5
233
J.P. Malan, ‘Coates, Albert, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 281-3.
234
J.P. Malan, ‘Kirby, Percival Robson’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 102-9.
68

his South African wife Vera de Villiers in 1946 and composed Van Hunck and the Devil,
an opera based on local folklore, for the Jan van Riebeeck Festival in 1952.235
The first serious operas composed by composers born in the country were those by John
Joubert. He composed Antigone in 1951, In the Drought in 1953 and Silas Marner in 1961,
all of them composed outside South African borders. Joubert had left South Africa in 1946
for the United Kingdom and never returned to the country except for occasional short
visits. He later wrote The Quarry (1967), Under Western Eyes (1968) and The Prisoner
(1972).236 To this day his considers himself a South African composer, stating that ‘any
introduction to my life and work would have to take account of the fact that I was born and
spent the first 19 years of my life in South Africa’.237
In 1956 the Dutch composer, Henk Badings, was commissioned by the South African
Broadcasting Association (SABC) to compose and opera on a libretto by South African
poet N.P. van Wyk Louw, Asterion. This radio opera was premiered on 11 April 1958 but
has not been performed since.238 In 1967 Cromwell Everson composed Klutaimnestra, a
serial composition set in the Afrikaans language. Others operas composed during the
1960s were Stephen O’Reilly’s The Coming of the Butterflies, a radio opera which made
use of serial techniques,239 as well as Luigi Bezzio’s Il Grande Viaggio, an opera about the
Great Trek composed in the Italian language.240
Commissions for locally composed opera have been far and few between. The SABC
commissioned several radio and television operas as well as operettas from the 1940s
through to the 1970s. An unusually large number of local operettas for schools and radio
were composed, predominantly for use in schools. The majority of these were in
Afrikaans, emphasizing the educative and developmental dynamic responsible for these
compositions. Some examples are Adolph Hallis, Jakaranda and Port of Call (both 1943)
235

No author, Performing Arts in South Africa, cultural aspirations of a young country, issued by
The Department of Information. Pretoria 1969. The pages in this publication are not numbered; see
the section on ‘Serious Music’. Coates died a year later, in 1953.
236
J.P. Malan, ‘Joubert, John Pierre Herman’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 58-67.
237
Stephé Oosthuysen, ‘Of nationality and displacement: Reflections on an interview with John
Joubert’, Fanfare, Volume 2, Issue nr 2, Winter 2009, p. 11.
238
Stephanus Muller, Sounding Margins: Musical Representations of White South Africa. Oxford
2000, p. 81.
239
J.P. Malan, ‘O’Reilly, Stephen’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 315-7.
240
J.P. Malan, ‘Bezzio, Luigi’. SAME, Volume 1, pp. 166-7.
69

and Love is Gold (1946),241 Lourens de Kock’s Potjierol and Soetkoek (both 1950) and
Willemien (1951),242 Hans Olaf Andresen’s Die heidenooientjie (1957), Die drie asterjies
(1960) and Die mieliefeetjie (1961)243 and Lourens Faul’s Prins van Manakatoo (1957),
Skoenmaker Stillewater (1960), Die seemeeu roep (1962), Mooifontein se meisies (1964),
Ons vir jou (1965) and Ponkie en sy donkie (1975).244
The mid-1980s marked the beginning of a wave of new serious opera compositions by
local composers. Hendrik Hofmeyr composed The Fall of the House of Usher in 1987, a
chamber opera for which he won the Nederburg Opera Prize that year.245 In 1990 he
completed The Land of Heart’s Desire. During this time Kevin Volans composed The Man
with Footsoles of Wind (1988-93) and the dance opera Correspondences in 1990. Within
five years Roelof Temmingh wrote three operas based on South African themes, Enoch,
Prophet of God (1994), Sacred Bones (1997) and Buchuland (1998), all of them performed
by CAPAB at the time.
An unsettling characteristic of new opera compositions is their poor performance
reception. The operas of Hendrik Hofmeyr are a good example. His first two operas, Il
principe Barbablù (1986) and The Fall of the House of Usher (1987) were both composed
while he lived in Italy and the latter was performed in South Africa in 1988. However,
since his return to South Africa in 1992, three further operas were composed, The Land of
Heart’s Desire (1990), Lumukanda (1995) and Die laaste aand (2001).246 All three operas
remain unperformed, despite the fact that Hofmeyr is currently one of South Africa’s most
frequently performed composers.247 Furthermore, operas that have been performed are in
most cases forgotten after one season. This includes all of Roelof Temmingh’s operas,
Hofmeyr’s early operas, Thomas Rajna’s Amarantha (2000) and Valley Song (2005),
Volans’s Confessions of Zeno (2001) as well as Hans Huyssen’s Masque (2005).
241

J.P. Malan, ‘Adolph Hallis’, SAME, Volume 2, p. 159.
J.P. Malan, ‘Lourens Bosman de Kock’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 328.
243
J.P. Malan, ‘Hans Andresen’, SAME, Volume 1, p. 42.
244
See Appendix for a complete list of South African operas and operettas.
245
Hofmeyr was living in Italy at the time. See Hilde Roos. Hendrik Hofmeyr: lewe en werk 19571999. Master’s Thesis, University of Stellenbosch, 2000, pp. 10-7.
246
Ibid.
247
Ibid. Hofmeyr’s The Land of Heart’s Desire was commissioned by the Grahamstown Festival,
but was not performed as the organizers of the festival deemed the work not relevant to the
political situation of the country at the time. This information has been provided to the current
writer by the composer and has not been verified with the festival organizers.
70
242

The new dispensation after 1994 brought about a major political shift with an
unprecedented influence on the creation of new art and therefore also the composition of
new operas. Africanization of opera themes and the forces by which they are performed
can be seen in Mzilikazi Khumalo’s Princess Magogo kaDinzulu (2002), Hans Huyssen’s
Masque (2005), Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s The Passion of Winnie (2007) and Cape Town
Opera’s newly commissioned work for 2010, Five:Twenty, which consists of five operas
of twenty minutes, each composed by a different composer and each addressing a social or
political issue of South African society.

1.4

Conclusion

The title of this chapter, ‘Indigenization and History: How opera in South Africa became
South African opera’, seems to imply that the process of opera indigenization in the
country has been completed to a degree. More so, it seems to assume that this process has
unfolded linearly and incrementally over time. The present writer does not support these
claims, but worked within the constraints of these assumptions and implications as
minimum conditions for constructing a historical narrative that is thematically focused.
Indeed the aim of this chapter was not to write a history of opera in South Africa per se –
for this more intensive scrutiny of primary sources and a more expansive narrative would
be imperative – but to explore the establishment of opera in South Africa since it first
occurred in 1801 and to trace the presentation of the genre in secondary literature as
influenced by the circumstances, people and institutions involved with opera performance.
The notion of indigenization carries with it expectations of historical embeddedness, of
time having passed and rituals and practices having had time to become sedimented and
layered in new contexts. This chapter acknowledges that any discourse of indigenization,
regardless of its underlying ideological premises, depends on a historical narrative. For a
variety of reasons, comprehensive and compelling historical narratives of important
themes and topics in South African music history are exceptional. For one thing, South
African music scholarship across a broad spectrum has historically lacked the institutional
or human recourses to attempt the construction of such comprehensive histories. The
historical narrative constructed here is also driven less by the need for history, than the
71

desire to understand how an imported cultural phenomenon in a colonial society – in this
case opera – changed and adapted (indigenized) by existing for an extended period in its
adopted country. It stands recorded in this chapter how opera functioned as an expression
of white settler culture and later of Afrikaner nationalist arrogance. All these uses,
however politically compromised in the present, played a role in establishing a position for
opera in South African society. Thus the translation of opera into Afrikaans and the effects
of the cultural boycott emerge historically as important moments of indigenization in the
interpretations of standard works from the canon. Whereas later chapters consider
indigenization structurally (Chapters 2 and 4) or aesthetically (Chapter 3), this chapter
constructs a frame of events, institutions, people and works that contextualize historically
how opera was understood and how it functioned as a practice in the other chapters in this
dissertation.
The sources consulted to construct this chapter have without exception been written by
white South Africans of whom many were Afrikaners who worked in the academic or
media structures created by Apartheid. Their contributions to the written history of opera
in South Africa entertain conventional ideas about what opera is and are ideologically
embedded in the politics of exclusion and exclusivity. With few exceptions, all sources
that were consulted for the writing of this chapter were written after 1960, a time in South
Africa’s history when institutions of learning as well as the media actively and consciously
(as well as unconsciously) promoted the value of Western classical music as separate and
superior to indigenous African culture. For South Africa’s government and many
individuals who worked in its ranks, opera symbolized the ideology of European artistic
superiority. This attitude is often evident in the tone and style of the writing and on
investigating the institutional positions held by these authors, a pattern emerges. The
academics quoted in this chapter most frequently are Jan Bouws, Jacques Philip Malan,
George Jackson and Pieter Kapp. Bouws, Malan and Kapp worked at Afrikaans
institutions that actively supported the idea of Apartheid and the superiority of European
cultural manifestations.248 Other frequently quoted sources include work by media
248

Bouws and Kapp were both employed at the University of Stellenbosch. However, Kapp’s
article was written for the Akadmie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, an organization historically affiliated
with the ideals of Afrikaner nationalism. Malan worked for the Human Sciences Research Council
and was editor of the now (in)famous South African Music Encyclopedia, an academic endeavour
which was fully funded by the Apartheid government.
72

personalities such as Julius Eichbaum249 and radio broadcasters who enjoyed life-long
careers with the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The role played by the latter in
the advocacy and preservation of Apartheid thinking on cultural matters is a matter of
historical record. Reading (and listening to) these sources, the consistently Euro-centered
approach of these media sources towards local opera production can be singled out as its
most dominant characteristic.
The nationalist agenda of much writing on opera production and the promotion of opera
and opera singers as so-called national assets during the Apartheid years cannot go
unnoticed. The portrayal, for instance, of the country’s best known operatic stars like Mimi
Coertse, Gé Korsten and Cecilia Wessels in many a book or Scenario article as doing the
country proud during a time of intense cultural isolation is conspicuous. The titles of
biographies on Mimi Coertse (Onse Mimi [Our Mimi]) and Cecilia Wessels (Stem en
Legende [Voice and Legend]) respectively, clearly illustrate the politically potent nature of
South African operatic discourse.
It is important to note that the way in which opera as an art form has been discursively
represented in these sources has partially dictated the way the history of opera in South
Africa is represented here. The most important effect of this representation is that the
current narrative is primarily ‘work centered’. It reads in the manner of a narrated list of
works, emphasizing the all-too-familiar hierarchical order of ‘work’ and ‘composer’
presiding over a structure that upholds these aspects of music production as the most
important for the historiographer, whilst singers, directors, teachers, artists, scholars and
the opera-going public occupy successively lower ranks of importance. A history of South
African opera unbeholden to this hierarchy would almost certainly be different from the
one presented here. Chapter 2 of this dissertation could be read as an example of a history
that de-emphasizes composers and works in favour of considerations of the influence of
opera production on the lives of singers and production staff in a pertinent political
context. It functions, I would argue, both a corrective to the current historical

249

Eichbaum was editor of the arts and culture magazine Scenario for 22 years. It is interesting to
note that although Eichbaum was an outspoken critic of the Apartheid government, his magazine
Scenario lost ground after 1994 and completely disappeared by 1998. The content of the last
editions of the magazine in 1998 were almost exclusively focused on classical music activities in
Europe and not on the production of classical music in South Africa.
73

representation and as an intimation of how this narrative representation can and should
change as more primary research is conducted.
It is clear that this chapter provides little insight into how ‘the idea of opera’ developed,
evolved or integrated into South African musical life. This dimension of indigenization is,
at least with regard to the Western Cape, more actively pursued in the chapters that follow.
What this chapter does make clear is how opera in South Africa was influenced by the
political and economic history of the country. The chronological historical structure of this
chapter also complements the understanding of indigenization as a process, anticipating
the problems that will be probed later on in this dissertation in efforts to arrive at concrete
aesthetic descriptions of indigenization (Chapter 3) or strategic structural attempts to
‘transform’ opera into an indigenous art form (Chapter 4). As such, this chapter also points
to the limitations of the use of the term ‘indigenization’.
Finally, the history constructed here from a wide range of secondary sources not only
attempts to show how opera ‘found its place’ in local culture and local circumstances, but
also how local culture responded to opera as a form of art. Although the former is perhaps
more central to the narrative told here, the implicit aspects of reception that are part of this
narrative receive more prominence in the chapters that follow.

74

Chapter 2. Archival secrets: constructing the history of Eoan

2.1

The early years

In 1933 the Eoan Group was founded by Helen Southern-Holt1 as a cultural and welfare
organization for the Coloured community in District Six in Cape Town.2 Initially
Southern-Holt taught speech classes which soon expanded into literature classes followed
by drama productions. During a speech held for the National Council for Women in 1947,
she explained that ‘my first desire in giving help to the Coloured community was to start
classes for clear, articulate speech. Having had to engage Coloured workers as well as
European, I knew from experience that the mass of Coloured boys and girls entering the
labour market were ill-equipped, and had not the power of the spoken word to aid them’.3
Shortly afterwards Southern-Holt also started a ballet section and a choir, recognizing the
talents and desire for development in the Coloured community. Southern-Holt explained
how she decided on the name Eoan:
On my programme, as I sat planning, I wrote ‘Eos’ the beautiful Greek word meaning
Dawn – Eos … Eoan … pertaining to the Dawn. And so I named the new group Eoan, in
the consciousness that through its illumination the Coloured People could realise the
dawning of a new cultural expansion in themselves, and a new understanding of wellbeing, physical and mental for their race.4

Although the Group had its central quarters in the Isaac Ochberg Hall at 302 Hanover
Street in District Six, by the mid-1950s fifteen branches had been established throughout

1

Little information is available on Helen Southern-Holt. She is described in Christine Lucia’s The
World of South African Music: A Reader as ‘a social worker’, on the current Eoan website
(www.eoangroup.co.za) as ‘an English woman’, in David Bloomberg’s My Times as ‘a benevolent
white woman’ and in Women Marching Into the 21st Century (published by the HSRC in 2000) no
information on her background is mentioned at all (this article also contains incorrect data).
2
Joseph Manca. ‘Eoan Group’ in South African Music Encyclopedia (SAME), ed. J.P. Malan,
Volume 2, pp. 26-9.
3
Speech given by Helen Southern-Holt at the National Council of Women in South Africa in 1947,
p. 1. Eoan Archive, box 37, folder 300.
4
Ibid, p. 2.
75

the Peninsula.5 By this time Eoan offered a wide range of activities to the Coloured people
throughout the Cape Peninsula, including ballet, folk dance, speech, drama, singing,
painting and sewing.6
Already in the first decade of its existence the group started performing in public venues in
Cape Town. In 1937 the first Coloured Dance Display was staged with the Cape Town
Municipal Orchestra.7 A year later the first dancers, trained by Eoan, took part in the Royal
Academy Dance Examinations.8 By 1940 a thousand children from fifteen Eoan branches
took part in an open air Physical Education Display which included dancing. From this
year onwards, the ballet section annually performed with the Cape Town Municipal
Orchestra.9
At the invitation of Helen Southern-Holt, Joseph Salvatore Manca10 joined the Music
Section of Eoan as choral conductor in 1943.11 Manca was born in Cape Town in 1908 of
Sicilian parents. He was an amateur musician pursuing a professional career at the City
Council as a qualified accountant.12 According to David Bloomberg, Manca ‘had no
formal musical education and was self-taught in his love and knowledge of Italian

5

In 1938 the Isaac Ochberg Hall was donated to Eoan by the bequest of Mr. Ochberg himself. See
letter from Ochberg’s daughter, Mrs Bertha Epstein, to Eoan Chairman, Mr H.G. Ashworth, dated
24 October 1962. Eoan Archive, box 32, folder 221.
6
Joseph Manca, Advance Publicity Material for the 1956 Arts Festival, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box
30, folder 203.
7
Ibid, p. 2.
8
Ibid.
9
Ibid.
10
Manca was a qualified accountant and worked at the Treasury Department of the City Council.
In 1968, aged 60, Manca resigned from his City Council position and became the full-time cultural
director at the Eoan Cultural Centre in Athlone. J.P. Malan. ‘Manca, Joseph Salvatore’ in SAME,
ed. J.P. Malan, Volume 3, pp. 192-194. See also Lucy Faktor-Kreitzer, ‘From Latvia to South
Africa’ in The World of South African Music: A Reader, edited by Christine Lucia, p. 149.
11
Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ in SAME, Volume 2, pp. 26–29. Also: Josepha Manca, Advance
Publicity Material for the 1956 Arts Festival, p. 2. Eoan Archive, box 30, folder 203.
12
Manca’s so-called inability to read orchestral scores became the topic of much speculation.
During a conversation with the present writer on 19 June 2008, Ronnie Samaai (brother of Gerald
Samaai, one of Eoan’s principal tenors) explained that Manca apparently never conducted from an
orchestral score, but used the piano reduction. David Bloomberg also elaborated on this in his book
My Times: ‘While I feel sure that he could read music, many doubted that he could read a score
properly and rumour had it that he taught himself the scores by listening repeatedly to the
appropriate long-playing records of that era.’ David Bloomberg, My Times, Fernwood Press 2007,
p. 24.
76

opera’.13 During the first thirteen years of his association with Eoan, Manca developed the
small choir into an amateur opera company that presented its first full-scale opera in 1956.
This much publicized event was the first ‘all-Coloured’ production of Guiseppe Verdi’s La
Traviata, sung in Italian and produced in traditional Italian style. In the twenty years
following this production, Eoan presented annual opera seasons, launched various arts
festivals and embarked on tours countrywide and to Europe.
The gradual development of Eoan’s music section from a small choir to an opera company
started in 1944 with a choral concert in the Cathedral Hall with approximately 35
choristers.14 After this concert the productions went from strength to strength, the choir
expanded in numbers and the works grew in scale, soon including soloists and orchestra.
In 1946 The Redeemer15 was performed with organ and 100 singers and in 1947 the
children’s cantata Sherwood16 was performed with 500 singers and the Cape Town
Municipal Orchestra. A year later the children’s operetta The Rose and the Laurel17 was
performed with singing and dancing by 500 participants.18

1948
The National Party comes to power, entrenching white minority rule.
1950
The ‘Group Areas Act’ (Act 41 of 1950) is passed in Parliament. It assigns racial groups to
different residential and business sections in urban areas.19
1951
The ‘Separate Representation of Voters Act’ is passed whereby Coloureds are removed
from the common voter’s role.20

13

Ibid.
‘Advance Publicity Material’ for the 1956 Arts Festival, written by Manca, p. 3. Eoan Archive,
box 30, folder 203.
15
The composer and date of composition are unknown.
16
The composer and date of composition are unknown.
17
The composer of the work and the date of composition are unknown.
18
Josepha Manca, Advance Publicity Material for the 1956 Arts Festival, p. 3. Eoan Archive, box
30, folder 203.
19
http://africanhistory.about.com/library/bl/blsalaws.htm, accessed 20 July 2008.
20
http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm, accessed 3 May 2008.
77
14

In 1949 Manca produced a costumed version of The Redeemer for adult choir and
members of the drama section. Manca described this production as ‘a form of passion
play’.21 A major breakthrough came in this same year when Billie Jones22 produced the
Group’s first complete operetta, A Slave in Araby,23 using 75 performers and starring May
Abrahamse in her first principal role. It was staged together with the Cape Town
Municipal Orchestra in the City Hall in Cape Town.24 A number of musicals and largescale works were produced in the following years. In 1950 the light opera Hong Kong25
was performed with the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, followed by the musical comedy
The Maid of the Mountains26 in 1951. Two years later Eoan embarked on a full-scale
production of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with soloists, an adult choir of over 100 singers and
organ accompaniment,27 followed by a production of the operetta The Gipsy Princess28
which ‘played to packed houses’ and of which ‘all repeat performances were sold out’.29 In
December that year choral concerts where held that included excerpts from Handel’s
Messiah and the cantata Bethlehem.30 1954 saw another musical comedy from Eoan as

21

See the overview of Eoan’s music productions 1944-1951. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 4.
Billie Jones was a white lady who worked with the drama section in the early days of Eoan.
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 17, Eoan Archive, box
60, folder 494c. See also the speech given by Helen Southern-Holt at the National Council of
Women in South Africa in 1947, p. 1, Eoan Archive, box 37, folder 300, as well as the interesting
referral to her elsewhere in this chapter as quoted in a letter from Andrew Mackrill to Joseph
Manca, dated 13 July 1955. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 4.
23
Despite the fact that this work has been widely performed, the composer of the operetta and the
date of composition are unknown. See for example
http://www.risleymtc.co.uk/_Main/RMTC_aboutus.html, accessed 28 May 2008.
24
Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ SAME, Volume 2, pp. 26-9. See also: Eoan Archive, box 1, folder
4.
25
Neither the composer nor the date of this composition has been found.
26
A musical comedy in three acts, lyrics by Harry Graham and music by H. Fraser-Simson, based
on a book by Frederick Lonsdale. The first performance took place in the Palace Theatre,
Manchester in 1916. http://www.nodanw.com/shows_m/maid_mountains.htm, accessed 28 August
2008. See Josepha Manca, Advance Publicity Material for the 1956 Arts Festival, p. 4 Eoan
Archive, box 30, folder 203.
27
This was the first all-Coloured production of Elijah in the country. ‘Advance Publicity Material’
for the 1956 Arts Festival, written by Manca, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box 30, folder 203.
28
Musical comedy by Emmerich Kalman, composed in 1915.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/classical/353434_gypsy03q.html, accessed 28 May 2008.
29
Josepha Manca, Advance Publicity Material for the 1956 Arts Festival, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box
30, folder 203.
30
Neither the composer nor the date of composition has been found.
78
22

they produced Magyar Melody31 with 100 performers accompanied by the Cape Town
Municipal Orchestra. 32
The financial means to produce works on this scale were provided by the government.
Manca wrote in an undated document that ‘up to the year ended 31st March 1956, the Eoan
Group was in receipt of a Financial Grant from the Department of Education’.33 However,
this must have been the Department of Coloured Affairs, as is indicated by the 1956
application for additional funds in a letter to that Department.34 In addition to this,
financial support of R 2 000 was annually received from the Cape Town City Council.35

2.2

The 1956 Arts Festival

Early in 1955, Manca proposed to the Eoan Group that the Group present an Arts Festival
completely administered and organized by the Group itself. Manca felt that ‘the time had
now arrived for the Group to undertake a more ambitious venture and that, as in the past,
the Group would be the pioneer in the presentation of the first all Coloured Arts Festival’.36
The preparations for the festival took a full year. Already at this early stage some members
had left the organization due to Eoan’s perceived ties with the government, of which the
most tangible evidence was the funding provided by the Department of Coloured Affairs.
The government had by now implemented a number of Apartheid laws, steadily rolling out
formal segregation between races which resulted in a loss of power and freedom of
31

A musical comedy adapted by Eric Maschwitz and George Posford from the play by Eric
Maschwitz, Fred Thompson and Guy Bolton. The music was composed by George Posford and
Bernard Grun. The work was premiered at the Opera House, Manchester on 29 Nov, 1938.
http://www.nodanw.com/shows_m/magyar_melody.htm, accessed 8 May 2008.
32
Josepha Manca, Advance Publicity Material for the 1956 Arts Festival, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box
30, folder 203.
33
See Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 12. Eoan
Archive, box 60, folder 494c.
34
Letter to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, dated 23 February 1956, p. 2. Eoan Archive,
box 1, folder 4. It is not clear in what year Eoan received the grant for the first time and who had
applied for it. It may well be that this grant was organized by Southern-Holt prior to Eoan’s opera
activities.
35
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 21. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c. In view of the fact that Manca was Eoan’s chief administrator as well as an
employee of the City Council, it is safe to assume that he organized this sponsorship.
36
Joseph Manca, Advance Publicity Material for the 1956 Arts Festival, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box
30, folder 203.
79

movement for the Coloured community. By this time Coloureds had been removed from
the voters roll, apartheid was increasingly enforced in public spaces and many Coloured
people had been relocated to the Cape Flats.
In a letter to former Eoan member Andrew Mackrill, dated 12 July 1955, Manca requested
him to play the principal part in the musical Zip Goes A Million for the 1956 Festival. The
letter provides some insight into Manca’s personal motivation for working with Eoan and
the difficulties experienced whilst doing so, whilst also showing a man out of touch with
the political imperatives of the day:
My one great regret is and has always been that you decided some time back to
disassociate yourself from active participation in the Group’s activities. You may have
reasons and at this stage I do not wish to question them, nevertheless, I feel that you like
me, have a duty to the people in that God has blessed us with certain talents which we
must give to the people for their enlightenment, education and enjoyment. [...]
What hurts me is now that I am the organiser behind this project, I would have
thought that I would enjoy the support of all those who value art and who would rise above
their personal feelings. Let us set aside ‘personal questions’ and let us serve the people. In
spite of the importance of this event I have met and found some sort of passive resistance.
This grieves me immensely, as I feel that both the Group and myself do not deserve this
sort of treatment. Tell me, Andrew, what is behind all this? Is it jealousy on the part of
some individuals? Do they feel that they ought to be at the head of affairs? Andrew, like in
all walks of life, if you wish to get to the top, you must work for it and what is more
important, put the object before the person.
Anyhow, I must stop talking like this because I could go on forever. Andrew, you
know me sufficiently well enough to admit that no matter what may be said, at least I am
sincere in my efforts to give to the people what God gave me.37

Mackrill’s reply to Manca, dated 13 July 1955, made it clear that politics rather than
personal animosity was responsible for the resistance amongst some Coloured people
against Eoan’s activities:38
It may help you to understand the new spirit motivating non-Europeans and why there is
this ‘passive resistance’ to your fine efforts in the work you are doing in the Group. Up to
ten years ago, Non-Europeans counted it an honour and privilege, as well as a pleasure, to
be associated with Europeans. There was so much you could teach us, so much we could
learn from the European. And the European enjoyed working with us. Your own
experience in the choir and those wonderful caucus meetings we had up at your home in
Derwent Road is proof of this. Then came the advent into power of the Nationalist Party as
the government of the day. They brought with them the seeds and virulent poison of racehatred as between White and Non-White. They destroyed over night the happy relations
and mutual regard existing between Coloureds and Europeans and Africans, and they did it
37
38

Letter from Manca to Andrew Mackrill, dated 12 July 1955. Eoan Archive, box 29, folder 201.
Formal organizations voicing resistance against Apartheid were formed at a later stage.
80

all in the name of God and the Holy Bible … And then they formed a Coloured Affairs
Department. That was the final nail in the coffin containing the once peaceful and happy
relationships that existed between White and Black.
The Coloured Affairs Department cost me my wonderful dramatic group of young
and enthusiastic amateur actors, ‘The St. Paul’s Players’. Today I miss those young players
as much as I miss the Group. Since then the people have noticed an increasing interest in
Eoan by this same Coloured Affairs Department.
Non-Europeans hate and loathe that particular Government Department with an
intense and savage bitter loathing and hatred. It stands for the Government of the
Nationalist Party, the Party at whose feet history will lay the blame for all the bitterness
and animosity now existing between Black and White in this country. People are
suspicious of the ties existing between this Department and Eoan. People are also
beginning to become increasingly worried … Nobody trusts the Coloured Affairs
Department of the Nationalist Government. Nobody!! That Department is a wolf in
sheep’s clothing …
No, Mr Manca, it’s not ‘jealousy’ or ‘a desire by some individuals to be at the
head of affairs’. The reasons are as I set them out briefly as above. During the time I was
in Eoan, I was the most politically conscious member in the Group. I was also its stormy
petrel, and most outspoken critic. But that’s because I love the Group so. Eoan made me,
in the world of Art, the man I am today. All my success I’ve had, on stage in theatre as a
singer in big musical works, and now lately as a producer of plays … I owe it all to Eoan.
My grateful thanks to them always for all this.
I have deliberately broken away from the Group, chiefly on matters of principle,
and because of my great love and regard for Miss Billie Jones. Today I am in ‘the
wilderness’. I have no regrets … in spite of the fact that I shall always love and think with
affection of Eoan, and you.’39

It is not clear from the documents in the Eoan Archive if, and to what extent Manca was
perturbed by the content of Mackrill’s reply, as his determination and ambition to achieve
financial and artistic success with and for the Eoan Group seemed as strong as ever. Even
before the Festival started Manca foresaw a financial shortfall and he applied for additional
funding from The Commissioner of Coloured Affairs on 23 February 1956. After
describing the Festival’s planned activities and providing the financial estimations, he
concluded this application as follows:
From the above statement it will be seen that the estimated deficit will be £2,125. In
consequence thereof, I apply for a special Grant-in-Aid from your Department, of £1,000
towards the estimated deficit on the Eoan Group Arts Festival. The balance of the deficit
will be met from the proceeds of special fund raising efforts to be organized by Eoan.

39

Letter from Andrew Mackrill to Manca, dated 13 July 1955. It is evident from the remainder of
the letter that the relationship between Manca and Mackrill (and also other ex-Groupers) was a
particularly warm and appreciative one. Mackrill specifically mentioned the fond memories he had
of his time with Eoan and with Manca in person. See Mackrill’s letters in the Eoan Archive, box 1,
folder 4 as well as box 29, folder 200.
81

The special grant now applied for is an addition to the annual grant from your Department,
which is devoted to the ordinary running costs of the Eoan Group.’40

1956
Racial segregation is introduced on public busses.41
Sophiatown near Johannesburg is declared a White area, thousands of people are removed
from the area and the suburb is renamed ‘Triomf’.42

Eoan’s First Arts Festival commenced on 10 March 1956 in the Cape Town City Hall with
a performance of Guiseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, sung in Italian. The opera was produced
by Allesandro Rota and Joseph Manca conducted the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra.
The entire orchestra consisted of white musicians.43 All tickets for the first performance
(approximately 1000 seats) were sold out within the first day of booking open to the
public.44 Eight more performances of the opera followed before the end of that month,
including a special performance of La Traviata held for government dignitaries.45 The cast
included, amongst others, May Abrahamse46 and Ruth Goodwin, sharing the role of
Violetta, Robert Trussell as Dottore and Ron Thebus as Alfredo. The Eoan Group Chorus
as well as the Eoan Group Ballet took part in the production. The reviews were
40

Letter to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, dated 23 February 1956, p. 2. Eoan Archive,
box 1, folder 4.
41
http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm, accessed 3 May 2008.
42
http://www.liberation.org.za/library/Library/ANC_Materials/ANC-history.htm, accessed 20 July
2008.
43
Joseph S Manca. ‘Eoan Group’ in SAME, ed. J.P. Malan, Volume 2, pp. 26-29. See also: 1956
Festival Brochure in Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 4.
44
Letter, dated 27 February 1956, to Mr J.L Hughes, secretary of N.O.D.A. in London. Eoan
Archive, box 1, folder 4.
45
Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 4.
46
At the time of this production May Abrahamse was working in the ‘Cheque Room’ at the Cape
Times. In the April edition of Talk of the Times, the magazine supplement of the Cape Times, an
article was published about Abrahamse and her role in La Traviata, which included the following:
‘From factory bench to stardom is usually a transition reserved for dreams and fiction. It is a
reality, however, for Miss May Abrahamse, the Coloured opera star who created such a
tremendous impression with her distinguished acting and singing in the Eoan Group’s presentation
of the Verdi opera La Traviata, in the City Hall last month. Her job is in our Cheque Department at
Parow. It is there that she earns a living but it is in Eoan Group productions that she is earning
stage fame.’ No author, April 1956 edition of Talk of the Times, magazine supplement of the Cape
Times. Eoan Archive, box 29, folder 200.
82

overwhelmingly positive and Eoan seemed to have made a huge impact on Cape Town’s
cultural circles. Well-known Afrikaans critic Charlie Weich of Die Burger wrote that had
he not seen with his own eyes what a Coloured Opera company had achieved on the night
of 10 March in the City Hall, he would not have believed it. The voices of May Abrahamse
and Lionel Fourie and the décor and costumes were singled out as outstanding.47
The other productions of this festival included a children’s version of The Mikado, the
South African première of the musical comedy Zip Goes a Million, the oratorio Elijah, the
play Johnny Belinda, and many other cultural activities such as Greek and classical ballet
shows, a massed physical education display, flower exhibitions and a floral arrangement
competition. The festival’s productions were spread over six months and came to a close in
August 1956. The entire festival was held in the Cape Town City Hall, the only venue
where Eoan was allowed to perform before mixed audiences, although the seats for
Coloured and White audiences were allocated in separate sections within the hall. The
middle and left sections were for Whites and the seats in the right section were for
Coloureds.48 The costumes for all productions were made by Eoan’s own members.
Carmen Sydow49 became Wardrobe Mistress from 1955 until her retirement in 1978.50 In a
later document Manca wrote that,
Since the beginning of the Eoan Group’s public activities, costumes were made by the
mothers of the members and the members themselves. However, with the ever widening
scope of activity, it was found necessary to establish a permanent sewing section. Since
1955, the Eoan Group has established a quasi-permanent Sewing Section under the
direction of Mrs. C. Sydow. This section has been responsible for all the costumes made
for the Arts Festivals, Operas, Dramas, and Ballets presented since 1956. Thus the Eoan
Group has at present a valuable wardrobe of costumes for continued productions.51

47

Charlie Weich (who wrote under the pseudonym Emol). ‘Kaapse Kleurlinge voer Italiaanse
opera met groot welslae uit’, Die Burger, Monday 12 March 1956.
48
Most seating plans show White seats in the middle and right sections of the audience, and the
Coloured seats in the left section of the audience. Seating plan found in Eoan Archive, box 1,
folder 4.
49
Carmen Sydow was the wife of Mr. Ismail Sydow who was Manca’s right hand and Eoan’s
Chairman for many years. She was also the mother of ballet dancer Didi Sydow whom Eoan
sponsored to study in the United Kingdom.
50
‘Advance Publicity Data’, box 2, folder 10.
51
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, pp. 16-7. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c.
83

Financially the festival was a success and, instead of the anticipated loss, the profit
amounted to £994. The British magazine Opera published an article on Eoan’s production
of La Traviata52 and on 2 April 1956 Manca wrote to the editor, Harold Rosenthal:
This Coloured Premiere of La Traviata was the greatest musical success Cape Town has
ever witnessed and caused a furore among the local musical circles. Ever since the first
night, the whole city has been talking and a special evening was given which was attended
by the leading authorities of South Africa – The Governor-General, Members of the
Cabinet, Full Diplomatic Corps, Members of Parliament, Senators, etc. etc. History was
created in more than one sense. Not only was this the first Coloured performance in the
world of a complete Italian Opera, but all […] booking records were broken. All
performances were ‘sold out’ before the rise of the curtain on the opening night.
Altogether, nine performances were given, all playing to packed houses, and thousands of
people were unable to gain admission. It is no idle boast to say, that we could continue to
play to capacity houses for at least another two weeks. The results have surpassed all
expectations, and the Eoan Group is now looking forward to a proper ‘Opera Season’
when it is hoped to give several operas.53

In a historical overview of Eoan’s activities written some years later, Manca gave his
impression of what he thought the performance meant to the singers and audience:
The presentation of the Italian Opera La Traviata, was the dawn of a new era for the
Coloured People in their striving for the higher things of life. This introduction into the
magical world of opera was the Coloured People’s first intimate contact with one of the
highest forms of musical art – an unforgettable baptism at whose front new horizons
appeared on the educational landscape of the Coloured People’s activities while new vistas
of beauty were painted on the artistic canvas of their cultural progress.54

Today it is impossible not to read this interpretation of events as patronizing, politically
compromised and naïve. It endorses apartheid themes of Western cultural superiority, of
cultural homogeneity and the civilizing teleology of separate cultural (read: racial)
development. If Manca is read at face value, opera in South Africa had a civilizing role to
play that depended, if anything, on its status as European and uncompromisingly unindigenized art (as is illustrated by the emphasis on performances in Italian with Italian
sets). In terms of indigenization as described in the introduction to this thesis, Eoan’s opera
52

Manca wrote to newspapers and organizations in the whole of South Africa as well as abroad
(e.g. Time in New York, the BBC in London, Opera in the United Kingdom, and also a few
operatic societies) to advertise and market the festival. See correspondence in Eoan Archive, box 1,
folder 1.
53
Letter from Manca to the editor of Opera, Mr. H. Rosenthal, 2 April 1956. Eoan Archive, box
29, folder 200.
54
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 8. Eoan Archive, box
60, folder 494c.
84

productions point to the indigenization of the forces harnessed to perform opera, rather
than the indigenization of operatic repertoire. Whereas it is possible to interpret the ‘allColoured casts’ of Eoan as supporting a racially-informed idea of indigenization, these and
other documents in the Eoan Archive suggest exactly the opposite dynamic: for Eoan it
was not opera that was supposed to change or adapt or indigenize in South Africa. Instead
opera was expected to change (civilize) the (Coloured) South Africans involved in it. It is
therefore not surprising that not everyone in the Coloured community was enthusiastic
about Eoan’s success. Scathing attacks and objections to Eoan’s activities appeared on two
separate occasions documented in the organization’s archive. The first is a letter from the
South African Coloured People’s Organization and the second an anonymous circular
distributed in the streets. Both letters expressed dismay at the Eoan Group’s special
performance of La Traviata to government officials.55 Alex La Guma, chairman of the
South African Coloured People’s Organisation, wrote to Eoan as follows:
Allow us to congratulate you on your magnificent performance of ‘La Traviata’. You have
shown that, given the opportunities, Coloured people can excel in the realms of culture on
par with all other peoples.
It has come to our notice, however, that your group arranged a special performance
of the opera for ‘Europeans Only’ on Tuesday night 20th [of March] ... Among those
invited were the Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament whose attitude towards the
Non-Europeans are well known.
It [has been] rumoured for sometime that your group was financially supported by
the government through the Coloured Affairs Department. However, Dr. du Plessis now
appears to be sufficiently bold as to have arranged for the Group to put on a ‘Europeans
Only’ show, and this in the face of the mounting opposition of the Coloured people against
Apartheid. […] People can also conclude, therefore, that the Eoan Group supports
Apartheid. In fact, the whole idea reminds one of the slave period when the farmers hired
Coloureds to perform for them, their masters. Today in the 20th Century we do not
recognize the white man as our master. This is the land of our birth and we demand
government support for ALL cultural movements. BUT WITHOUT APARTHEID
STRINGS.
The eyes of the world are on you, and we can safely say that all advanced and
progressive people bowed their heads in shame when you … followed the footsteps of
your slave forefathers, and performed for a ‘Europeans Only’ audience. We realize
however for you to have refused to perform would have required great courage, but that is
surely what we – who respect you as artists – have a reasonable right to expect. True art,
surely belongs to ALL people of our land.56

55

Letter of protest sold on the streets, dated 31 March 1956, and letter from the South African
Coloured People’s Organization, no date. Eoan Archive, box 29, folder 200.
56
Letter from Alex La Guma, Chairman of The South African Coloured People’s Organization, no
date. Eoan Archive, box 29, folder 200.
85

Manca’s politically stilted version of events is also put into perspective by a critical
pamphlet which was sold on the streets after the La Traviata performance:

THE LA TRAVIATA AFFAIR
We do not share the amazement the columns of the daily press oozed out over the recent
production of Italian opera by a so-called ‘all coloured cast’. We are not surprised that
human beings can sing, dance and act.
However, the undoubted enthusiasm of both the performance and the majority of
the audiences for ‘La Traviata’ is an index of the cultural starvation and hunger of the
majority of the people, cut off as they are by apartheid and poverty from the best in arts
and culture. It is precisely this cultural starvation of the mass of the people that has tricked
them into accepting Eoan’s ‘La Traviata’ as a step towards their cultural aspirations. In the
same way a man driven by a burning thirst will drink at a sewer for the sake of life itself.
The Eoan Group is befouled by an apartheid atmosphere. […] Its participation in
the apartheid festival in Goodwood at the very time when the Council was demanding
removal of the so-called non-whites from the area under the Group Areas Act is
unforgivable. But the most smarting humiliation to date, for the majority of the people,
was the special performance of ‘La Traviata’ for South African prominent racialists.
People who publicly spit in the faces of the artists, who are horrified at the very thought of
sitting next to them in the same bus, or even standing in the same que[ue] to buy a stamp
[…], to these the Eoan Group is ‘thrilled’ to give a special place of honour during the
performance of La Traviata. To our shame, not one of the artists walked off the stage in
protest against this outrageous insult. This sort of thing can only happen when people are
so starved of artistic and cultural expression that the opportunity to express themselves
artistically becomes all important.
Many of the so-called Coloured people accept the Eoan Group because they
mistake the mere acquisition of skills, techniques and accomplishments as genuine artistic
and cultural expression. They are tricked into accepting the apartheid basis of Eoan at the
expenses of dignity and self-respect – the foundation of all art and culture. In the long run
all development is stifled and the aspirations of the people frustrated and nullified.
Operatic art, like all art, cannot thrive on the basis of racialism. It can only be undermined.
[…]
The ‘so-called whites’ in their midst, whatever their feelings may be, are patrons
of bosses and not fellow artists. Blacks are implicitly barred. It is to their credit that South
Africa’s best artists have steered clear of Eoan where people are trained and presented as
elegant coons and not artists.57

These documents are quoted at length, because they show unequivocally that political
resistance to Eoan’s operatic activities occurred from the very first opera performance and
more importantly, that this resistance was widely publicized and known to Manca. What is
not clear from the documentation in the Eoan Archive is to what extent the content of these
letters affected Manca or the rest of the group; nor is it clear whether or to what extent the

57

Anonymous letter of protest sold on the streets, dated 31 March 1956. Eoan Archive, box 29,
folder 200.

86

members of the group were aware of these letters or the sentiments they expressed.58
Throughout their existence Eoan’s constitution stated that the organization is a nonpolitical organization59 and from interviews and newspaper cuttings, it is clear that Manca
always preached ‘art above politics’.60 In 1957, however, the Group decided not to apply
for funding as the government set the condition that, in order to receive the grant, Eoan
was not allowed to perform to mixed audiences without a permit.61 Except for the
continuation of the annual R 2 000 grant from the Cape Town Municipality, the Group
remained financially independent until 1966. After the 1956 Festival Eoan’s financial
position and artistic development enabled them to present annual Opera Seasons in March
of each year, all of which were held in the City Hall in Cape Town where the group could
perform for mixed audiences. From 1957 onwards they added a number of operas to their
repertoire, amongst others Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Guiseppe Verdi’s
Rigoletto and Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème.
During the 1950s and 60s, opera in the white community of Cape Town was mainly
produced by Erik Chisholm, a prolific opera composer and enterprising and experienced
musician who emigrated to South Africa in 1946 to take up the post of Dean of the Faculty
of Music at the University of Cape Town. He established the University of Cape Town
Opera Company in 1951 and the Opera School in 1954, appointing Gregorio Fiasconaro as
its director. Cape Town audiences were subsequently treated to an unprecedented variety
of opera productions by the Eoan Group as well as the University of Cape Town Company
58

This document was filed by Manca in a rather unusual way. The original copy of the document
does not exist in the archive, but Manca typed the wording of the pamphlet on blue typing paper
and therefore must have had an original copy. On the side of the copied version, Manca penciled
the following perplexing note by hand: ‘This I typed to let you know of, though I realize not worth
worrying about.’
59
See paragraph 4 of Eoan’s constitution. Eoan Archive, box 37, folder 12.
60
Willem de Vries, ‘Abrahamse snoer jare saam’, Die Burger, 14 May 2007. The situation was
also explained to the present writer in an interview with former Eoan singer Patricia van Graan on
19 November 2008 in Somerset West. Van Graan said that Manca always told the group that
‘politics was a dirty word’.
61
Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3. The
minutes of the Annual General Meeting in 1957 when this decision was taken are lost. However,
the issue was mentioned in a number of newspaper articles from 1960 and 1961. See for example
‘The glorious dawn…’ The Daily News, 15 July 1960, Ilanga Lase, 23 July 1960 as well as
reviews and newspaper cuttings in Eoan Archive, box 30 folder 208. When Eoan reapplied for
government funding in 1965, the conditions stated that they were not allowed to perform before
mixed audiences unless they applied for a permit to do so. For further information, see the section
on 1965 in this chapter. Eoan Archive, box 33 folder 231.
87

who staged many operas from the standard repertory. The Cape Town Opera Company
also toured through South Africa, extending their tours to Northern and Southern Rhodesia
(today Zambia and Zimbabwe) and the United Kingdom. Notable premières of local
operas included Chisholm’s The Pardoner’s Tale (1961) and John Joubert’s Silas Marner
(1961).62
Collaboration between the White and Coloured opera groups was minimal during these
years; they shared Fiasconaro as producer but never exchanged singers or dancers. Whites
attended Eoan’s opera performances, but Coloureds were not allowed in most venues in
town. The opportunities for Coloureds to attend productions by White singers were
therefore very limited. However, since 1955 Eoan had been awarding bursaries to some of
its dancers, singers and musicians who were able to study music at the College of Music of
the University of Cape Town.63 Among the recipients was the pianist Gordon Jephtas, who
later played a pivotal role in training Eoan’s singers. The College of Music also offered
voice training to Eoan through the services of one of their members of staff, Olga
Magnoni, although it is not clear if she did this in her personal capacity or whether Eoan
singers attended class at the College.64 Eoan also sponsored the ballet dancer Didi Sydow
to study with the Royal Ballet School in London where she eventually made a career as a
dancer.65

1960
The ANC and PAC are banned by the government under the ‘Unlawful Organisations
Act’.66
The Sharpeville Massacre takes place on 21 March.
62

J.P. Malan, ‘Erik Chisholm’, in the South African Music Encyclopedia, ed. J.P. Malan, Volume
1, p. 272.
63
It is only by the late 1970s that some of Eoan’s dancers were used in ballet productions by the
UCT Ballet School and a decade later before Eoan’s singers found employment with the Cape
Provincial Arts Council.
64
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/history2008.html, accessed 27 July 2008.
65
See Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, pp. 15-16 for a
more comprehensive list of individuals who received bursaries from Eoan. Eoan Archive, box 60,
folder 494c.
66
http://www.liberation.org.za/library/Library/ANC_Materials/ANC-history.htm, accessed 20 July
2008.
88

2.3

The Fourth Opera and Ballet Season and the 1960 Opera and Ballet Tour

1960 was an unusually busy year for Eoan. Not only did they present their annual opera
season in March in the Cape Town City Hall (their fourth annual season), they also
undertook their first tour of the country between June and September, presenting three full
seasons in Port Elizabeth, Durban and Johannesburg respectively. Keeping in mind that
Eoan’s entire cast and most of the production team were amateurs who received no
remuneration for their performances, the difficult circumstances in which they performed
and the enormous personal sacrifices which were made to achieve this, is all the more
extraordinary.67 The Fourth Opera and Ballet Season was held from 10 March to 2 April
with Gregorio Fiasconaro as producer.68 The programme included Puccini’s La Bohème (a
new production for Eoan) during which Winifred du Plessis made her debut. Other operas
presented were Rigoletto, La Traviata and Cavalleria Rusticana with Vera Gow making
her debut as leading soprano solo. A new ballet, The Pink Lemonade, was also presented.
Johaar Mosaval, a former Eoan member dancing with the Royal Ballet Company in the
United Kingdom, returned to South Africa to dance in this production.69
It is clear that Manca’s control over the Group and its activities was strong and that
without his leadership the infrastructure to perform opera would not have existed. In the
Advance Publicity Data for the 1960 Opera Season, his involvement is described as
follows:
The whole opera season is under the direction of Joseph Manca, who in addition to
conducting the operas has been responsible for its complete administration and

67

The entire cast had to take three months unpaid leave from their daytime jobs to be able to go on
tour. Although the Eoan Finance Committee paid compensation for loss of wages, no singer or
dancer received payment for their performances. For their performances in Durban, Eoan had to
apply for special exemption on Entertainment Duty which all paid performers in Natal had to pay
to the provincial authorities. This resulted in an administrative exercise which took many months
as Durban officials found it hard to believe that the company’s singers were amateurs. See Eoan
Archive, box 31, folder 210.
68
Joseph Manca, Advance Publicity Information Fourth Opera and Ballet Season, cover page,
Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 10.
69
Ibid, p. 2. This ballet was based on the life of Mosaval who grew up in District Six. David Poole
choreographed this production. The composer of the music is unknown.
89

organisation. Added to this has been his unstinted training of the principals in the learning
of their music, language and translation of the various roles.70

Although probably written by Manca himself, documents in the Eoan Archive support this
version of events. In the archive one comes across hundreds of documents concerning the
detailed planning of finance, festivals, rehearsals, interviews, permits and many other
organizational matters, bearing testimony to the huge task Manca had at hand, his penchant
for detail, but also the control he exercised over the group and their movements. When
Eoan undertook their First Opera and Ballet Tour through South Africa, evidence of his
complete control can be seen everywhere in the documentation; all travel arrangements
were planned to the minute and he even went as far as planning the sleeping arrangements
for every member in each hotel they stayed in during the tour.71
The tour was a financial and artistic success and newspaper critics in the various cities
wrote as many positive reviews as Eoan held performances.72 The Eoan Archive also holds
many letters by individuals expressing sincere thanks, appreciation and good wishes to
Manca and the Eoan Group, many indicating that no consistent or quality opera production
was available in their own cities. During the tour Eoan visited Port Elizabeth, Durban and
Johannesburg, presenting the programme performed during their March Opera Season in
Cape Town (four operas as well as two short ballets).73 Manca reported in customary
superlatives: ‘The tour lasted for three months from June to September where the Eoan
Group played to absolute capacity houses, making a deep impression on the citizens of
these cities. People queued night and day and houses were sold out long before the seasons
opened thus proving that South Africa is an opera loving country’.74
70

Ibid, p. 5.
See folders on Eoan’s 1960 tour to Port Elizabeth, Durban and Johannesburg. Eoan Archive, box
31, folders 209-211.
72
Early in 1960 Manca visited all three cities to investigate the feasibility of a tour and to meet
with people who could help with arrangements. He also travelled to Rhodesia and met with several
people with the view to extend the tour there, but due to high costs, heavy demands on the Group’s
time and the lack of a Coloured community who could support Eoan with accommodation in that
country, the plans were dropped. See Eoan Archive, box 32, folder 216.
73
The cost to undertake the tour totaled R 58 000. Joseph Manca, Eoan Group, 1962 Arts Festival
and future Activities, p. 5, no date given but presumably written in 1961. Eoan Archive, box 53,
folder 436. See also Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966. Eoan Archive, box 1,
folder 3.
74
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 9. Eoan Archive, box
60, folder 494c.
90
71

In Port Elizabeth Eoan presented fourteen performances in the Feather Market Hall, which
had a capacity of 1496 seats.75 The season coincided with Port Elizabeth’s Centenary
Celebrations and Eoan’s visit was organized with the help of the Council of Coloured
Women. Signs of resistance from anti-Apartheid organizations during this time are absent
from the archive.76 The only recorded protest came from the Port Elizabeth branch of the
Coloured Teachers’ Organization who decided to boycott the town’s Centenary Festival
and requested that Eoan cancel their performances in protest against government
policies.77 Documentation in the Eoan Archive suggests that at this stage a fair degree of
freedom of movement for Coloured people was still possible in South Africa. There are,
for example, no documents in the archive pertaining to the obtaining of permits to perform
in the Feather Market Hall or regarding accommodation of the performers.78
In Durban Eoan presented another fourteen performances in the Durban City Hall. All
performances were well attended, although the support from the Coloured community was
‘somewhat disappointing’.79 It is clear from the archive that already in 1960, Eoan’s
principal tenor, Joseph Gabriels, had a professional reputation stretching far beyond the
Cape Province. The Natal Department of Music and Entertainment was not easily
convinced that Gabriels was still working as a store assistant and therefore regarded as an
amateur, exempt from the tax the province levied on income produced by entertainment.80
In both Port Elizabeth and Durban mixed audiences were freely admitted to the venues.
The reviews were generous, although not without criticism. The Natal Mercury reported
on 30 July:
75

See letter from the Port Elizabeth Council for Coloured Women to Manca, 21 March 1960. Eoan
Archive, box 31, folder 209.
76
It can be assumed that those who did not want to associate with Eoan had left the organization
and did not bother to communicate with them. It is also possible that Manca stopped recording any
signs of resistance in his administration.
77
No author, ‘Coloured boycott decision’, no date, no name of newspaper. Eoan Archive, box 31,
folder 209.
78
Five years later, during Eoan’s 1965 tour, the situation in Port Elizabeth was entirely different.
Due to Apartheid legislation freedom of movement for Coloureds was markedly curtailed, causing
many problems for the group.
79
Press statement during Eoan’s tour in Johannesburg. No author, no date. Eoan Archive, box 31,
folder 211.
80
Letter from the Provincial Accountant Natal, 11 January 1961. Eoan Archive, box 40, folder
321.
91

The Eoan Opera Group took a packed City Hall by storm last night with a brilliant
production of Puccini’s inspiring tragedy, La Boheme. It was a magnificent experience and
every South African, regardless of colour, can be justifiably proud of this company.
Joseph Gabriels (tenor) as the romantic poet Rodolfo let himself go with a soaring and
rich, vibrant voice. I heard him in Cape Town earlier this year and last year in the same
season of operas but I cannot recall a more outstanding performance. Further training
should put him among some of the best that the opera world can produce. 81

Three days later, the same critic continued:
Seldom has a Durban audience responded so enthusiastically and warmly to a performance
as it did last night at the close of the Eoan Group’s production of Rigoletto. Loud and
prolonged, the applause seemed almost deafening at times when any of the principals took
their curtain calls.
After an unfortunately indifferent start in Act 1, the company soon rallied, but it was not
until the magnificent final act that it reached its peak.
This act was brilliant from any point, but nothing touched such great heights as the
singing. This was the Eoan Group at its best.82

Success during Eoan’s season in Johannesburg was unsurpassed. Arriving in mid-August,
their seventeen performances were sold out. Due to public demand, it was decided to
extend the season with three weeks. This added another 27 performances to their schedule
and the group performed every evening from Monday to Saturday with three additional
matinees per week.83 The performances were held in the University Great Hall and the
Alexander Theatre. Again, all race groups were allowed to attend the performances,
although for the Alexander Theatre this was an exception to the rule.84 Keeping in mind
that all participants on this tour took unpaid leave from their daytime jobs, were not paid
for their performances and only received compensation for lost wages, the achievement of
presenting 72 performances in three months at an apparently high artistic level is truly
astonishing.
Shortly after the tour, Lionel Fourie, the baritone who sang the role of Rigoletto during
that year, passed away at the age of 38. With his passing one of Eoan’s legendary stories
81

Author’s acronym: T.R.W, ‘Eoan Group’s “La Boheme” takes Durban by storm’, The Natal
Mercury, 30 July 1960. Eoan Archive, box 30, folder 208.
82
Author’s acronym: T.R.W, ‘Eoan Cast’s “Rigoletto” Delights Audience’, The Natal Mercury, 2
August 1960. Eoan Archive, box 30, folder 208.
83
Programme schedule for the Johannesburg season. Eoan Archive, box 31, folder 211.
84
Press statement during Eoan’s tour in Johannesburg. No author, no date. Eoan Archive, box 31,
folder 211.
92

was born. According to a number of singers, Fourie had vowed that no one would sing
Rigoletto after him, his exact words being ‘nobody will wear my cloak’.85 It is interesting
that Eoan indeed struggled to perform Rigoletto again. In 1968 the annual opera season
which included this opera, was cancelled due to illness of many singers and insufficient
preparation of the group.86 In 1969 Eoan’s production of Rigoletto was cancelled shortly
before the beginning of the season when their principal bass, Robert Trousell, died
unexpectedly and it was only in 1972 that the group managed to perform this opera
again.87

1961
The Union of South Africa becomes a Republic.
In April 1961 Mimi Coertse visits South Africa to perform in the South African Federation
for Opera’s production of La Traviata, a work with which Eoan made a name for
themselves in the local opera scene five years earlier and which they still performed
annually.88

2.4

The Second Arts Festival of 1962

During 1961 Eoan’s music section started using premises on the third floor in Delta House
in Bree Street, Cape Town as rehearsal and office space.89 Not only was the space limited

85

This was confirmed to the present writer in conversations with Peter Voges, Ronald Theys as
well as Lionel Fourie’s widow, Ruth, in Cape Town on 22 October 2008.
86
Letter by Ismail Sydow to the Town Clerk Mr Jan Luyt, 25 September 1968. Eoan Archive, box
34, folder 233.
87
According to singer Patricia van Graan, Lionel Fourie’s cloak was officially burnt before they
performed the opera again. Interview with Patricia van Graan on 19 November 2008.
88
Her singing was described as follows: ‘Mimi’s voice was brilliant – tender, sparkling, flexible,
rich, pure in cantilena, with a fine vibrato in dramatic moments. She held the stage like a true
prima donna. She has never looked lovelier.’ Dora Sowden. ‘Dora Sowden at the opera’, Sunday
Times, 30 April 1961. Eoan Archive, box 33, folder 224.
89
Opera Chorus Rehearsal list, February 1965, EOAN Archive, box 3, folder 14.
93

in the Ochberg Hall, the area was also deemed unsafe.90 In accordance with the Group
Areas Act of 1957, Eoan, as a Coloured organization, had to apply for a permit to use this
space in a White area. The permit was granted on 24 April 1961 and the Eoan Music
section used these premises until 1969 when they moved to the Joseph Stone Auditorium
in Athlone.91
In order to prepare for the Second Arts Festival planned for 1962, no public performances
were held during 1961. Manca was very ambitious (as usual), and at this stage he not only
prepared for the festival, but already started to plan a second tour of the country for 1963,
this time including visits to the then Rhodesia and South West Africa. He also planned an
extended tour of Europe and England where he wanted Eoan to take part in the
Commonwealth Arts Festival in Britain in 1964.92 In appealing for financial assistance for
the planned activities, Manca wrote as follows:
Some idea of costs can be gauged when it is realized that the 1960 Tour of the Union cost
approximately £ 29,000 (R58,000). There are few cultural organizations which can, out of
their own resources, finance such costly ventures ... It is felt that South Africa could have
no better ‘show window’ than by presenting the Eoan Group in Europe and Great Britain,
thus showing to what extent South Africa has culturally progressed. Its very appearance
would silence the many critics of South Africa and have much more propaganda value than
the publication of thousands of magazines and pamphlets. The South African government
should not lose this opportunity of sponsoring the Eoan Group and making possible its
overseas visit, and an appeal is made to the authority, to South African Commerce and
Industry and to the Government itself to see that the Eoan Group’s ambition to tour
overseas is made a reality.93

From the above it is clear that Manca was convinced that a tour abroad would not be
possible without substantial funding. Whether he used words such as ‘propaganda value’
as a ploy to cajole those in power into funding Eoan, or really believed in these ideas, is
open to question. Phrases like ‘culturally progressed’ cohere with his consistently
expressed ideals, making it likely that at least on this matter he was being entirely candid.
90

See letter to Mrs Bertha Epstein (daughter of Mr Isaac Ochberg) dated 31 October 1962. The
Ochberg Hall was still used for other Eoan activities until the organization was forced out of
District Six in the late 1960s. Eoan Archive, box 32, folder 221.
91
See permit issued by the Department of the Interior, dated 24 April 1961. Dr I.D. du Plessis was
apparently instrumental in having this permit approved. See letter of thanks from Manca to Du
Plessis, dated 3 May 1961. Eoan Archive, box 32, folder 219.
92
Joseph Manca, Eoan Group, 1962 Arts Festival and future Activities, pp. 1-2, no date given,
presumably written in 1961. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 436.
93
Ibid, p. 6.
94

However, he did seem to be aware that the government’s funding largesse was more easily
mobilized for projects with propaganda value rather than the cause itself and that the
government would sponsor Eoan for its propaganda value to the outside world rather than
for the sake of opera production or the upliftment of the Coloured community.
Although Eoan was at this time not receiving funding from the Department of Coloured
Affairs, the debate on government funding for their cultural activities and the political
compromises that this entailed must have been on-going in the Eoan Group. In March
1961 issues such as segregated audiences, government funding as well as ‘art above
politics’ were discussed in the newspapers of the day. Manca filed these newspaper
cuttings in Eoan’s 1961 papers. Because these issues were of vital importance in the
eventual demise of Eoan’s opera activities in the late 1970s, and serve to give some insight
into the severity of the debate confronting Eoan at the time, it is worth while citing from
two of these articles:
Actors and Apartheid
The cruel dilemma in which opponents of segregation find themselves is whether to accept
the benefits of segregated institutions or to reject them on stern principle.
We can understand and sympathize with the cultural non-White whose aversion to
apartheid is so strong that he cannot bring himself to attend segregated performances. He
must follow the dictates of his conscience, and should be respected for doing so. But there
is a broader view which compels even greater respect – the view that the liberating power
of culture can exert itself even in a segregated audience, and that the sense of human
brotherhood can be communicated even in a building which denies it.94
Conflict on Theatre Apartheid
The whole question of segregated audiences is one of inconsistencies and contradictions.
On the one hand Europeans apparently are determined in their opposition to mixed
audiences at shows, and a benevolent Government is only too happy to legislate supporting
this opposition. Yet one finds these same Europeans perfectly happy, attending very mixed
performances of productions staged by such prominent non-White theatre groups as Drama
Centre and the Eoan Group.
On the other hand, non-Whites violently opposed to segregated performances also appear
guilty of muddled thinking. It is an accepted fact that separate cinemas cater exclusively
for non-Whites. They wait patiently for big film screenings in these exclusively non-White
cinemas. Nobody seems to protest. […]
But hasn’t the time arrived for White South Africans to remove the blinkers from their
eyes and face facts? Let the European look round him in his daily life. There can never be
apartheid. The lives of everybody in this land are so interwoven that in spite of the
fanatical efforts of legislators, the scourge of apartheid must finally break down.
94

No author, ‘Actors and Apartheid’ as published in the Cape Times, 2 March 1961. Eoan Archive,
box 32, folder 219.
95

Meanwhile time is running out for the non-White, too. Is it necessary for him, on a stand of
principle, to cut himself off from everything artistic and educational just because he can’t
sit next to some White person?95

Eoan’s Second Arts Festival was held in co-operation with the Peninsula Round Table.
From the start of the preparations until all organizational matters had been dealt with
afterwards, all correspondence was typed on a letterhead stating ‘EOAN Group –
Peninsula Round Table Arts Festival 1962’, including both organizations’ logos and
directors. Although the Round Table did not present or take part in any of the productions,
they played a financial and organizational supporting role and it was clear that this was a
racially mixed initiative.96
The festival productions were spread over several months, starting with opera in March
and ending with a musical in November. The opera season opened with Giacomo Puccini’s
Madam Butterfly,97 included the group’s existing repertoire of La Traviata and La Bohème
and was augmented with Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus.98 Eoan produced a
drama in April, a children’s operetta in July and performed Verdi’s Requiem in August.99
In September 1962 Eoan also presented a new ballet, The Square, composed for Eoan by
the South African composer Stanley Glasser and choreographed by David Poole.100 The
story was a depiction of gang life in District Six and the principal role was again danced by
Johaar Mosaval.101 Manca, quite rightly, claimed another ‘first’ for Eoan as this was the
first complete full-length indigenous ballet composed by a local composer for a local ballet
group in South Africa. It is during this time that the composer Stanley Glasser ran into
trouble with Apartheid legislation in an event which caused him to flee South Africa.
Glasser had an affair with an Eoan singer, Maud Damons, who sang a vocal part in the
orchestral score of The Square. Having been caught in flagrante by a police officer near
95

No author, ‘Conflict on Theatre Apartheid’ as published in the Cape Times, 9 March 1961. Eoan
Archive, box 32, folder 219.
96
The directors mentioned are H.G. Ashworth (for Eoan), Joseph Manca (Festival Director) and E.
de Klerk (Peninsula Round Table Chairman). The two organizations held weekly meetings during
the months preceding the festival. See minutes in Eoan Archive, box 82, folder 634.
97
Press Release to 1965 Eoan Opera Season. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 9.
98
Eoan’s first non-Italian production.
99
Rehearsal and performance schedule for the 1962 Arts Festival. Eoan Archive, box 33, folder
223.
100
Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ in SAME, ed. J.P. Malan, Volume 2, pp. 26-29.
101
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 12. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c.
96

Rhodes Memorial in Cape Town some months after the production, the couple was
allegedly arrested on contravening the Immorality Act of 1950.102 After being released on
bail, Glasser and Damons, allegedly crossed the border to Botswana and fled to the United
Kingdom via Tanzania.103 According to Peter Voges, an Eoan ballet dancer who took part
in The Square, the affair was ‘an open secret’, everybody in the group knew about it but
nobody discussed it openly. 104 In London Glasser settled as a lecturer in music. The
incident is important because it illustrates, on a level other than funding or administration,
how the inevitable inter-racial personal relationships resulting from Eoan performances
were conducted in adherence to Apartheid legislative demands and not challenged. Where
Apartheid norms were flouted, the consequences were dire.
After the festival the ballet department became dormant for some years.105 During the
1966 Annual General Meeting this issue was discussed and Manca supplied, amongst
others, the following reasons for this development:
The Eoan Group could not afford to pay many Ballet Teachers. Also, there was no
‘professional career’ open to our dancers. Many who were qualified had to enter industry
and commerce for a living and so were ‘lost’ to the Group. This was a ‘tragedy’ and for
this reason, the Group did not have a regular ‘corps di ballet’.106

During the festival Eoan also held a performance of La Traviata in the Stellenbosch Town
Hall. Yet again Manca claimed a ‘first’ for Eoan, stating that this was the first opera held
in this venue for a mixed audience. He wrote: ‘although we appeared before a mixed
audience in Stellenbosch, it must be noted that separate seating was allocated to the two
races – a feature which caused no friction and which greatly encouraged the Eoan Group in
102

The Immorality Act of 1950 forbade sexual relations between members of the white and nonwhite races.
103
A photo of Glasser and Damons in their hotel in Dar es Salaam has been published on the
internet and can be viewed on http://www.jamd.com/image/#g3364712. The caption to the photo
reads as follows: ‘Lovers Flee. 19th February 1963: University lecturer, Stanley Glasser and jazz
singer, Maud Damons, on the balcony of their hotel in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. They have just
arrived after fleeing from South Africa, where they were charged under the immorality act, which
forbids sexual relations between members of different races.’
104
Although the information on this incident existed as gossip for many years, it was confirmed by
the journalist Michael Green who related it in his book Around and About (2004, p. 52). Green
erroneously connects the incident to the production of the musical King Kong. The information
presented here was confirmed to the present writer in a personal conversation with Peter Voges on
22 October 2008, in Cape Town.
105
Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, p. 3. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3.
106
Ibid.
97

its efforts to bring opera to all members of our country. Another milestone was passed [as]
this was the first time a mixed audience was allowed on the same night and in the same
hall. The Eoan Group thanks Stellenbosch.’107

1963
The National Performing Arts Councils are established, securing state funding and
professional careers for White artists only.

In 1963 Manca was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Cape
Town108 ‘in recognition of his work for the cultural progress and uplift of the Coloured
Community’.109 Manca had now been with Eoan for 20 years. During this year he also
started planning on a big scale for the 1965 Opera and Ballet Season, including plans to
tour to Europe and the USA. In a letter to David Tidboald, at the time director of the Cape
Town Municipal Orchestra, Manca wrote that Eoan planned to produce at least seven
operas and two ballets, asking to book the Municipal Orchestra for Eoan’s opera season
from 22 February to 10 March 1965. He also mentioned that he was to travel to the USA in
February 1963 ‘on a lecture and study tour of America and Europe as an “exchange” on a
Grant given me by the United States-South Africa Leader Exchange Program’.110 During
his time in the USA he planned to ‘contact various internationally famous American Negro
Opera Stars and Artists to visit South Africa and appear as Guest Artists in the Eoan Group
Opera and Ballet Season in March 1965’.111 However, his efforts were apparently
unsuccessful. The only document found in the archive relating to this initiative is a letter
from Mr. Inia Te Wiata, a UK based bass, who wrote in an obviously evasive manner that

107

Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 13. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c
108
J.P. Malan, ‘Manca, Joseph Salvatore’ in SAME, Volume 3, pp. 192-4.
109
Manca’s own description in the Press Release to the 1965 EOAN Opera Season, Eoan Archive,
box 2, folder 9. All correspondence from 1963 onwards consistently mentions Manca’s name with
his title.
110
Letter from Joseph Manca to David Tidboald, the then Director of the Cape Town Municipal
Orchestra, 24 January 1963. Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 23.
111
Ibid.
98

he could not see which Verdi roles he could sing with Eoan.112 The drama Section of Eoan
also presented an indigenous play, Behind the Yellow Door, by the South African
playwright Flora Stohr during this year. The play dealt with the life of a Coloured family
in Athlone and was performed in the Little Theatre in Cape Town.113

1964
Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment.
Thousands of people classified as ‘Coloureds’ are forcibly removed in terms of the Group
Areas Act.114

2.5

The Eoan Group Trust

In order to prepare for the 1965 Opera and Ballet season, no productions were held in
1964.115 With regard to Eoan’s operational structure, however, an important change took
place. Due to the excessive burden of the group’s financial challenges, the Eoan Group
Trust was launched as a separate entity to the Eoan Group with the aim to raise funds for
Eoan’s activities.116 The trust consisted of important and seemingly financially well-to-do
citizens who supported the group. Among the Trust members was the lawyer, theatre
producer and future mayor of Cape Town, David Bloomberg and later also Dr. I.D. du
Plessis of the Department of Coloured Affairs.117 Although Eoan had been financially
112

Correspondence between Manca and Te Wiata, February 1964, Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 23.
Joseph Manca. Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 14. This play was
again presented by Eoan in 1986 in the Nico Malan Theatre. See reviews of the later performance
in Eoan Archive, box 60, folder 494c.
114
http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm, accessed 3 May 2008.
115
Letter from Joseph Manca to David Tidboald, 24 January 1963. Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 23.
116
Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, p. 5, Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3.
117
The Eoan Group Trust members as stated on their letterhead were: C.S. Corder, David
Bloomberg, D.R. D’Ewes, W. Gradner, G.K. Lindsay, P. Morkel, Mrs. J. Newton Thompson, J.J.
Piek, F.C. Robb, R. Sonnenberg, Prof. W.H. van der Merwe, Louis Charles Vivian Walker and Dr.
I.D. du Plessis. See letter from the Eoan Group Trust to Manca, 6 May 1966. Eoan Archive, box
33, folder 231. The minutes of the Eoan Group Trust meeting held on 22 January 1965, also
mention William Murray Bisset (secretary), Harold Lister Kennedy and Eric Richard Liefeldt.
Eoan Archive, box 33, folder 231. At the time of writing this chapter, the archive of the Eoan
99
113

self-reliant since 1957 (except for the annual grant of R 2 000 received from the
Municipality of Cape Town), the impossibility of trying to produce opera and fulfill its
mission of cultural upliftment in the Coloured community without substantial financial
support became increasingly clear. The Eoan Archive holds limited documents regarding
the exact nature of the Trust, but it can be deduced from various other letters that various
affluent supporters of the group deposited money into a bank account of which the interest
was directed towards a financial guarantee for the Group.118 In a speech held at the Trust’s
inauguration, the Chairman of the Eoan Group, Ismail Sydow, set out the many problems
the group had to deal with.
Up till now, the Eoan Group managed to keep its head above water in so far that the Music
Section has provided the main income and so financed the non-revenue producing
sections. However, there is, in the world, no Welfare, Educational and Cultural
organization which is completely self-supporting and not in need of subsidies. Particularly
is this so in the field of opera. All over the world, opera is heavily subsidized by
governments, municipalities, industries, commerce, private organizations and persons and
by specially established guilds. Therefore, it is a miracle that the Eoan Group has not only
been able to carry on but also achieve the already well known and excellent results.119

The logistic limitations and difficulties for Eoan members and productions teams, mostly
due to Apartheid, were summed up as follows by Sydow:
•
•
•
•

Inadequate preparation and rehearsal time, resulting in retarding normal advancement.
No avenues for professional careers for the talented artists, thereby exposing them to
exploitation by unscrupulous promoters and impresarios.
Heavy demands on the members’ private financial resources – often the cause of
absenteeism from classes and rehearsals due to lack of money to pay for transport.
Great physical strain being placed on members due to not being able to go home and relax
before coming to rehearsals because of long distances they have to travel.120

It was also clear that the group believed that they could stay clear of politics. Sydow
confirmed during this speech that, according to their constitution, ‘the Eoan Group has
Group Trust was not yet available for research. Some documents of the Trust were donated to
DOMUS in September 2010.
118
The Trust also functioned as a guarantor for the Group’s bank overdraft, with the result that
whenever Eoan’s cash flow trailed into the overdraft, money from the Trust was temporarily
deposited into the Group’s account until new income was generated. However, the funds in the
Trust never generated much interest. This was also partly due to the Group’s frequent use of their
overdraft. See correspondence from the Trust to the Group in the Eoan Archive, box 11, folder 75.
119
Ismail Sydow, Statement by Chairman: Mr I. Sydow on establishment and acceptance of Eoan
Group Trust, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 439.
120
Ibid, p. 2.
100

always been and is completely NON-POLITICAL. Our activities are purely concerned
with welfare work and our aim is for the cultural development, uplift and progress of our
people.’121 As documents presented in this chapter thus far testify, this was a position
clearly at odds with political and social realities in Cape Town at the time. However,
within the Eoan Group this position seemed to be endorsed partly as a declaration of
loyalty to Manca. The tribute to Manca with which Sydow concluded his acceptance
speech was indicative of the admiration and love with which Manca was viewed by the
members of the group:
Last but not least on behalf of the Eoan Group and the whole Coloured Community, I take
this opportunity of paying a very special tribute and offering our most grateful and
heartfelt thanks to a man of faith, vision, determination, indomitable courage and humility
– I refer to our beloved Hon. Musical Director, DR JOSEPH MANCA.
For over twenty-one years, Dr. Manca has unselfishly devoted all his available
time and efforts to the welfare and cultural progress of my people. He has stood firm as a
rock against all antagonisms, all prejudices and attacks, and his boundless devotion to his
self-imposed and voluntary labours has been and still is a shining example to all our
members.
No sacrifice is too much for him, no request or demand has been refused. He has
not cared for his family, his children nor has he spared himself both spiritually and
physically on behalf of the Group.
His guidance, his love of humanity, his deep understanding of the problems of my
people, his outstanding administrative abilities and his artistic and cultural contribution,
have been the major factor in bringing into world prominence the achievements of the
Coloured People in the sphere of art.
His faith in the ability and talents of my people has been a perpetual source of
inspiration to many aspiring artists, and to all those who came into contact with him. This
dedicated man has often publicly defined his labour of love as a ‘Mission in Music’. I
unhesitatingly say that this is true in every sense and that the field of his mission is
universal but the temple of his artistic worship is the Eoan Group.
It is my dearest wish that God may spare him for years to come and that it soon
will be made possible for Dr. Manca to devote his time fully to the Eoan Group.122

A ringing tribute, it also reflects much of Manca’s character and his motivation. It is clear
that Manca approached his work with Eoan with missionary zeal, indicative of the
personal sacrifices he was willing to make and the sacrifices he consciously drove Eoan to
make in order to achieve his goals. But applying the term ‘missionary zeal’ of course
immediately complicates Manca’s endeavours, as colonial missionary work never could be
ideologically neutral or disinterested in power relations between the European minister and
the African converted. And yet, this cannot discount the possibility of agency in those
121
122

Ibid, p. 4.
Ibid, p. 6.

101

being proselytised. On a personal level, it is also unclear what Manca’s goals really were.
Was he working towards uplifting the Coloured people or living out the dream that he, as
an amateur musician and an accountant, could present Cape Town with grand opera?
Perhaps it was various degrees of both? Time and again during the historical narrative of
Eoan’s existence, one is faced with uncomfortable questions about Manca’s political
consciousness: did he choose to be naïve, was he politically ignorant, did he actually
believe that the Apartheid model of separate development was a plausible option? Or was
cultivating Eoan’s cultural successes for him a kind of resistance to an unjust system?
From conversations with various artists, it appears that Manca was extremely possessive of
his position and influence as cultural director of the Eoan Group. According to Peter
Voges and Tillie Ulster, both ex-Eoan members, Manca apparently insisted on conducting
all performances himself to the expense of better qualified conductors from the group
itself. Dan Ulster, for instance, the first Coloured person to obtain a degree in music from
the University of Cape Town during the 1940s, had studied conducting with Enrique
Jorda123 and is reputed to have been an excellent conductor. Both Voges and Ulster’s wife,
Tillie, confirmed that Manca always sidelined Dan Ulster and never allowed him to
conduct the orchestra. Ulster eventually left the organization and launched his own
orchestra.124

2.6

Eoan’s Sixth Opera Season and their Second Tour of the country in 1965

1965 was an exceptionally active year for Eoan’s Opera section. Not only did they present
their annual opera season in March and April (this time it was their sixth and the season
consisted of four operas), but they also embarked on a three month tour of the country
from June to August, travelling to Johannesburg, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth.
During the tour they give a total of 49 performances.
During the March season in Cape Town Eoan performed two operas from their existing
repertoire: Verdi’s La Traviata and Puccini’s La Bohème. They also added two new
123

Jorda was conductor of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra from 1947 to 1954. J.P. Malan,
‘The Cape Town Municipal Orchestra’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 252-3.
124
Personal conversation with Tillie Ulster and Peter Voges in Cape Town, 22 October 2008.

102

productions, Verdi’s Il Trovatore (with which they opened the season) and Donizetti’s
L’Elisire D’Amore, all produced by Allesandro Rota.125 The season ran from 18 March
until 17 April, comprising 31 performances: one every weekday evening, two on Saturdays
and a rest day on Sundays.126 Manca wrote in a press release:
The operas will be once more sung in the Italian language and produced and presented in
the Italian tradition. Here again, the immense talents and versatility of our Coloured people
come to the fore. It is almost incredible that here are artists who have never seen Italian
Opera, have a limited or no knowledge of music, have not had vocal training and cannot
speak the Italian language and yet are able to perform opera of a high standard.127
Each major principal can sing at least two roles and in some cases three or four. […] This
is no mean feat when one realises the time at the disposal of these artists who all have fulltime occupations and can only devote themselves to music in their leisure hours.128

Manca’s ambitions also appeared as high as ever:
This is indeed an ambitious programme equal to seasons presented by the more famous
Opera Houses in Europe. Nevertheless, the Eoan Group is proud to bring to Cape Town
these very popular operas which are some of the favourites of most opera lovers. The Eoan
Group hopes to establish an Annual Opera Season thus making it one of the features of
Cape Town’s cultural life at the same time providing a long-felt amenity in addition to an
attraction for holiday visitors and tourists.129

As usual, many letters expressing appreciation were received from the public. Erik
Chisholm, Dean of the College of Music and also an avid opera composer and producer,
wrote to Joseph Manca on 19 May 1965:
Dear Dr. Manca,
I should have dropped you a line much earlier than this to tell you how much my wife and
I enjoyed your thrilling performance at the opening night of Il Trovatore.
I thought the whole performance a triumph. My sincerest congratulations for the wonderful
opera season you and Eoan group have just completed: I cannot begin to tell you how
much I admire your courage and achievements. 130

125

Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, pp. 3-4. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3.
Cape Town Municipal Orchestra Call Sheet March 1965. Eoan Archive, box 33, folder 228.
127
Press Release to The 1965 Eoan Opera Season, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 9.
128
Ibid, p. 5.
129
Ibid.
130
Letter from Erik Chisholm to Manca, 19 May 1965. Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 23. At the
bottom of the page Chisholm added by hand to this otherwise typed letter: ‘As for CAPAB….??’,
indicating that in Chisholm’s opinion Eoan competed well, if not better, with CAPAB as far as
opera production was concerned. The tone of the letter is indicative of Chisholm’s socialist
convictions and that he admired Manca for bringing opera by the working class to the working
class. Although the admiration he speaks of might have been on the political level rather than the
103
126

A letter from a Coloured lady, Mrs. R. Smith, stated that ‘the overwhelming success of the
show made up for the hurt that filled me towards those who cannot accept us as part of the
human race.’131 At the very least these fragments of reception indicate that Eoan’s
activities were marked by a deep ambivalence between collaboration and agency,
represented by sources of funding and Coloured opera stars respectively.
The young and very talented Eoan member, Gordon Jephtas, was prominently involved in
training and rehearsing the group.132 His role during the season and the upcoming tour was
that of repetiteur, accompanist and stage conductor, the only non-white person to play this
role during this stage of Eoan’s history.133 In rehearsal schedules Manca gave him the title
‘Meastro Gordon’ (he was 22 at the time) and allowed Jephtas the freedom to rehearse
with the group whatever section of the music he felt needed attention. This gifted pianist
had been sponsored by the Eoan Group to study music at the College of Music at the
University of Cape Town.134 Manca was particularly fond of Jephtas and often referred to
him as ‘God’s gift to Eoan.’135
Eoan’s Second Opera Tour through the Republic of South Africa was undertaken from
June to August 1965, visiting Johannesburg, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth.136
The programme for the tour included the operas presented during the opera season in Cape
Town, as well as a new addition to Eoan’s repertoire, Bizet’s Carmen.137 Many
arrangements could not be finalized before their departure from Cape Town and from the
musical level, it is also clear that there was little professional rivalry between the two men.
Chisholm passed away on 8 June 1965.
131
Letter from Mrs. R. Smith to Manca, 20 March 1965. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 9.
132
See rehearsal schedules for the 1965 Opera Season in the Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 17.
133
Joseph Manca, Advance Publicity 1965 Opera Tour, Johannesburg Season, no date, p. 6. Eoan
Archive, box 83, folder 646a.
134
No author, ‘Uitdaging het Jephtas gelok’ Die Burger, 2 April 1986.
http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/dieburger/1986/04/02/2/10.html, accessed 9 May 2008. See also
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 24. Eoan Archive, box
60, folder 494c.
135
No author.‘Hulde aan ‘n vriend’, Die Burger, 11 November 1992.
http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/dieburger/1992/07/11/13/6.html, accessed 8 May 2008. The
Eoan Archive holds a striking picture of Manca and Jephtas at the piano during rehearsal. Eoan
Archive, box 34, folder 324. More evidence of Manca’s high opinion of Jephtas can be seen in
correspondence between Ismail Sydow and Manca in the Eoan archive, box 86, folder 686.
136
Joseph Manca. Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 24. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c.
137
Joseph Manca, Advance Publicity for the 1965 Opera Tour. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 437.
104

start the tour was beset with problems. The degree to which Apartheid legislation restricted
the group’s freedom of movement had increased substantially since their first tour in 1960,
resulting in many logistical problems. On arriving in Johannesburg they faced one of the
coldest winter seasons experienced in years in the city. Apart from the effect of the high
altitude and dry winter, the company was affected by serious attacks of flu and colds. Their
male principal tenor, Joseph Gabriels, suffered from laryngitis during most of the tour.
Since he had a national reputation, a number of concert goers wrote letters to Manca
expressing their disappointment at missing the opportunity to hear Gabriels.138 The
Johannesburg season was held at the Civic Theatre and Eoan had to apply for permits to be
able to perform as Coloured people in a hall designated for Whites. Eoan was informed
that although they were allowed to perform in that venue, a permit allowing two concerts
in front of a Coloured public in the same venue was refused. Eoan’s letter of appeal was
dismissed and the government’s message read as follows:
I have to advise you that the Honourable the Minister of Community Development has
upheld the decision … to refuse the issue of a permit authorizing the General Manager [of
the] Civic Theatre, Johannesburg, to allow members of the Coloured, Indian and Chinese
race groups to attend the opera performances in the Civic Theatre on the 17th June and 1st
July 1965. The Minister has intimated that the Coronationville Hall in the Coloured Group
area of Coronationville may be used for the purpose contemplated.’139

Eoan eventually presented one performance in Coronationville on 5 July.140
Manca’s original plan was to extend the tour to Rhodesia and Mozambique after
completing the performances in Port Elizabeth by the end of August141 but, once again,
this did not materialize.142 As late as 23 July 1965, whilst already on tour in Johannesburg,
the Department of Home Affairs advised Eoan that passport applications for the whole
group would be approved, except for their principal male singer, Joseph Gabriels. No
reasons were provided why his application had been turned down.143 Despite an urgent
138

See letters in Eoan Archive, box 83, folder 646a.
Letter from the Department of Community Development, 1 June 1965. Eoan Archive, box 83,
folder 646a.
140
1965 Eoan Tour Performance Shedule. Eoan Archive, box 83, folder 646a.
141
Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3. See also
Documents of financial planning, Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 23.
142
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 24. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c.
143
Letter from the Department of Home Affairs, 22 July 1965. Eoan Archive, box 83, folder 646b.
105
139

appeal to the Secretary of Home Affairs in Pretoria, no favourable answer was received
and this leg of the tour was eventually cancelled.144
For their performances in Port Elizabeth, Eoan also had to apply for permits to perform in
the Opera House and for Coloured people to be able to attend some performances. As late
as 7 July, whilst on their way to Durban, Eoan was informed that although their permit had
been granted to perform in the Opera House for white audiences, non-white audiences
were not allowed ‘as the Opera House lacks separate facilities for a non-white
audience.’145 The Department further added that should Eoan ‘find a less contentiously
situated hall where adequate separate provision for non-white audiences exist, Eoan may
submit another application to stage one or more performances by the Group before a nonwhite (other than Bantu) audience.’146 The facilities in question were presumably separate
entrances and toilets. Knowing that no other venue in Port Elizabeth existed with the
necessary facilities to perform opera, this situation posed a particularly difficult problem
for the group. Ismail Sydow again wrote an urgent letter of appeal, addressed to the
Secretary of Coloured Affairs in Cape Town and stating that:
If there is to be no performance to non-whites (other than Bantu) in Port Elizabeth, the
Group’s relations with the coloured population of Port Elizabeth are likely to be
prejudiced. I would particularly like to point out that there is no suitable hotel
accommodation for the cast and I am accordingly obliged to arrange accommodation for
62 non-white members with private families in Port Elizabeth and I very much fear that if I
have to advise the coloured population of Port Elizabeth that there will be no performance
of any of our operas for them I may not secure the necessary accommodation and will
accordingly not be able to perform in Port Elizabeth at all.147

In a letter to Murray Bisset (an Eoan Group trustee) Manca wrote: ‘When I started out on
this tour I was fully aware of the many difficulties and handicaps both Ismail and I would
have to face, but it seems that on this occasion they have been more than thousandfold. I
have been under constant physical and emotional strain, having no time for myself,
working from early morning to midnight every day, yet I must not grumble – this is the
way set for me by the Almighty, and I am His humble servant, and must fulfill what He
144

Letter to the Secretary of the Interior, 23 July 1965. Eoan Archive, box 83, folder 646b.
Letter from The Department of Community Development, 20 July 1965. Eoan Archive, box 83,
folder 646b.
146
Ibid.
147
Letter to the Secretary of Coloured Affairs, 23 July 1965. Eoan Archive, box 83, folder 646b.
106
145

has ordained for me.’148 In September 1965 Bisset received a letter from Hymie Udwin,
the Theatre International organizer of the tour, stating that ‘Non-European support was
negligible. It is not for me to enter into the whys and wherefores of the obvious boycott,
but this attitude is surely tragic.’149
However, reviews of the tour’s performances were once again positive. Eoan’s production
of Carmen was criticized, as one critic said it ‘smacked all too coyly of musical comedy
rather than Bizet’s fiery portrayal of Espana’.150 The soprano Winifred du Plessis made her
debut as Violetta in La Traviata and sang alongside Gerald Samaai as Alfredo. The critic
Oliver Walker described her voice in a Johannesburg newspaper as follows: ‘What
amazing purity of intonation and certainty of pitch the young Cape Town soprano,
Winifred du Plessis, has in the difficult role of Violetta!’.151 Pieter Serfontein added to this
by writing that ‘her mezzo-voce and pianissimo is delightful. Her technique is of such
quality that the colour of her voice stays the same in all registers. It is like a silver thread
spun throughout her range.’152 Many other newspaper reviews carried laudatory headlines
such as ‘Another outstanding opera’, ‘Triumph for Cape Town Violetta’, ‘A colourful
Trovatore’, ‘Eoan at its best in high comedy’, and ‘Il Trovatore gives us a star’.153
Judging by the newspaper reviews the tour was an artistic success. Financially, however, it
was a disaster and landed the Group in major financial difficulties.154 The overdraft on
Eoan’s bank account by year end amounted to R 34 374. In a later document Manca wrote
that ‘regrettably, in spite of the great artistic success of this tour, financially it proved to be
a loss – a most inexplicable fact.’155 As if to soften the blow, he added that:
148

Letter from Manca to Bisset, written in Durban, 8 July 1965. Eoan Archive, box 83, folder
646a.
149
Letter from Udwin to Bisset, 15 September 1965. Eoan Archive, box 83, folder 646a.
150
Author’s name abbreviated as G.N, ‘Thank you for coming: and for Traviata’, newspaper and
date of publication unknown. Eoan Archive, box 93, folder 765.
151
Oliver Walker. ‘Triumph for Cape Town Violetta’, newspaper and date of publication unknown.
Eoan Archive, box 93, folder 765.
152
Pieter Serfontein, ‘Eoan-groep se La Traviata ’n belewenis’, newspaper and date of publication
unknown. Eoan Archive, box 93, folder 765.
153
Various newspaper reviews in the Eoan Archive, box 93, folder 765.
154
Letter from the Eoan Group Trust to the Department of Coloured Affairs, 10 December 1965.
Eoan Archive, box 33, folder 231.
155
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 24. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c.
107

Until 1965 the Eoan Group has had to finance itself from its own work and it has been and
still is a very onerous undertaking to meet the growing financial requirements of an
organisation such as the Eoan Group which in addition to being a Cultural Institution is
also a welfare organisation. In this respect the Eoan Group is ‘unique’ and must be, if it is
not already, one of the few organisations in the world which can present an annual opera
season without financial subsidies. This can only be achieved due to the unselfish
156
dedication of it Directors, Workers, Artists and members.

It is clear from documentation in the archive that it had become impossible to meet the
spiraling financial demands of an ambitious and ever growing opera company with the
R2000 yearly grant from the City Council. Although the Eoan Group Trust was launched
in order to raise funds for Eoan’s activities, solid financial support had not yet
materialized. The task of obtaining funds was still squarely in the hands of Manca and
Sydow. The promised financial support from the community was also non-existent157 and
during a special meeting at the end of 1965 Eoan decided to re-apply for financial
assistance from the Department of Coloured Affairs. From 1966 onwards Eoan was
granted financial support and in so doing the group became further entangled in an ever
tightening political web which, in retrospect, cost them dearly. The group also complied
with apartheid regulations and annually applied for a permit to perform their opera season
in the City Hall for mixed audiences, submitting to the political compromise they refused
to make in 1957.158 Clause 17 of the conditions for receiving the funds stated the
following:

i)
ii)
a)
b)
iii)
iv)
156

No mixed audience of Europeans and Non-Europeans shall be permitted. The following
exposition has been accorded to this clause:An audience should be either European of Non-European.
In special circumstances, an audience could consist of Europeans and non-Europeans,
provided:
a specific section of the seating accommodation in the hall is reserved for Europeans and
another section for Non-Europeans.
The floor of the hall is reserved for the one group and the gallery for the other.
Where the seating accommodation is arranged in accordance with (ii) (a) or (b) above,
separate entrances for the two groups should be provided.
The conditions apply to any hall irrespective of the ownership thereof.

Ibid, p. 21. Eoan Archive, box 60, folder 494c.
See the Group’s decision made in 1957 in the Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September
1966, pp. 4-5, Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3. Also Minutes of the 33rd AGM held on 8 December
1970, p. 6, Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 8.
158
See for example the permit issued to Eoan for its 1968 Opera Season. Eoan Archive, box 34,
folder 233.
108
157

v)

Generally a Non-European group may perform to a European audience in a generally
accepted European area. Conversely a European group may play to a Non-European
audience in a generally accepted Non-European Area. Exemption from this clause may be
granted in cases where the Department is satisfied that good reason exists for doing so.
vi)
Prior approval must be obtained for any departure from rules (1) and (5).159

1966
District Six is declared a white area under the Group areas Act of 1950. Forced removals
of the 60 000 inhabitants begin in 1968 and by 1982 all inhabitants had been moved to the
Cape Flats and their houses flattened by bulldozers.160
South Africa’s Prime Minister and architect of Apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, is
assassinated on 6 September 1966.

In 1966 Eoan performed La Traviata as part of the Republic Festival in Cape Town,
celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Republic of South Africa.161 Manca described the
event as follows:
As its contribution towards the celebration for the 1966 Republic Festival, the Eoan Group
presented the Italian Opera La Traviata to an invited Non-White audience. This presentation
was under the aegis of the Department of Coloured Affairs and the performance was graced
with the presence of the Minister for Coloured Affairs, the Hon. Mr. Marais Viljoen who

159

Two further conditions in this document are indicative of the threatening tone that the
Department of Coloured Affairs afforded itself:
- Clause 18. The Department further reserves the right to impose any other conditions in
respect of grants as may in its discretion be deemed necessary.
- Clause 19. These conditions must be placed on the first page of your minute book or any
other prominent place in order that it may be read, noticed and observed by office bearers
of new office bearers.
See Conditions on which grants are awarded to voluntary organizations, p. 3. Eoan Archive, box
33, folder 231.
160
http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm, accessed 3 May 2008. It is interesting to note that in
the history of the group as described on the current Eoan webpage, no mention is made of the fact
that Eoan ever engaged with opera. The current Eoan website’s information indicates that the
group was forced out of District Six in 1966 and had to practice in warehouses until the Joseph
Stone Auditorium was built for them in 1969. See www.eoangroup.co.za, accessed 27 July 2008.
Up to February 2008 the information in the Eoan Archive was inaccessible and the website’s
version of its history was probably based on other sources.
161
Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ in SAME, Volume 2, pp. 26-9.
109

after the performance came back stage and personally thanked the Eoan Group Artists for
162
the magnificent performance.

It is at this point that one cannot but question Manca’s seeming disregard for the political
situation. The gap between the reality of the political environment and the premises on
which Eoan was managed is illustrated in no uncertain terms. Not only did many Eoan
members lose their homes when District Six was earmarked for White occupation, Eoan
itself had to give up their premises in Hanover Street. Many supporters and members of
Eoan had left the organization by this time. The same out-of-touch signal came from the
Eoan Group chairman, Mr. Ismail Sydow, when he lamented in his chairman’s report of
the 1966 Annual General Meeting: ‘I now appeal to all our ex-groupers, our foundation
members, our dancing girls, drama members and all music and choir members to return to
the fold – the Eoan Group is one big family and we rejoice in the return of our prodigal
brothers and sisters’.163 In 1967 Eoan yet again performed La Traviata during a ‘protocol
performance for an audience of Members of Parliament, the Diplomatic and Consular
Corps and other distinguished guests’.164 Manca again explained that:
At the invitation of the Department of Coloured Affairs, the Eoan Group in March 1967
presented at the City Hall, with the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, the Italian Opera La
Traviata to a specially invited audience of Members of Parliament, the full Diplomatic and
Consular Corps and other distinguished guests. The event proved another great artistic
success and brought to the notice of the parliamentarians and members of the Diplomatic
and Consular Corps the great pioneering work which the Eoan Group is doing for the
cultural uplift and progress of the Coloured Community of South Africa.165

In May 1967 Ismail and Carmen Sydow travelled to London to visit their daughter Didi.166
Didi Sydow had been sponsored by the Eoan Group to study ballet in the United Kingdom
and, by now, had a professional dancing career with the Royal Ballet. They also met with
former Eoan repetiteur Gordon Jephtas who was working in London. During this time
Sydow wrote several letters to Manca. From these letters it is clear that one of Sydow’s
162

Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 24. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c.
163
Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, p. 8. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3.
164
Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ SAME, Volume 2, pp. 26-29.
165
Joseph Manca, Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 25. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c.
166
According to former Eoan member, Tillie Ulster, Ismail and Carmen Sydow had no children of
their own and Didi was an adopted daughter. They also had an adopted son, Allie, who took part in
Eoan’s productions as a singer for a short while. Conversation with Tillie Ulster in Cape Town on
22 October 2008. Allie Sydow passed away on 7 October 1972. Eoan Archive, box 9, folder 63.
110

main objectives for this trip was to convince Jephtas to return to South Africa and join
Manca in directing the group. At the time Manca was almost sixty years old and had been
training Gordon Jephtas for more than a decade in the hope that he would become Manca’s
successor as Eoan’s Musical Director. It seems that both Manca and Sydow were at this
time verbally informed of the proposed Council for Culture and Recreation which was to
be created for the Coloured people as an equivalent to the whites-only National Arts
Council. It is clear from the correspondence that they anticipated an institution with equal
state funding and the possibilities for professional careers for Eoan’s singers, a situation
for which they would need Jephtas. It is also clear that they thought that a situation like
this would be the end of their financial troubles. Sydow reported to Manca that Jephtas had
many opportunities in England, was offered a six month position in Cardiff, Wales and
was not yet in a position to return home to the Eoan Group.167 Sydow explained the failed
negotiation to Manca as follows:
I told Gordon that he must think very hard and carefully about his future and that if he
came home the future will be secured forever and that he will earn the same money but
with a better position. He does understand but he feels as long as he is here he can learn a
lot more. However, after a long talk with him by Didi, John, Mrs. Sydow and myself the
whole of yesterday, he has asked us to give him the chance to go to Cardiff.168

When Jephtas’s decision not to return to South Africa was final, Sydow wrote to Manca on
29 June 1967:
Dear Brother Yusuf,169
I must tell you that everything as far as the Group’s future is concerned seems very bright,
although one thing did not come out the way I wanted. That is for Gordon to come with
me, but God knows best, he alone will give us Gordon at the right time. Gordon is going to
be to you what you want him to be to you and the Group. In the meantime for a year we
will have to be patient and wait, I assure you that you will have your greatest wish because
Gordon will come with a vast knowledge that will bring the Group up to a very high
standard. Not that it is not high already, but he will be able to help you to build it so that it
will be ready for the Arts Council. Please believe me when I say that you will get
everything that you wish for the group, only be patient and let us wait one more year.
Please work hard on the forthcoming opera season and have faith. It is going to be
an all round successful season. God wants you to make this last struggle alone so that he
can be proud of you and after this God will give you help by giving you young Gordon,
fully capable and qualified to carry at least half of your burden.
167

It is not clear from the letter what kind of position this was.
Excerpts from correspondence between Sydow and Manca, 5 June 1967. Eoan Archive, box 86,
folder 686.
169
Ismail Sydow was a Muslim, hence the translation of ‘Joseph’ to ‘Yusuf’. Manca was a Roman
Catholic.
111
168

This is all for now. Once again don’t be despondent of anything now and believe
and trust that you are one of God’s beloved workers and that he will never let you fail.
Burst through the darkness and see the bright light that is there. We both have been very
successful, we have not failed with anything.170

Apart from Manca’s obvious need for quality artistic support in his position as Musical
Director of Eoan, the letter suggests that Manca had begun to experience the responsibility
for Eoan’s artistic performances as a heavy burden; the letter even suggests that Manca
was nearing the end of his tether.171 Sydow’s other mission during this visit to Europe was,
however, successful. He had meetings with the Bernard van Leer Foundation in The
Netherlands from whom he was able to secure a donation of R 34 000 towards the building
costs for the Joseph Stone Theatre in 1969.172
Eoan’s Seventh Opera Season was held in September 1967 in the Cape Town City Hall
and the programme included Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Verdi’s La Traviata as well as
Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore.173 This was Eoan’s first full-scale opera season in more than
two years, the previous season having been March 1965. Vera Gow made a triumphant
debut as the new star soprano of the group, although reviews also praised the other
principal singers such as May Abrahamse, Patricia van Graan, Sophia Andrews and
various others.174 Hans Kramer wrote in the Cape Times:
On Saturday night salvoes of applause punctuated the performance at the city Hall of
Verdi’s La Traviata, the second opera to be presented in the Eoan Group’s seventh season.
Taking into consideration the tremendous overall achievement, which Capetonians have

170

Excerpts from correspondence between Sydow and Manca, 29 June 1967. Eoan Archive, box
86, folder 686.
171
During a conversation with May Abrahamse on 1 October 2008, she explained to the current
writer why Jephtas was unwilling to come back to South Africa and said: ‘Look, dr. Manca was a
bit of a dictator. He wanted to control everything. Gordon did not want to come because he had
many more opportunities in Europe. He also had developed musically much further than dr. Manca
and he knew that if he came, he would just have to play the piano and do what dr. Manca tells him
to.’
172
It is not yet clear from the archive how and why The Bernard van Leer Foundation became
involved with Eoan. This organization is still active in The Netherlands today and enquiries by the
present writer into their donation towards the building of the Joseph Stone Theatre in 1969 have
not yielded any results.
173
Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ SAME, Volume 2, pp. 26-29. Also Joseph Manca, Historical
overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933-1968, p. 26. Eoan Archive, box 60, folder 494c.
174
Eoan’s star tenor, Joseph Gabriels, had probably left the country by this time as he is not
mentioned in any of the correspondence regarding this season or in the programmes.
112

come to expect of the Eoan Group, this night was Vera Gow’s, whose tragic Violetta was,
without a doubt, one of the best operatic performances seen here.
In Vera Gow the Eoan Group has a star of the first order. Her pure and beautiful
soprano at all times was a pleasure to listen to, for its sustained quality throughout an
arduous role, which makes the greatest demands, even on the seasoned performer. Her
acting was of rare and natural quality, matching the singing to perfection. This
performance will long linger in the memory.175

2.7

The musicals of the late 1960s

Even before Eoan’s first opera performance in 1956, the group had been performing
operettas and musicals, and the lighter genres of opera had been popular with the group
and audiences for many years. Their first operetta was a production of A Slave in Araby176
in 1947, which starred May Abrahamse as a very young soprano. Over the years many
others followed, amongst others Hong Kong, The Gypsy Princess, Zip Goes A Million, The
Mikado and Die Fledermaus. In fact, the shift from light opera to serious opera in 1956
was an important step in Eoan’s artistic development and in the decade following 1956,
fewer light operas were performed than prior to 1956. In 1955 Andrew Mackrill, a former
Eoan member then working in theatre, urged Manca to move away from musicals and
proceed to opera. Manca had asked Mackrill to take on the leading role in Eoan’s 1956
production of the musical Zip goes a Million but he replied as follows:
I am finished with musical comedy. And I would like to see Eoan drop it too! Musical
comedy, as far as Eoan is concerned, has served its purpose. Let the Group have done with
it. There are fresh fields to explore, new worlds to conquer. Your Italian opera venture
points the way and sets the standard for the new goal.177

Nevertheless, during the late 1960s and early seventies, a number of important American
musicals became part of Eoan’s repertoire. During this time, the Cape Town lawyer and
theatre producer, David Bloomberg178 became actively involved with Eoan and their
175

Hans Kramer, ‘Soprano rose to great heights in her tragic roles’, The Cape Times, 18 September
1967. Eoan Archive, box 86, folder 685.
176
Composer unknown.
177
Letter from Andrew Mackrill, 13 July 1955. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 4.
178
Bloomberg had close ties with Eoan over the years and served on the board of the Eoan Group
Trust for some time. As an impresario he brought a number of famous performers to Cape Town
and produced many acclaimed theatre productions between 1956 and 1967. He was a director of
the Cape Performing Arts Board and closely involved with the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra.
He was also an attorney and defended Demitrio Tsafendas, the assassin of the then Prime Minister
113

productions. Not only was Bloomberg a trustee on the Eoan Group Trust, he was able to
secure the performing rights to three American musicals for Eoan, despite the cultural
sanctions which were in place against South Africa. Thus the group added more artistic
‘firsts’ on their already impressive list of cultural activities, as they were the first South
African group to perform Oklahoma!, South Pacific and Carmen Jones in the country.
Bloomberg had close ties with theatre producers in the United States and persuaded the
New York producer, Stanley Waren, to come to Cape Town to direct Eoan’s South African
première of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma!.179 Waren’s wife, Florence, a
dancer who originated from Johannesburg, was responsible for the choreography. The
musical was to be performed in the Alhambra Theatre in the city center which had a
capacity of 2 500 seats. The Alhambra was, however, a ‘Whites-only building’ and no
permission was given for Coloureds to attend these performances. Bloomberg tried to
negotiate with the Department on behalf of Eoan as these issues apparently had a profound
influence on the morale of the group. In a letter to Manca, Bloomberg wrote as follows:
I am not allowing the matter to rest there and am causing urgent representations to be made
to the Hon. W.A. Maree, Minister of Community Development. In the interim I think it is
important that news of the permit being refused does not leak out. There will be far greater
chance of the Minister reversing the Department’s decision if it can be shown that this will
not be an embarrassment to the Department. Also, there is no reason for members of the
Group to become depressed unnecessarily.180

However, permission was not granted and eleven performances were scheduled between
19 and 28 January for the white public in the Alhambra and two more for Coloureds in the
Luxurama on 31 January and 1 February.181 The leading roles were sung by Patricia van
Graan, Winifried du Plessis, Veronica Jacobs, Cecil Tobin and Allie Sydow.182 The Cape
Argus critic, Owen Williams, remarked in his review:
The Eoan Group players have a natural charm which suits the mood of the play or light
opera or musical or what you will. I thought, however, that at times last night they seemed

Hendrik Verwoerd. Bloomberg became mayor of Cape Town from 1973 until 1975. He and his
wife emigrated from South Africa in 1988.
http://www.clarkesbooks.co.za/browse.asp?category=30 accessed 11 June 2008.
179
David Bloomberg, My Times, Fernwood Press 2007, p. 25.
180
Letter from Bloomberg to Manca, 25 November 1966. Eoan Archive, box 85, folder 684.
181
It is not clear from documents in the archive how the group reacted to this news.
182
Advance Press Publicity, p. 6. Eoan Archive, box 85, folder 669.

114

a little inhibited and that they could have given more rein to their natural verve. In general
one can say that their singing was far superior than their acting.183

In Waren’s experience with working with the Eoan group, he noted that ‘from a music
point of view the group is particularly talented, but its development is hindered by lack of
professional contact with Europeans and by lack of playing opportunities.’184
Manca had asked Bloomberg to produce Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific with
Eoan in March 1968. For Bloomberg this was his first musical production185 and it turned
out to be the biggest financial success of Eoan’s entire existence.186 The musical was again
performed in the Alhambra Theatre and all ten performances where sold out. Again, no
permission was given to perform for Coloured audiences in The Alhambra, despite
Bloomberg’s efforts. The production was therefore moved to the Luxurama Theatre in the
Coloured section of Wynberg for seven performances after which it was moved back to the
Alhambra for another five performances. According to Bloomberg some 50 000
Capetonians had seen the musical by the end of that season.187 The reviews were even
more enthusiastic than for previous Eoan productions. Owen Williams of The Cape Argus
wrote:
It was a splendid piece of work, one of the milestones in Cape Town theatre history. It is a
lavishly mounted, beautifully sung, crisply directed version of this Rodgers and
Hammerstein work, one of the classics among American musicals. For one thing, it tells a
strong story, and unashamedly, it has a message. The story is of love, the message is of the
evils of race discrimination.188

This ‘message’ to which Williams referred illustrated the absurdity and inconsistencies of
the South African political system and its administration of the day. Although no
permission was given for Coloureds to attend performances in the Alhambra, the lyrics of
some of the songs exposed the danger of racial intolerance. The ironic and potentially

183

Owen Williams, ‘Eoan Group’s natural charm in pleasant “Oklahoma”’, The Cape Argus, 20
January 1967. Eoan Archive, box 85, folder 682.
184
Stanley A. Waren, ‘Theatre in South Africa’, Educational Theatre Journal, Volume 20, No. 3,
October 1968, p. 413.
185
Bloomberg states in his book that he produced this musical without being able to read music.
David Bloomberg, My Times, p. 25.
186
See correspondence in Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 438.
187
David Bloomberg. My Times, pp. 24-31.
188
Ibid, p. 29.
115

explosive content of these songs did not register with government officials, despite some
of them attending the performances.189 The lyrics of the song ‘You’ve Got To Be Carefully
Taught’ is a case in point:
You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid…
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You’ve got to be carefully taught!190

Bloomberg further lamented that the message of the song had made no impact on
officialdom. A planned tour of this musical to Johannesburg was jeopardized when the
government refused permission for Eoan (as a Coloured cast) to perform in the Civic
Theatre, the only venue at the time that could stage the production.191 The rehearsal
schedules for this musical bore testimony to the grueling practice schedule of the Group.
Practice sessions were scheduled for every weekday evening from 7.45 to 10 pm, Saturday
afternoons from 2.30 to 5.30 pm as well as on Sundays from 3 pm to 6 pm. Starting on
Monday 8 January, rehearsals ran until opening night on Wednesday 28 February without
a single day’s break. The rehearsal schedule in the Eoan Archive also includes this
comment: ‘NO-ONE MUST MISS REHEARSALS’.192 Bloomberg had much admiration
for the members of the Eoan group and noted that:
It was difficult to appreciate that those who were attaining professional standards were by
day ordinary workers in the city. While some were teachers, the majority were maids,
messengers, labourers, factory hands and clerical workers, yet all were imbued with the
same spirit – to give of their best and achieve excellence.193

189

Ibid, p. 28-9.
Ibid, p. 28.
191
Ibid, p. 29.
192
See the South Pacific rehearsal schedule in the Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 433.
193
David Bloomberg, My Times, p. 26.
190

116

Following their successful musical production earlier in the year the 1968 Opera Season
was planned for October. The programme this time included Verdi’s La Traviata and
Rigoletto as well as Rossini’s Barber of Seville.194 On the organizational side, matters did
not go smoothly. Manca had just experienced a very satisfactory season of Eoan’s South
Pacific in the Alhambra Theatre and tried to negotiate some performances for this venue.
However, because the Alhambra was a ‘Whites-only venue’, a permit had to be obtained in
order to perform there. Eoan also had to apply for a permit to perform for mixed audiences
in the City Hall. Due to the possible change in venue the schedule was revised several
times. The Eoan Archive holds copies of an unusually large number of letters Manca wrote
to Eoan members regarding absenteeism from rehearsals. Members complained of heavy
workloads and limited time.195 It is also at this time that most members had been moved
out of District Six to the Coloured suburbs of Athlone, Bonteheuvel and Heideveld and
traveling to Cape Town for rehearsals at night after a full day at work became much more
difficult.
One week before the season was due to start, Manca, the producer Allesandro Rota and
Ismail Sydow decided to cancel the season altogether. This course of action was
unprecedented in Eoan’s history. In a letter to the Town Clerk, Sydow explained that the
organizers felt that the cast was not sufficiently prepared and that a bad performance
would be worse than no performance at all. He further elaborated that their preparations
were hindered predominantly by illness experienced by principal artists as well as chorus
members throughout the winter.196 The financial implications resulting from the
cancellation of the season were serious. The group had lost approximately R 10 000 in prebox office expenditures, which not only plunged the organization (yet again) into debt, but
also left them with few financial resources for future activities. In a letter from the Eoan
Group Trust to the Eoan Board it is clear that the relationship between the two bodies was
also compromised. The role of the Trust was to act as financial guarantor of the Group. In
the event of serious problems, the final responsibility lay with the Trust.197 The letter
194

See schedules in the Eoan Archive, box 34, folder 233.
See letters to and from cast members in the Eoan Archive, box 34, folder 233.
196
Letter by Ismail Sydow to the Town Clerk, Mr Jan Luyt, 25 September 1968. Eoan Archive,
box 34, folder 233.
197
The relationship between the Eoan Group and the Eoan Group Trust continues to be
problematic to this day. In May 2001 the Trust was on the verge of evicting the group from the
195

117

indicated that the Trust and the Board had agreed on strategies for the Group to generate
their own income to a large extent, and that the Trust felt the Board did not honour this
agreement. The Trust duly complained of not being consulted in the decision to cancel the
season and pointed out the grave financial repercussions:
Arising from the Group’s lack of liquidity and the prospect of a substantial overdraft
building up before any significant revenue is likely to accrue, the Committee expressed
strong views on the recent cancellation of the 1968 opera season. It was also the view of
the Committee that they should have been consulted before the decision was taken, not
because the Trust wishes in any way to interfere in the Group’s running of its own affairs,
but because of the grave financial implications of the decision.
To alleviate the position the meeting suggested that something should be done to
exploit the present holiday season by putting on informal concerts and operatic concerts. I
said I would discuss the matter with you and Dr. Manca and informed the meeting of the
Group’s “Opera for All” programme commencing in March. It was felt that this was not
enough and that the Group should take immediate steps to exploit their assets in terms of
talent, opera for all, sets, music, etc. etc. It was always understood that Rota would
generate the cost of his services – so far nothing has been done and no revenue has accrued
to the Group as was planned when the decision to employ him was taken. It is recognized
that the work he is doing in voice training and preparation for the 1969 opera season will
be of great long-term benefit to the Group but the present financial situation is too critical
to be ignored.198

2.8

The Joseph Stone Auditorium in Athlone

1969 was another important year for Eoan. In order to remedy the financial overdraft
caused by the cancellation of the 1968 opera season, the Group presented a number of
successful operatic concerts in the Cape Town City Hall in March, followed by their eighth
opera season from 23 October to 15 November. Shortly after the close of the opera season,
Eoan took residence of the Eoan Group Cultural Centre housed in the Joseph Stone
Auditorium, located in the suburb of Athlone.
In March Eoan presented a number of operatic concerts, Opera for All, starring their
principal singers in arias of various operas. After the disappointment of the cancellation of
premises. Trevor Oosterwyk, The Cape Argus, ‘It’s Eoan vs Eoan in auditorium tussle’, 21 May
2001. In an interview with Sjafiek Rajab, the current chairman of the Eoan Board, on 4 June 2008,
he conceded that the relationship with the Trust was almost non-existing at the time of the
interview.
198
Letter from The Eoan Group Trust to Ismail Sydow, the chairman of the Eoan Board, 7 January
1969. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 437.
118

the 1968 season, Eoan performed better than ever with Vera Gow as Violetta in Verdi’s La
Traviata. During a visit from Europe Gordon Jephtas had been with Eoan for some months
during their training period in 1968199 and it was clear from a review that the standard of
singing had benefitted from his input. Elsa Winckley’s review in the Sunday Express of 30
March was full of praise, demonstrating that Eoan was admired and well supported by
Cape Town’s opera-going public:
The Eoan Group has not been seen or heard in the Cape for some time, and the pleasure
and pride which Capetonians feel for these talented non-White singers were fully
demonstrated by a packed City Hall.
It is astonishing that this company has managed to remain such a welded unit
during the formative years. Much credit for this must go to its dedicated musical director
and conductor, Dr. Joseph Manca, and its producer Allesandro Rota.
In true prima donna fashion was Vera Gow’s singing of ‘E Strano’ and ‘Ah Fors è
Lui’ from La Traviata – her voice has matured in quality and her poise greatly increased.
Even more remarkable is the progress of Patricia van Graan, whose singing of ‘Una Voce
Poco Fa’ from The Barber of Seville fully invited the thunderous applause she received.200

By this time Eoan’s reputation was well established in other provinces of the country as
well and in June 1969 Vera Gow was invited to sing with the SABC Symphony Orchestra
in Johannesburg. The local newspaper described Gow as ‘one of South Africa’s
outstanding Coloured sopranos’.201
The opera season was once again held in the City Hall and comprised four operas; Verdi’s
Rigoletto, La Traviata and Il Trovatore and Rossini’s Barber of Seville. Rehearsals with
individual singers started as early as April.202 The principal singers for this season included
Gerald Samaai, James Momberg, Ronald Theys, Charles de Long, Cecil Tobin, Vera Gow,
Josephine Liedemann, Yvonne Jansen, Susan Arendse, Sophia Andrews and Patricia van
Graan.203 Shortly before the season opened the performance of Rigoletto had to be
cancelled due to the sudden death of the principal baritone, Robert Trussell.

199

Minutes of the Special General Meeting held on 26 August 1969, p. 9. Eoan Archive, box 25,
folder 178.
200
Elsa Winckley, ‘Eoan group shines brightly as ever’, Sunday Express, 30 March 1969. Eoan
Archive, box 36, folder 270.
201
Staff reporter, ‘Mayor to hear top soprano’, Newspaper unknown, June 1969. Eoan Archive,
box 36, folder 270.
202
See rehearsal schedules in the Eoan Archive, box 36, folder 286.
203
Ibid.
119

Manca was seemingly highly regarded by government officials in important positions and
was asked to serve on a number of cultural committees. He was elected a member of the
Council for Culture and Recreation, a department created separately for the Coloured
people as an equivalent to the Performing Arts Councils which were cultural bodies for
Whites only. Sydow reported in his Chairman’s report that ‘on the 9th of February 1968 the
Minister for Coloured Affairs, the Honourable Mr. Marais Viljoen officially opened the
establishment of the “Council for Culture and Recreation” consisting of ten persons drawn
from the four provinces of the Republic. I am happy to state that our Dr. Manca has been
appointed as a member of the Council and also its Executive Committee.’204
The creation of the National Performing Arts Councils, through which consistent financial
support from the government was channeled to white performers only, was a particularly
painful situation for Eoan. While professional careers were enabled for white performers,
Eoan’s singers still went unpaid, despite their excellent reputation and their substantial
contribution to opera production in Cape Town. Although they received some funding
from the Department of Coloured Affairs, the group had to apply for it annually and the
security of a fixed income on which they could budget and plan ahead was by no means
guaranteed. In his foreword to the 1969 Opera Season’s programme, Ismail Sydow wrote
as follows:
I trust the time is not far distant when the Eoan Group may be able to devote themselves
fully to the prosecution of the arts and be financially compensated for their services.
The Government has established Performing Boards in the four Provinces for
White Professional arts, each board being heavily subsided by its Province. This is
certainly a most admirable policy and a great step forward for the advancement of the
cultural arts in our country which deserves every support.
The Eoan Group, as yet does not enjoy such heavy financial assistance, but with
the establishment of the recently created ‘Council for Culture and Recreation’ by the
Minister for Coloured Affairs, the Hon. Mr. Marais Viljoen, the Eoan Group looks forward
to a greater upsurge in the cultural development of the Coloured Community.
Subsidies are the ‘life-line’ of all Opera undertakings, yet in spite of the lack of
this life-giving necessity, this truly South African Opera Company has contributed in no
small measure towards the presentations of regular annual opera seasons with the resultant
growing appreciation of ‘Opera’ in the Republic.205

204

See the Chairman’s report from the Minutes of the Special General Meeting held on 26 August
1969, p. 12. Eoan Archive, box 25, folder 178.
205
Ismail Sydow’s foreword to the 1969 Opera Season programme. Eoan Archive, box 36, folder
279.
120

Sydow’s use of the phrase ‘this truly South African Opera Company’ illustrates why Eoan
presents such a vexing historical case study for the consideration of indigenization in
South African opera. Clearly, Eoan felt itself to be a unique South African institution, but
in the reconstructed historical narrative presented thus far it is unclear what this
understanding was based on. Indigenization in this case had seemingly less to do with the
repertoire (that remained static and overwhelmingly Italian), than with all-Coloured (and
therefore ‘indigenized’) casts. However, the group’s aspirations were directed towards
Europe and support was predominantly from Whites rather than Coloureds. Eoan existed,
in short, on Apartheid’s terms under white management co-opted in the functioning of
separate groups and structures. Writing from the vantage point of the present, it is also
clear that not much of the Apartheid government’s policy of ‘separate though equal
development’, cited by Sydow in the letter quoted above, came to fruition. The Eoan
Group remained solely responsible for obtaining funds for their activities, a situation that
never changed throughout their opera-producing years. This was despite expectations
raised by the creation of the Council for Culture and Recreation that Eoan performers
would eventually enjoy the same rights and privileges as white artists.
Pointing the way to Eoan’s programming of many operatic concerts during the next
decade, the Eoan Group Trust advised Manca regarding financial outcomes of certain
types of productions:
Experience has taught us that the better class of Musicals has a wide public appeal both
among White and Coloured Communities and that consequently the prospect of substantial
profits is far greater than in the case of classical productions. It would also seem that ‘Opera
for All’ has a wide appeal and that the cost of production is low. The Group will, I know,
wish to prove its ability to stand on its own feet as much as possible and to build up a
reserve of funds which will help to finance its classical productions in the field of opera,
ballet, etc. I do suggest that the Group’s programmes each year should include one musical
so as to ensure a regular source of production profit and that ‘Opera for All’ be exploited to
the full. It is not a question of giving the non classical precedence over the classical, but
merely a matter of using the former as a means to financing the latter.206

From 1966 onwards Eoan had been presenting operatic concerts and as time passed, these
became more frequent, eventually dominating the operatic endeavors of the Group. Named
Opera for All, A night at the Opera or Gems of the Opera, these concerts were not only
206

Letter from the Eoan Group Trust to Manca, 20 October 1969, p. 2. Eoan Archive, box 53,
folder 439.

121

economically more viable than full-scale opera productions, but also much easier to take
on short tours. Eoan performed in this format in various towns in the Western Cape
throughout the 1970s.
Eoan’s dream to have its own cultural centre became a reality in November 1969. As early
as 1966 Sydow commented on this issue: ‘It has always been the wish of the Eoan Group
to have its own Cultural centre wherein all our activities could be centralized. At present,
we have the Isaac Ochberg Hall in Hanover Street, Cape Town. This hall has served us
well, but with the shift of population and with District Six being zoned for White
occupation, it became necessary to look elsewhere for the erection of our Cultural
Centre.’207 Within three years this dream came true.
The Eoan Archive holds few documents pertaining to the building of the Eoan Group
Cultural Centre. The minutes of a special AGM held on 26 August 1969 states that the
Cape Town Municipality donated 3.25 acres of land in Athlone and the main financial
contributors to the building of the Cultural Centre were the following:
-

R 120 000

-

The Joseph Stone Foundation208

R 100 000

-

The Bernard van Leer Foundation209

R 34 000

-

The Eoan Group

R 33 000210

Total:
207

The South African Government

R 287 000211

Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, pp. 6-7. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3.
Other than his residential address in Sea Point and his postal address in Somerset West, the
archive holds no information on who Joseph Stone was and why he donated this amount to the
building of the centre.
209
The Bernard van Leer Foundation is based in the Netherlands and has been donating money to
disadvantaged groups since the 1950s. However, the Eoan Archive holds no information on how
this organization became involved with Eoan and why they donated this amount to the building of
the centre. The only information found in the archive thus far, is that Ismail Sydow visited them in
1967 and secured the donation. See the letters from Sydow to Manca in the Eoan Archive, box 86,
folder 686.
210
This amount consisted of R8 000 profit earned from the sale of the Ochberg Hall and R25 000
profit earned on the presentation of the musicals Oklahoma and South Pacific in 1967 and 1968.
Minutes of the Special General Meeting held on 26 August 1969, p. 3. Eoan Archive, box 25,
folder 178.
211
Minutes of the Special General Meeting held on 26 August 1969, p. 11. Eoan Archive, box 25,
folder 178.
122
208

At the time of writing this chapter, it was not clear who took the initiative for the building
and who drove the project as a whole. A letter from the Eoan Group Trust to Ismail Sydow
suggested that the initial idea was to incorporate the centre as part of a cultural wing of the
University of the Western Cape,212 but this did not materialize. The centre was designed by
the well known Cape Town architect, Revel Fox.213 Eighteen months later, in May 1971,
the Nico Malan Theatre Complex, a Whites-only building, was completed in Cape Town’s
city centre at the cost of 11 million Rands. The project was fully subsidized by the
government.214
The Eoan Group Cultural Centre, consisting of the Joseph Stone Auditorium, several
studios, practice rooms and offices, was inaugurated on 21 November 1969.215 The
ceremony was followed by a short concert in the auditorium. The Eoan Group Trust
became the official owner of the Eoan Group Cultural Centre.216 Once again the
expectations for the possibilities created by the new centre were high. As early as 1966, the
minutes of the AGM held in August stated that:
The Cultural Centre is to be in the nature of an Academy where all forms of art are to be
taught and to be practiced. Its establishment would further provide i) the creation of
professional careers for our many artists, ii) serve as a training college, and iii) provide
employment for our people in the promotion of the performing and non-performing arts
and the general uplift of our Community.217

Until 1969 Eoan’s activities were central to Cape Town’s cultural life. Not only did the
Group perform annually in venues in the city, but rehearsals had also been taking place in
either the Ochberg Hall in District Six or Delta House in Bree Street. Most administrative
tasks and committee meetings took place in Delta House or at Manca’s home in Sea Point.
The move to Athlone, however, is instructive on how the forced physical removal of
212

Letter from the Eoan Group Trust to Sydow, 7 January 1969, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder
437. The letter does not indicate where this idea originated although it is possible that, in the light
of the government’s policy of separate universities, it could have been suggested by government.
213
Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, pp. 6-7. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3. It
is not clear why and how Fox became involved with this project.
214
Elizabeth Blanckenberg, The Music Activities of the Cape Performing Arts Board. MMus thesis,
University of Stellenbosch, March 2009, p. 39.
215
Joseph Manca, ‘Eoan Group’ SAME, Volume 2, pp. 26-29. Today the centre is known as the
Joseph Stone Theatre. It is not clear when the name was officially changed.
216
Minutes of the 33rd AGM held on 8 December 1970, p. 6. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 8.
217
Minutes of the 32nd AGM held on 29 September 1966, p. 7. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3.
123

people under Apartheid could and did disempower them culturally. The physical shift
away from the city centre accompanied a shift away from the cultural activities of Cape
Town. Documents in the archive indicate that after 1969 Eoan was gradually excluded
from main stream cultural activities as venues became more inaccessible and Apartheid
legislation made it increasingly difficult for the Group to maintain its position at the centre
of Cape Town’s cultural life.218
In 1970 the New York based producer, Stanley Waren, returned to South Africa to direct
Eoan’s July performance of the American musical Carmen Jones by Oscar Hammerstein
II.219 Once again Eoan was able to claim a ‘first’, as this was also the South African
première of this work. The work was based on Bizet’s opera Carmen and in this
production the setting changed ‘from Spain to the American South and the American
Negro. The gypsy girl, Carmen, is now the Negress, Carmen Jones.’220 Manca stated in his
publicity material: ‘If one were to travel around the world it would be difficult to find a
cast more eminently qualified to stage a presentation of Carmen Jones than the unique
Eoan Group.’221
This time performances were held for Coloured-only audiences in the Joseph Stone
Auditorium in Athlone and at the Luxurama in Wynberg, both venues situated in Coloured
areas. Permits had to be obtained for white newspaper critics to attend the performances in
order to review the production. The invitation letters to critics explained: ‘I have to advise
you that permission has been obtained from the Department of Community Development
for the official theatre critics who belong to the White race group.’222 From this one can
conclude that newspaper critics were predominantly white and that journalism covering the
arts was controlled by Whites. Furthermore, no evidence was found in the archive of
permit applications for members of the white public to attend the performances.
218

The 1975 Cape Town Festival was organized without the participation of Eoan, despite Eoan’s
continuous attempts to be involved in this festival. Eoan eventually gave one operatic concert
during this festival. See correspondence between Eoan and the City Council in 1973-4. Eoan
Archive, box 1, folder 2.
219
This musical is an adaption of Bizet’s Carmen into an Afro-American setting by Oscar
Hammerstein II.
220
Advance publicity material, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box 10, folder 68.
221
Ibid.
222
Joseph Manca, Invitation letter to newspaper critics, 10 July 1970. Eoan Archive, box 10, folder
68.
124

Eoan gave several operatic concerts in towns in the Cape in March 1970.223 Minutes of the
1970 AGM also mention that the group gave concerts further afield, and that ‘three
concerts, one at Stellenbosch and two at Paarl to members of our own community met with
great success.’224 Eoan’s opera season during this year was held from 15 October to 7
November in the Cape Town City Hall.
Control over Eoan’s activities by The Department of Coloured Affairs gradually tightened.
In reply to Eoan’s application for financial assistance for the 1970/1 financial year, the
Administration of Coloured Affairs responded favourably, granting R 3 ,000, but
requesting representation on the Eoan Executive Committee.225 Ismail Sydow replied that
same month that the ‘Committee further resolved to take immediate steps to provide for
the permanent representation of the administration on the Eoan Group’s governing body,
i.e. the Executive Committee, which is responsible for the management of the whole
group.’226 During the AGM held On 8 December 1970 Eoan’s constitution was amended
to allow for representation of the Department of Coloured Affairs on their Executive
Committee.227

2.9

The 1971 Republic Festival and beyond

As they had done in 1966, Eoan took part in the Republic Festival held in 1971. Manca
initially planned three productions: an indigenous musical, an international musical and an
opera season comprising four operas. As their entire contribution was to be financed by the
government, Manca was requested to make detailed financial estimates for these
productions. From these estimates is it clear that for this festival the audiences were kept
completely separate. Half the performances were planned for white audiences and the
other half for non-white audiences, with the performances scheduled in separate venues.
223

EOAN Archive, box 1, folder 1.
Minutes of the 33rd AGM held on 8 December 1970, p. 10. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 8.
225
Letter from the Administration of Coloured Affairs, 8 September 1970, p. 2. Page 1 of this
document is available, but page 2 is missing. The content of page 2 can however be deduced from
Sydow’s reply to the above letter. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 436.
226
Letter to the Administration of Coloured Affairs, 11 September 1970, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box
53, folder 436.
227
Letter to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, 19 April 1971. Eoan Archive, box 71, folder
548. It is not clear, however, if the Department ever sent a representative to the Eoan Board.
125
224

The estimated income from admission fees from Whites was double that from Coloureds.
From the documentation found in the Eoan Archive, it is clear that for this project, singers,
dancers and producing staff were to be paid a professional fee. Approximately 40% of the
costs were expected to be covered by the income generated from admission fees, the
remaining 60% to be covered by the government.228 However, few of Manca’s plans were
eventually implemented. In May 1971 Eoan presented seven operatic concerts in the
Joseph Stone Auditorium for the Republic Festival for Coloured-only audiences. Manca
later reported that only approximately 1500 people in total attended these performances.229
The Group’s 1971 opera season was held in October in Cape Town. The programme
included Verdi’s Rigoletto and La Traviata and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. This
year the season was staged in the Alhambra Theatre and permission was obtained to allow
people from the Coloured community to attend performances. Having experienced several
rejections from the Department of Community Development in recent years to allow a
Coloured audience to the Alhambra, the permit was granted, but the arrangements were set
up differently this time. From the programme it is clear that performances for Whites and
Coloureds were held on separate evenings, 11 performances for Whites and 3
performances for Coloureds, thus carefully avoiding the issue of mixed audiences
altogether.230
In July 1971 Manca submitted the following year’s budget requirements to the
Commissioner of Coloured Affairs. In his report accompanying the budget, he discussed,
amongst other things, the lack of sufficient training with which the group had had to make
do for years:
Despite the fact that for at least the past twenty years the Eoan Group artists have been
performing Oratorio, Operettas, Musicals and Opera without any real and serious knowledge
of music, it speaks much for their inherent talents that they have achieved so much and been
in the forefront, specially of opera. Apart from the many operettas and musicals, the Eoan
Group has to date a repertoire of nine operas:
228

Financial estimation made by Manca for musical presentations during the 1971 Republic
Festival. Eoan Archive, box 7, folder 51. See also the letter from Manca to the Town Clerk
regarding Eoan’s 1971 activities, dated 26 November 1970. Eoan Archive, box 12, folder 84.
229
‘Commission of Inquiry into Matters relating to the Coloured Population Group: Group 5:
Culture. Questionnaire to Organizations practising the Performing Arts’, p. 7. Eoan Archive, box 9,
folder 59.
230
See list of performances for the 1971 Opera Season. Eoan Archive, box 11, folder 79.
126

1. La Traviata
2. Cavalleria Rusticana
3. Rigoletto
4. La Boheme
5. Madam Butterfly
6. Il Trovatore
7. Carmen
8. L’Elisir D’Amore
9. Barber of Seville
For many years past, it was deemed necessary to establish a Music School where the artists
would be taught the theory and rudiments of music, sufficient enough for them to read
musical notation. For some reason or another, this much needed requirement did not come
about. However, it was finally decided to introduce this pressing need and so the
establishment of the Music School was planned to commence this year.231

In line with Manca’s comments above, the Voice Production School was completely reorganized. Allesandro Rota and Olga Magnoni had been responsible for voice training
since the 1960s, but increasingly poor attendance and lack of discipline were apparently
common and all students now had to sign a contract binding them to regular attendance,
punctuality and the strict control of performing at other occasions not related to Eoan’s
productions.232
By this time Manca had been with the Eoan Group for 28 years and the hunt for a
successor was becoming ever more urgent. Due to Apartheid legislation, the scope of
suitable Coloured candidates was exceedingly limited and many efforts were made to
obtain new and well-trained staff. In a meeting held on 28 July 1971, the Eoan Group’s
Executive Committee decided formally to approach Didi Sydow233 to become Eoan’s
Ballet Director and Gordon Jephtas234 to become Assistant Cultural Director. Both
individuals were former members of Eoan pursuing successful artistic careers in Europe.
In August 1971 Eoan’s chairman, Ismail Sydow, traveled to Europe to visit his daughter
Didi Sydow in the United Kingdom and Gordon Jephtas in Italy to discuss the requests
with them personally. This time both Jephtas and Sydow agreed to commit themselves to
service to Eoan, although both stated certain conditions.
231

Budget application to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, 1 July 1971, annexure D, p. 1.
Eoan Archive, box 10, folder 70.
232
See Voice Production School contracts and conditions of enrolment. Eoan Archive, box 7,
folder 48.
233
See letter from Ismail Sydow to The Commissioner for Coloured Affairs, 16 November 1971.
Eoan Archive, box 39, folder 314.
234
Ibid.
127

As stated above, the conditions for receiving government funding stipulated that all plans
and new initiatives had to be reported to the Department of Coloured Affairs. In a letter to
the Department, dated 16 November 1971, Sydow thus explained Eoan’s search for
professional training staff. He duly conceded that ‘in terms of the Grant-in-Aid made by
the Administration of Coloured Affairs covering all the Eoan Group’s activities and their
expansion, all decisions and resolutions affecting their activities with the accompanying
financial implications were to be submitted to the Administration of Coloured Affairs for
consideration and subsequent approval.’235 Didi Sydow stated the conditions for her
acceptance of the appointment as follows:
It should be especially noted that the above is dependent on permission being granted in
writing by the South African government for unrestricted exit and entry, during the term of
the contract, for myself and my husband. I am a British citizen and my husband is an
Australian citizen. Also that we may live as man and wife while in South Africa, this is to
be included in the written authority from the South African Government. The contract will
be void without notice should this condition cease to be honoured.236

Didi Sydow never took up the position as director of the Ballet Section and there are no
documents in the archive suggesting that the permit she requested was applied for or ever
granted by the government. Gordon Jephtas’s main concern was described in this letter to
the Department of Coloured Affairs by Ismail Sydow as follows:
Mr. Jephtas has a most promising career overseas, all of which he is prepared to sacrifice
and return to South Africa providing he obtains in writing, from the South African
Government, permission to conduct orchestrally irrespective whether the members of the
orchestra belong to the White group or not.[…] It is Dr Manca’s considered opinion, that it
will take at least another 50 years before an orchestra consisting purely of coloured
musicians will be capable of substituting a white professional orchestra in such matters as
accompanying opera.237

Permission from the Department of Community Development for Jephtas to be allowed to
conduct an orchestra comprising white musicians took a full two years. The permit was
granted on 15 October 1973 and was formulated as follows:

235

Ibid.
Letter from Didi Sydow to Eoan, dated 10 September 1971 was used as an Appendix to the
letter by Ismail Sydow to The Commissioner for Coloured Affairs, 16 November 1971. Eoan
Archive, box 39, folder 314.
237
Letter by Ismail Sydow to The Commissioner for Coloured Affairs, 16 November 1971. Eoan
Archive, box 39, folder 314.
128
236

I have the pleasure in advising you that the Honourable the Minister of Community
Development has approved of the issue of a group areas permit, subject to withdrawal at
his pleasure, enabling Mr. Jephtas to conduct all orchestras playing at performances by the
Eoan Group as well as at rehearsals. The Minister has at the same time expressed the wish
that as the Coloured community is itself musically talented it will develop its own Eoan
238
Group orchestra in the near future.

Despite the setbacks in their search for sustained professional training, Manca’s ambitious
plans for the Eoan Group Cultural Centre were still very much alive and in July 1971 an
application for R 550 000 was submitted to the Administration of Coloured Affairs for a
new teaching block to be added to the existing buildings.239 Ismail Sydow wrote as
follows:
Teaching and training were the rocks on which the foundation of the Eoan Group was
originally established – activities which have continued and still continue until today.
(Public presentations and performances are the end result of such training.) In its neverending efforts for the promotion and cultural development of the Coloured Community and
in an attempt to increase the present available facilities and to cope with the growing
demand for teaching space, additional accommodation must be found and provided. 240

The dream, or rather the expectation, that Eoan should be treated on equal terms to
CAPAB by the government, remained unfulfilled and unresolved. After describing the
existing facilities of the Eoan Group Cultural Center, Sydow continued in this letter:
From the foregoing remarks, it will be seen that if the Eoan Group is to continue with its
teaching and training, the present facilities are quite inadequate and unsuitable. Therefore
it now becomes urgently necessary to find additional accommodation in the form of a new
Teaching Block. Furthermore, apart from the Eoan Group’s current pressing needs, the
Administration […] is considering preliminary plans for the establishment of a) a
professional opera company, b) a department of ballet, and c) a department of drama, in
other words, the creation of a Performing Arts Company similar to CAPAB.241

In the Music Section, the Group’s repertoire had now become standardized and operatic
concerts such as Gems of the Opera had become regular items in their performance
238

Letter from Department of Community Development, 15 October 1973, signed by Mr. B.A. van
der Vyver. Eoan Archive, box 37, folder 300. It is clear from the permit that Jephtas would be
restricted to conducting only Eoan productions and was not allowed to conduct for any other
occasion. Jephtas eventually joined the group formally for a short while during 1979.
239
The proposed teaching block included five new ballet studios, five soundproof studios for oneon-one music lessons, two rehearsal rooms, a storage room for instruments and approximately ten
additional rooms for administration and other staff. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 436.
240
Letter to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, 1 July 1970, pp. 1-2. Eoan Archive box 53,
folder 436.
241
Ibid, p. 3.
129

schedules, providing much needed income. These concerts were less expensive to produce,
were well attended and show-cased Eoan’s principal singers and their popular hits. New
initiatives in opera production were far and few between. Their opera seasons, which
continued until 1975, consisted of productions of existing repertoire and no new operas
were added during these years. The feeling of excitement, hopeful expectation and general
amazement accompanying Eoan’s productions in the years prior to 1969 had been replaced
by routines as concert after concert was given, leaving the impression of a floundering
attempt to match the exuberance of past experiences. Documentation found in the Eoan
Archive dating from the early 1970s focuses predominantly on the annual opera seasons,
schedules for many operatic concerts, problems and worries regarding funding,
maintenance of the Eoan Group Cultural Center, as well as matters of permission and
future plans.242 It is also clear from the documentation that the political situation was
worsening, that the control exercised over the group by the Department of Coloured
Affairs increased and political tolerance in the Group and the society at large deteriorated.
By early 1972 Eoan’s financial affairs were, once again, in dire straits. Eoan’s annual costs
were estimated at R120 000 of which the Group generated approximately 50% themselves.
Of the remaining costs the Department of Coloured Affairs only covered approximately
30% (R35 000 ). The Eoan Board requested financial support for the R28000 short fall on
their budget from the Department, but after a meeting decided to reduce the annual staff
costs by approximately 20%, therefore reducing the budgeted short fall with R25 000.243
By end of March the Department allocated another R5 000 to cover the shortfall, bringing
the total grant from the Department of Coloured Affairs for the financial year ending
March 1972 to R40 000.244 In a letter of 23 March 1972 to the Eoan Group by Mr. F.L.
Gaum, the then Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, the threatening tone is unmistakable:
I should again like to point out that the Administration does not have at its disposal
unlimited financial resources. It is, therefore, sine qua non that the Eoan Group itself
should undertake its affairs within its financial limits and it should not rely on the
242

There is for example the paper trail of a bitter exchange between Manca and David Poole from
the UCT Ballet School, telling the story of fierce control games regarding Eoan dancers who study
at UCT.
243
Correspondence between Eoan and the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, January 1971. Eoan
Archive, box 1, folder 1.
244
Financial report as supplied Joseph Manca, 6 November 1973. Eoan Archive, box 21, folder
144.
130

Administration to meet its shortfall. Whereas the White community has hitherto been the
main support of the Group, the question of a greater financial contribution and better
support from the Coloured Community arises. May I also suggest that the Trust considers
extending its own support of the Eoan Group, prior to seeking further aid from the
Administration, who I consider has been very generous in its financial assistance to the
Eoan Group.
Whereas the representation of the Administration on the executive is at present
advisory, it would appear to be necessary, should further financial aid be granted, that
stricter control be exercised over the expenditure. The Administration proposes, as a first
step, to scrutinize the monthly expenditure closely and should there be any surmise that
sufficient control of expenditure is not carried out, the matter will be taken up
245
officially.’

Mr. L.C.V. Walker of the Eoan Group Trust addressed this issue in a letter to the
Commissioner stating that ‘the overall problem of [Eoan’s] popularity amongst its own
community is a very thorny problem which I feel is somewhat beyond our capabilities.’246
It is clear that, despite Eoan’s proven achievements on many occasions and over many
years, the government was in no way interested in supporting opera in the Coloured
community to the extent that it supported opera in the White community.

1973
Athol Fugard’s play Sizwe Banzi is Dead is banned shortly before it is to be performed for
a Coloured audience. Apartheid regulations prevent Africans from performing for
Coloured audiences without a permit.247

In January 1973 the Eoan Group was informed by the City Council that the City Hall was
being renovated to its original design from 1905. It became clear that the venue would,
after renovations, no longer be suitable for the production of opera or musicals. For Eoan
this meant that the City Hall could not host their 1973 Opera Season, and that the venue
would not be available for opera productions in the future. For the Group this was hugely
problematic, as ‘the Main Hall of the City Hall is the only venue available to the Eoan
245

Letter from the Administration of Coloured Affairs, 23 March 1972, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box 53,
folder 436.
246
Letter to the Administration of Coloured Affairs, 10 April 1972, p. 2. Eoan Archive, box 53,
folder 436.
247
http://www.liberation.org.za/library/Library/ANC_Materials/ANC-history.htm, accessed 20
July 2008.
131

Group to perform to both sections of the White and Coloured Community at the same
time, although the Coloured Community is only allowed to use separate entrances, and to
sit downstairs in the one block of seats facing the stage on the right hand side.’248 Thus
Eoan lost this venue as the last sign of political tolerance in Cape Town, as the new Nico
Malan Theatre Complex was a ‘Whites Only’ building. The City Council proposed that the
Green & Sea Point Civic Centre could be used as an alternative to the City Hall. The town
clerk ‘produced a detailed sketch of the Centre, showing suitable separate amenities for
both White and Coloured Sections of the Community. Both the Communities would enter
from the Main Road to Sea Point and provision was possible for the Coloured Community
to occupy one section of the seating in the same pattern as in the City Hall.’249 However,
the shift of venue added to Eoan’s burdens. The new venue meant, amongst others, longer
distances to be travelled after a day’s work using inadequate public transport (on which
most Eoan members and artists depended) and ‘the removal of the last and only one
amenity the Coloured Community enjoyed in the heart of our City of Cape Town’.250 In a
rare display of emotion the Chairman, Ismail Sydow, wrote in his report to the Eoan
Executive:
Fellow members, I regret I have to present such a gloomy report to you in connection with
one of our more important activities. There is nothing we can do if we wish to continue to
perform before both sections of the Community at the same time in the same venue. It
would be a great tragedy were the Eoan Group not to present opera, operettas and musicals
in the future. This would be a great blow to the many talented members of our community,
who would have no outlet to express their natural artistic achievements to the people of our
country. What has the Eoan Group done to receive this form of treatment? We have always
been law abiding and endeavoured at all times to carry out our motto: ‘WE LIVE TO
SERVE!’251

The 1973 opera and ballet season was held in September. The opera season consisted of
five performances of The Barber of Seville and two operatic concerts. The season also
included ballet presentations.252 Eoan had no option but to present their season in the
Green & Sea Point Civic Centre and had to apply for a permit to perform before mixed
audiences in this venue. The permit was granted on 25 April. Except for the regular
248

Chairman’s report to Eoan’s Executive Committee on 31 January 1973, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box
25, folder 179.
249
Ibid, p. 5.
250
Ibid, p. 6.
251
Ibid.
252
See the 1974 season schedule. Eoan Archive, box 6, folder 46.
132

conditions regarding separate entrances, exits, ticket boxes, toilet facilities and seating, a
new condition had been added to the permit which illustrated the extent to which the
government thought it could control society and the extent to which they tried to keep
racial groups apart. The added condition was formulated as follows: ‘No social mingling
shall be allowed between Whites and Coloureds.’253
Eoan’s financial position improved somewhat during this year due to increased income
from operatic concerts. Although the grant from the Department of Coloured Affairs was
reduced by half to R 20 000 (due to stringent financial restrictions imposed by Central
Government254) other income was higher.255 However, Manca reported to Eoan Board on
his efforts to obtain funding elsewhere:
Furthermore, during 1972/3, the Eoan Group appealed to over 50 Coloured Industrial and
Commercial Undertakings for financial assistance. The outcome of this appeal was the
receipt of a donation of the magnificent sum of R 15. The burden of the Eoan Group’s
financial requirements and the implications is indeed very onerous and I regret to state that
this heavy responsibility is left in the hands of our Chairman, Mr. I. Sydow and myself in
my dual capacity as Administrative Head and Finance Chairman. The time has now come
when this burden on two persons is lightened by additional efforts on the part of all Eoan
Group members to increase their efforts both financially and artistically in order that the
Eoan Group which has been in existence for over 35 years is not only allowed to die, but to
256
grow from strength to strength, especially in its financial position.

From the above it is clear that the local Coloured community was either not interested in
Eoan, viewed the Group as being politically compromised, or was really not in a position
to make any substantial financial contributions. It is probable that all three reasons could
be true. By the late 1970s and early 1980s signs that the community started to reject Eoan
due to its perceived ties with government, became increasingly clear.
The minutes of the 36th AGM held in November 1973 specifically mentioned that Manca
had been ill for some time and that the attendees were happy to see that he could attend the
meeting.257 He was 65 years old by now. During this month the Eoan Group was asked to
take part in the ‘Commission of Inquiry into Matters relating to the Coloured Population
253

Permit issued to the Eoan Group, 25 April 1973. Eoan Archive, box 16, folder 114.
Financial report by Joseph Manca, 6 November 1973, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box 21, folder 144.
255
Ibid, pp. 3-4.
256
Ibid, p. 4.
257
Minutes of the 36th AGM held on 6 November 1973, p. 5. Eoan Archive, box 72, folder 553.
133
254

Group’, a commission set up by the State President and headed by Professor Erika Theron.
The mandate given to the commission was to investigate a) the progress made by the
Coloured people since 1960 in the social, economic and political spheres as well as local
governance, sports and culture, b) the identification of factors causing hindrances in these
areas and 3) any other related issues.258 The questionnaire that Manca filled out in March
1974, revealed, amongst others, Eoan’s decreasing support by the Coloured community.
Section 6 of the questionnaire showed a drastic decline in membership as Eoan’s 1920
members in 1960 had dwindled to 370 in 1973.259 Section 18 of the questionnaire enquired
about mixed or separate audiences and Manca answered as follows: ‘When the Eoan
Group performs before separate audiences, houses are generally poorly attended. The
public tends to boycott separate performances. When performing to both sections of the
public, houses are generally full.’260 Manca maintained however that attendance of Eoan’s
performances remained constant since 1960, but added that ‘up to 1960, the Eoan Group
had full support of both races. From 1965 Coloured and White support showed a drop in
attendance.’261 The questionnaire extensively investigated the issue of venues. Manca
confirmed that the suitable venues for opera production were those situated in White areas.
This caused many logistical problems for the Group, such as permits for which Eoan had
to apply, the ‘separation of races’ in the venues and the long distances Eoan’s artists had to
travel after they have been relocated further away from town under the Coloured housing
schemes of the government.262 The facilities at the Joseph Stone Auditorium came under
severe attack from Manca when he wrote that the ‘Joseph Stone Auditorium is absolutely
inadequate to meet all requirements for Eoan Group activities’. He further added that the
complex had insufficient and inadequate facilities for rehearsals of opera, choral singing
and ballet and that no studios for voice production classes were available. He listed the
shortcomings of the centre as follows:
No stage facilities.
No proper dressing rooms.
258

Erika Theron en J.B. du Toit. ‘Kortbegrip van die Theron-verslag’, p. 1. Tafelberg 1977.
‘Commission of Inquiry into Matters relating to the Coloured Population Group: Group 5:
Culture. Questionnaire to Organizations practising the Performing Arts’, p. 2. Eoan Archive, box 9,
folder 59.
260
Ibid, p. 9.
261
Ibid, p. 10.
262
Ibid, p. 6.
134
259

No suitable toilets.
In short, complete lack of equipment necessary for a proper theatre such as the Nico
Malan.
The Joseph Stone Auditorium is only partially equipped.
Also seating capacity is too small.
Area not suitable for legitimate theatre lovers.
Too dangerous for members of the public.
263
South Africa has no real opera house or theatre for Coloured persons.

From Ismail Sydow’s cover letter to the Commission of Inquiry on 7 March 1974, it is
clear that the professional body for Arts and Culture for the Coloured community, which
had been expected since 1967, had after seven years still not materialized. The Cape
Performing Arts Board (CAPAB), which made possible professional careers for Whites,
had been in existence for eleven years by now. It is also indicated that some of Eoan’s
artists were able to get paid employment at other cultural organizations and were therefore
not willing to sing voluntarily for Eoan any longer. Manca wrote:
In connection with the Eoan Group’s future plans for the presentation of opera, the
professional body about to be established by the Council for Culture and Administration
should assist the Eoan Group financially to invite well-known overseas Coloured artists to
participate in the Eoan Group presentations.
Due to the fact that artists taking part in all presentations by the Performing Board receive
remuneration, especially Capab in the Cape, the Eoan Group now finds great difficulty in
obtaining the voluntary services of performing artists, choristers, producers, décor and
costume designers, and all personnel concerned with the organization, administration and
technical aspects of the theatre business. 264

1974
The City Councils of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Pietermaritzburg pledge to
remove petty apartheid as far as the law allows. The Nico Malan Theatre opens its doors to
all races.265

The 1974 opera season consisted of a full production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville,266
a number of operatic concerts and a ballet production.267 It was held from 13 to 30 March
263

Ibid, pp. 4-5.
Letter to Professor J.B. du Toit of the Commission of Inquiry into Matters relating to the
Coloured Population Group, 7 March 1974. Eoan Archive, box 9, folder 59.
265
http://www.liberation.org.za/library/Library/ANC_Materials/ANC-history.htm, accessed 20
July 2008.
264

135

in the Green & Sea Point Civic Centre. In August The Barber of Seville was again
performed in a series of performances in this venue.268 On 19 October 1974 Manca was
awarded a Gold Medal from the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns. To
celebrate the event an operatic concert was held in October in the Joseph Stone Theatre
and the medal was presented to Manca by Professor Beukes, the chairman of the
Akademie. Sydow thanked the Akademie as follows: ‘The Eoan Group is proud of being
associated with the Akademie on this unforgettable occasion. The very generous gesture of
Die Akademie marks yet another milestone in the history of our beloved country and the
Eoan Group is deeply recognisant of the importance of this memorable occasion when we
all, as true South Africans met and enjoyed each other’s company irrespective of race,
colour and creed.’269

2.10

Eoan tours abroad

In 1975 Manca’s dream for Eoan to tour abroad eventually came true when the Group was
invited to participate in the 1975 International Festival of Youth Orchestras and
Performing Arts held in London and Aberdeen in August.270 Earlier in the year, the Group
also presented their eleventh annual opera season from 26 February to 8 March, and for the
first time in years included two ballet productions on 6 and 8 March respectively. The
programme comprised six performances of Verdi’s La Traviata and the two ballet
productions each had three sections: a Spanish Ballet, a Classical Ballet and a Modern
Ballet, all of which were choreographed by Eoan’s dancers. The season was again held at
the Green & Sea Point Civic Centre. During the season Eoan also held various operatic
concerts in the Coloured suburbs of Elsies River, Bellville South and Athlone.271 The

266

Minutes of the 37th AGM held on 4 February 1975, p. 9. Eoan Archive, box 72, folder 553.
See concert schedules in the Eoan Archive, box 16, folder 114.
268
Seating plans for the Green Point Civic Centre. Eoan Archive, box 10, folder 65. See also
Advance Press Publicity in the Eoan Archive, box 6, folder 46
269
Archive no. 8 of the Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns. Information obtained from Prof. Izak
Grové.
270
Letter from Ismail Sydow to Mrs. Joyce Bryer, Secretary General of the International Festival,
20 March 1974. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 436.
271
See rehearsal and performance schedules in the Eoan Archive, box 9, folder 64.
136
267

principal singers during this year were May Abrahamse, Gerald Samaai, Ronald Theys,
John van der Ross and Josephine Liedemann.
The official invitation for the tour to the United Kingdom, received on 11 February 1974,
stated the following:
The Festival Foundation cordially invites 35 members of the Eoan Opera Group to attend
the 1975 International Festival of Youth Orchestras which will take place from 4th – 15th
August in Aberdeen and from 15th – 17th in London.
The Eoan Group will give one main performance in Aberdeen and another in a
neighboring Scottish town as well as participating in the two gala evenings, one in
Aberdeen and one in London.
We, the International Festival of Youth Orchestras Foundation, guarantee to pay
for the 35 members of the Eoan Group’s full board and accommodation. […] The Festival
Foundation will also be responsible for covering the cost of the Eoan Group’s transport
from Aberdeen to London on 15th August.272

With their lodging and transport inside the United Kingdom being paid for, Eoan only
required sponsorship for the group’s airfares and other costs such as loss of wages for
those singers who had to take unpaid leave from their daytime jobs, pocket money for the
group and freight costs for some of their costumes. Additional funding also had to be
raised for an extra two weeks of training for the Group in London after the festival. The
initiative to approach the Festival Foundation was taken by Ismail Sydow in December
1972 when he visited his daughter Didi in London. A meeting with the Foundation was set
up via Mr. Bruce Pinkard,273 and Sydow managed to convince the Festival organizers to
guarantee Eoan’s participation. At this early stage the Eoan Group was already placed on
the official list of organizations taking part in the Festival in 1975.274
From a letter to South African Airways, dated 20 September 1974, in which Eoan applied
for sponsorship of the group’s flights, Sydow’s sincere and almost naïve approach is
apparent: ‘Mrs. Bryer replied that the matter of the Eoan Group’s participation in the
Festival sounded very interesting and exciting not only from the cultural aspect but more
272

Letter from the Secretary General, Joy Bryer, 11 February 1974. Eoan Archive, box 24, folder
172.
273
Mr Pinkard’s company, London Associates, handled much of the arrangements in the UK. It is
not clear what exactly his initial relationship was to the Eoan Group. See correspondence in the
Eoan Archive, box 24, folder 174.
274
Letter to South African Airways, 7 October 1974, p. 2. Eoan Archive, box 24, folder 172.
137

importantly from the point of closer understanding of the activities of various countries
thereby promoting closer human relationships between the youth of the world’.275
The budget for the tour amounted to R 45 000, of which the group was able to contribute
approximately R 15 000 from fundraising concerts.276 The bid for sponsorship from South
African Airways was not successful and it was only by April 1975 that Sydow could
confirm that the Department of Coloured Affairs had promised to meet the shortfall of
their expenses, provided that the Group approach as many other institutions as possible for
sponsorship.277 In June 1975 Sydow applied for additional funding for the tour from the
Municipality of Cape Town. This letter too explained the purpose of the Festival, exposing
the blatant contrast to the circumstances and political atmosphere in which Eoan was
trying to produce opera locally. Just two years earlier, the permit that allowed Eoan to
perform in the Green & Sea Point Civic, went as far as to forbid social mingling between
the White and Coloured races.278 Sydow now described the aims and objects of the
Festival as follows:
The Festival brings together with a common cultural purpose youth from different
countries, varying socio-economic backgrounds, different religions, races and even
opposed political ideologies, and encourages a harmonious, co-operative and creative
period of living together, with music as the common interest and motivation. A major aim
of the Festival is to foster good relationships and international understanding amongst the
youth of different countries and to promote respect and tolerance for one’s fellowman.
Each year leading orchestras, ballet and dance groups, choirs and opera companies from
different parts of the world attend a two-week festival which is held in Aberdeen
(Scotland) and London. Each group gives performances, attends seminars and various
social and sporting events.279

Since this was a Youth Festival, the members who were chosen to travel abroad had to be
younger than 26 years of age. The full company eventually consisted of 42 persons of

275

Ibid, p. 2.
Letter to the Municipality of the City of Cape Town, 9 June 1975, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box 24,
folder 174.
277
Letter to Mr L.C. Walker, an Eoan Group Trust member, 28 April 1974. Eoan Archive, box 24,
folder 174.
278
Permit issued to the Eoan Group, 25 April 1973. Eoan Archive, box 16, folder 114.
279
Letter to the Municipality of City of Cape Town, 9 June 1975, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box 24,
folder 174.
138
276

which Manca selected a choir comprising 26 singers under the age of 26,280 four guest
singers (Ronald Theys, Gerald Samaai, Vera Gow and May Abrahamse), six dancers, six
administrative staff which included Joseph Manca and his wife Minnie, Ismail Sydow and
his wife Carmen, Eoan’s voice trainer Allesandro Rota and Eoan’s accompanist Regina
Devereux.281To raise more funds for the tour, the Group gave five more operatic concerts:
two in Cape Town (of which one in the City Hall and the other in the Nico Malan
Theatre282) and one in Stellenbosch. The week prior to their departure, they travelled to
Johannesburg via Bloemfontein where they gave a concert in the Bloemfontein Town Hall
on 25 July. Sydow described this event as follows: ‘This represents a great break-through
for the Coloured Community. Never before in the history of South Africa have Coloured
People been allowed a) to appear in the Orange Free State, and b) to stay in the same hotel
with White persons.’283 On 26 July the Group travelled to Pretoria and gave their last fund
raising concert at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. This too is described as
‘another break-through’.284 On 28 July the Group departed for London from Jan Smuts
Airport outside Johannesburg.
During the Festival Eoan performed various opera choruses from their existing repertoire
with and without soloists. They were accompanied by the Young Person’s Symphony
Orchestra from Scotland, which Manca conducted.285 The Festival in Aberdeen was held
not only to display musical talent, but also focused on training. The ballet participants
attended classes in London and one person was even flown to Madrid for training in
Spanish dance. Manca secured the services of Gordon Jephtas who joined the group in
Aberdeen and London to train the choir. After the Festival the Group stayed in London for
another twelve days during which they received training in acting, movement, dialogue
and make-up at the London Opera Centre. Jephtas was also present during these sessions
280

The well-known tenor Sidwill Hartman and his three sisters, Avril, Jennifer and Veida, were all
part of the choir. See list of participants. Eoan Archive, box 24, folder 174.
281
1975 Eoan Group, Names of the members of the official Eoan Group Company. See also
correspondence with Mrs Joy Bryer, the Secretary General of the Festival, 1 April 1975. Eoan
Archive, box 24, folder 174.
282
The Nico Malan Theatre became accessible to all races in 1974.
283
This concert was organized by ‘Die Vryburgers van Bloemfontein’. Letter to the Municipality
of City of Cape Town, 9 June 1975, p. 3. Eoan Archive, box 24, folder 174.
284
Ibid.
285
According to Winfried Lüdemann, it was clear that Manca was not a good conductor.
Apparently the orchestra followed the concert master instead of the conductor. Interview with Prof.
Winfried Lüdemann on 14 January 2009 in Stellenbosch.
139

and took care of choral training in between other classes. On 27 August the Group was
treated to a reception hosted by the South African ambassador in England at the South
African Embassy. The six Eoan dancers remained in London for further training until 15
September while the remainder of the group departed for South Africa on 30
August.286The National Youth Orchestra of South Africa, consisting of white musicians,
also took part in the Festival. The two groups were unaware of each other until they met in
Aberdeen. According to Winfried Lüdemann, who at the time was a member of this Youth
Orchestra, the two groups mingled freely and supported each other’s concerts. He also
mentioned that anti-apartheid demonstrations took place outside the concert hall where
both groups were performing. During the festival informal sports events were organized
and the Eoan singers and Youth Orchestra musicians played soccer in one team against
Poland.287
Earlier in 1975 the first Cape Town Festival was held in March and April, hosting a variety
of cultural events. Manca and Sydow had been aware of the preparations for the festival
since 1973 and requested that Eoan take part in the festival and serve on the organizing
committee. Eoan eventually gave one operatic concert, Gems of the Opera, on 20 April
1975 in the Cape Town City Hall.288
1976
16 June: The Soweto school students’ massacre. Within a few weeks over 1000 children
are killed and 10000 children imprisoned. Resistance spreads to schools and colleges
throughout the country. This incident is regarded as a turning point in the struggle against
apartheid.289
12 September: Steve Biko is killed in detention.290

286

Outline Itinerary U.K. visit Eoan Group 1975. Eoan Archive, box 24, folder 174.
Apparently they lost 6-0 against Poland. Interview with Prof. Winfried Lüdemann on 14
January 2009 in Stellenbosch.
288
See correspondence between Eoan and the City Council in 1973/4. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder
2.
289
http://www.liberation.org.za/library/Library/ANC_Materials/ANC-history.htm, accessed 20
July 2008.
290
Ibid.
140
287

2.11

The beginning of the end

In July 1976 Sydow reported Eoan’s future plans to the Commissioner of Coloured
Affairs, stating that during the financial year of 1977/8, Eoan would ‘endeavour to present
an Opera Season or production of a musical in either the Nico Malan Opera House or the
Baxter Theatre.’291 This initiative, however, never took place. In November 1977, at the
age of 69, Joseph Manca resigned from Eoan on grounds of ill health. 292 He had been with
Eoan for 34 years. During the meeting of the Executive Committee on 29 March 1978, it
was agreed that May Abrahamse would again write to Gordon Jephtas ‘to try and see how
he felt about the group and if he would at all consider coming to South Africa to aid the
group if the necessary funds were available to suitably employ him’.293 In an interview
with Bruce Heilbuth published in Scenaria, David Bloomberg, who had had a long
association with Eoan and was a Trustee member, stated that ‘my biggest worry about the
future of the Group is not financial but directional. Joseph Manca’s going has left a wide
gap. They knew it was coming eventually and for years they have tried to find someone
who could take his place. Jephtas might have been the answer, had he been available. No,
the main problem is to find a new driving force to co-ordinate and train the Group.’294
The disintegration of the organizational structures and motivation within the Group
accelerated when Ismail Sydow also resigned in March 1978 after having been with Eoan
for 36 years. He served as Eoan’s Chairman from 1963 to 1977. The reason provided for
his resignation was, like Manca’s earlier resignation, ill health.295 Mrs. Veronica Allan was
appointed the new chairlady, but no treasurer or artistic director is mentioned on the list of
executive committee members during 1978. Although the reasons for Manca’s and Ismail
Sydow’s resignations were stated as ill health, the minutes of an Executive Committee
meeting held on 3 May 1978 records that Manca and Sydow had received much criticism

291

Letter to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, 8 July 1976, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box 7, folder
55.
292
Bruce Heilbuth, ‘The Eoan Group, is this the end?’ in Scenaria, June/July 1978.
293
Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 29 March 1978, p. 2. Eoan Archive, box
37, folder 300.
294
Ibid.
295
Ibid.
141

from members.296 During this meeting three more members of the Eoan Executive
Committee resigned, Mr. M. Modak, Mrs. S. Gierdien and Eoan’s voice trainer, Mrs. Olga
Magnoni. During his resignation speech, Mr. Modak referred to ‘the ingratitude and utter
unfairness reflected in the recent attacks against Mr. Sydow and Dr. Manca’ indicating that
all had not been well between Eoan’s management structures and members for some
time.297 The minutes also mention that no replacement had yet been found for Dr.
Manca.298 Mrs. Carmen Sydow, who had been Wardrobe Mistress since the early 1950s,
also left Eoan together with her husband. The ballet dancer Dick Jaffer was appointed as
new Wardrobe Master.299 Eoan continued to apply for annual grants from the Department
of Coloured Affairs and received R 20 000 for the financial year 1977/8. After the
departure of Manca, the activities of the Music Section and opera production ceased
almost entirely.
Early in 1979 Eoan eventually managed to obtain the services of Gordon Jephtas as artistic
director for the group. Manca had always viewed Jephtas as his successor for Eoan and,
although Manca was now retired, this was an ideal solution for the Group.300 However, the
solution turned out to be temporary, as Jephtas’s term as Artistic Director turned out to be
fraught with disagreements and differences between him, the Eoan Executive and the
members. Jephtas left the Group in that same year, shortly before his contract expired.
Much seemed to be amiss with Eoan’s administration during this time and his worries
about Eoan surfaced when he wrote to Dulcie Howes301 in 1979: ‘At the eve of my
departure, I am still not able to present you with a strong governing body, nor a powerful
administrative body.’302

296

Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 3 May 1978, p. 2. Eoan Archive, box 37,
folder 300.
297
Ibid.
298
Ibid.
299
Ibid, p. 3.
300
Jephtas moved to Europe during 1967 and had a successful career as a pianist and repetiteur in
Europe and the USA ever since. As has been documented in this chapter, Manca had tried to
convince Jephtas to direct Eoan on many occasions, but to no avail.
301
Howes was a ballet teacher at the University of Cape Town and had been involved with training
Eoan’s dancers for many years.
302
Letter from Gordon Jephtas to Dulcie Howes, 23 May 1979. Eoan Archive, box 4, folder 28.
142

During the AGM of 25 October it became evident that much disagreement and dissention
existed among Eoan members regarding a number of issues, amongst others about
Jephtas’s role as Artistic Director. Besides alleged overspending on a concert in the Nico
Malan Theatre, he had apparently written an unfavourable report about Eoan’s artistic
capabilities which had been leaked to the press.303 Shortly before the AGM was held,
Jephtas resigned from his post via telegram. He formulated his reasons for doing so as
follows:
Eoan Executive and members,
I, the willing, let by the unknowing have been doing the impossible for the ungrateful. I am
cancelling my commitment to Eoan because I will not deal with an amateur and mediocre
business manager and not being a social worker I am not capable of dealing with people
with no identity, big mouths behind authority’s back, lots of talent but no skills.
Mediocrity and second class situations have never interested me. You all are now qualified
to do anything with nothing.
Gordon Jephtas.304

In 1980 Eoan’s opera activities came to a complete standstill. The organization was
entangled in a maze of political difficulties and internal divisions, exacerbated by a gap
between the older and younger generations. Early that year, Roy Stoffels, head of the
Drama Section of Eoan, compiled a report entitled ‘Reasons why the Eoan Group is no
longer a viable arts project’ for the Eoan Executive Board to be discussed during a meeting
on 1 June 1980. It is evident from the minutes of this meeting that the report was deemed
necessary as the public (read: the Coloured community) no longer supported Eoan,
resulting in empty houses at performances. The report stated the following reasons:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

303

Eoan is synonymous with ‘Coloured Culture’.
‘Coloured Culture’ is a political offspring of the government of the day.
The young people do not identify themselves with a politically cultivated culture.
The history of the Group is riddled with the organizations’ acceptances of this
phenomenon, i.e. being a showpiece of ‘Coloured Culture’.
The stigma is indelible because the present generation have been schooled into
rejecting Eoan.
The scholars who attend at present, often have to keep their membership a secret
for fear of victimization from fellow students and also staff.

Minutes of the AGM held on 25 October 1979, p. 3. Eoan Archive, box 4, folder 29. The report
was not filed with the minutes of this meeting and is assumed to be lost.
304
Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 29 November 1979, p. 3. Eoan Archive,
box 23, folder 167.
143

7.
8.
9.

10.

Lack of foresight by previous administrations have caused the Group to evolve a
stale image; e.g. a place where opera is done or a place where Indian movies are
shown.
This staleness has remained and the lop-sided distribution of funds proves this
point.
Businesses have failed to respond effectively enough to appeals for assistance for
fear of damaging their own images. We are therefore wholly dependent on the
government subsidy.
The Eoan Group (with its charter and aims of its founder) has served its purpose to
305
a particular generation.

Stoffels’s report was discussed during a general meeting of Eoan’s Executive Committee
and approximately 60 members on 1 June 1980. It is clear from the minutes that the
members were out of their depth and found it difficult to react constructively to the report.
The general feedback was recorded in loose sentences in the minutes as follows: ‘a
fantastic piece of work which could not be dismissed; a delicate matter required deep and
earnest thinking; there is hot and cold air and they need to balance; too many crumbling
memorials; members must re-assess the situation, not rely on the past and be unaware of
the present and future.’ Members of the older generation were clearly upset to be labeled
‘hot air’ and found it difficult to accept the reality of the generation gap. A noticeable
ambivalence was expressed about the label ‘Coloured Culture’. 306 During the meeting
David Poole307 commented that ‘the phrase “Coloured culture” unfortunately does exist,
including the generation gap, and while [it was] hurtful to be called old generation and hot
air, they cannot sit talking hot air and not notice what is happening. The younger
generation cannot accept that one is good enough to be second class. … One can benefit
from some training instead of no training at all. The idea should be to continue training
whether called coloured or anything else.’308 The minutes further noted that:
305

Roy Stoffels, Reasons why the Eoan Group is no longer a viable arts project, no date. Eoan
Archive, box 4, folder 30. The report is discussed during the Eoan Group General Meeting of 1
June 1980. See minutes of this meeting in the Eoan Archive, box 4, folder 29.
306
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 1 June 1980. Eoan Archive, box 4, folder 29.
307
Poole was head of the Ballet Department at the College of Music at the University of Cape
Town and had been involved with Eoan for some years. Both Patricia van Graan and Gerald
Samaai (former Eoan singers) confirmed during interviews with the present writer that Poole was
originally classified as a so-called Coloured and that his family still lives in Athlone. Apparently he
had himself re-classified as a White person with the authorities whilst living in England. During a
meeting with several former Eoan members, the present writer was told that Poole ‘left South
Africa as a Coloured and came back as a White’. Interviews with Van Graan and Samaai were held
on 19 November 2008 in Paarl and Somerset West respectively. This story was repeated during a
group meeting at the University of Stellenbosch on 26 February 2009.
308
Minutes of the General Meeting held on 1 June 1980, pp. 2-3. Eoan Archive, box 4, folder 29.
144

Some members felt [that the] animosity stemmed from [the] Government subsidy received.
Mr. Arendse pointed out that [that] has been a problem for years. Eoan refused [the] grant
many years ago, [and that the] public and ‘fence-sitters’ did not support [them then
either].309

Roy Stoffels, however, reiterated his opinion that the subsidy was not the crux of the
matter and young people’s complaints were that ‘1) the history of the group was subject to
suspicion, 2) the public is lead to believe that the centre is run by the government, 3) that
Eoan was under direct control of the Coloured Affairs Department, 4) that its members
associated themselves with pro-government parties and 5) that they performed at the
Joseph Stone Theatre under a permit.’310 Older members still found it difficult to accept
that the political situation of the day influenced the existence of Eoan fundamentally. Mr.
Arendse replied that ‘we have been sitting with these problems all the years. All have their
personal views, but here we must keep politics out of the Group. [I am] a member because
of the love of music, but that does not make [me] a government stooge. We can stick to
our principles and continue learning or else stay away.’311
During his short tenure as Artistic Director of Eoan in 1979, Gordon Jephtas appointed
former Eoan ballet dancer Peter Voges as his assistant. After a year, at the end of 1980,
Voges also resigned and reported to the Eoan Board regarding this department as follows:
‘The Music Section, which was in the doldrums after the glorious days of Grand Opera,
presented a different problem. Gordon Jephtas wanted the Opera “stigma” to be removed
and the choir to sing as a choir and its activities to become more diverse.’312 The only way
forward seemed to be a change of direction and during 1980 the Eoan Choir formed an
alliance with the Gilbert and Sullivan Choir. Rosemary Steward was appointed as choir
conductor and informed the Artistic Committee that the Choir had broken away from the
opera-type music.313 Voges also reported that ‘The Music Section enters a new era with its
amalgamation with the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society.’314 The strict Apartheid
laws seemed to be thawing as collaboration with a primarily white organization became
309

Ibid.
Ibid.
311
Ibid.
312
Peter Voges, Artistic Report, November 1980, p. 1. Eoan Archive, box 45, folder 352.
313
Minutes of the Artistic Committee meeting held on 5 November 1980, p. 2. Eoan Archive, box
45, folder 352.
314
Peter Voges, Artistic Report, p. 2.
145
310

possible. At this time yet another Eoan stalwart resigned when long-time voice trainer and
producer, Allesandro Rota, retired. A farewell concert was held for him on 26 November
1980 at the Italian Embassy.315
Adding to the existing difficulties caused by the political situation and the lack of artistic
resources, the organization continued to be crippled by infighting, distrust and gossip. In
his Artistic Report of November 1980, Peter Voges echoed Gordon Jephtas’s memorable
resignation telegram a year earlier: ‘Too many uninformed people stir up needless trouble
by spreading malicious gossip with the main aim being character assassination and further
with the aim of promotion of personal opinions; and these in turn lack total artistic
commitment or value. Where else but in Eoan are so many unqualified people allowed to
voice so many unqualified opinions, and sadly receive qualified attention.’316
Political imperatives were also belatedly entering into Eoan’s decision making. During the
Executive Committee meeting of 30 October 1980, the Group decided not to participate in
the Republic Festival celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the South African Republic,
changing direction from their participation in previous celebrations in 1966 and 1971.317
Despite the Group’s disintegration, some former Eoan members were still active as
musicians or singers locally and abroad. Since the late 1960s a number of singers had left
South Africa and pursued careers abroad. Joseph Gabriels was the first singer to leave
Eoan. In 1971 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in the role
of Canio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci. He also sang for the English National Opera and
Dusseldorf Opera, but later settled with his family in Milan, Italy.318 Patricia van Graan,
Abeeda Parker and Charles de Long left for the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia
respectively. In 1980 both Ronald Theys and Sidwill Hartman joined the opera choir of the
Cape Performing Arts Board as the first Coloured singers for this (till then) completely

315

Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting held on 30 October 1980, p. 4. Eoan Archive, box
45, folder 352.
316
Peter Voges, Artistic Report, p. 3.
317
Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting held on 30 October 1980, p. 3. Eoan Archive, box
45, folder 352.
318
http://saoperasingers.homestead.com/Joseph_Gabriels_Bio.html, accessed 15 January 2009.
146

White institution.319 However, for many of Eoan’s principle singers of the 1960s and 70s
this relaxation of apartheid legislation came too late. By this time singers such as May
Abrahamse, Ruth Goodwin and Winifried du Plessis were in their late forties, too late to
start a professional singing career in what was still a racially unfriendly environment. In
1985 Gordon Jephtas worked on Broadway in New York. He accompanied former Eoan
singer Sidwill Hartman, who at the time studied at the Julliard School of Music. Jephtas
wrote to Ismail and Carmen Sydow (whom he addressed as ‘pa Ismail’ and ‘ma Carmen’)
that Hartman struggled to get funds for studying and that the US government wouldn’t
allow him to work despite being ‘super-talented’.320 Hartman eventually settled in South
Africa where he currently pursues a successful singing and teaching career. Jephtas’s
career in Europe was alleged to have been even more illustrious and it is said that he
accompanied world renowned singers such as Luciano Pavarotti and Renate Tebaldi.321
On 10 October 1985 Joseph Manca, the main driving force behind Eoan’s thirty years of
formidable music and opera productions, passed away in Cape Town.

1985
A state of emergency is declared in South Africa.322

2.12

A new and different Eoan

The Eoan Group still exists today, operating from the Joseph Stone Theatre in Athlone.
Their cultural activities have diminished considerably and the ever-changing political and
social matrices in South Africa continually pose new challenges to the organization.
Professional opportunities in the arts have become accessible to singers, musicians, actors
319

http://saoperasingers.homestead.com/Sidwill_Hartman_Bio.html, accessed 15 January 2009.
Letter to Ismail and Carmen Sydow, 20 May 1985. Eoan Archive, box 37, folder 300.
321
Unfortunately much of Jephtas’s career outside South African borders remains in the domain of
hearsay and the basic facts about his life and career in music have not been properly researched or
documented yet.
322
http://www.liberation.org.za/library/Library/ANC_Materials/ANC-history.htm, accessed 20
July 2008.
147
320

and dancers of all backgrounds since the late-1980s and especially after the new political
dispensation of 1994. Many formerly ‘Whites-only’ cultural institutions have trained opera
singers of all race groups and produced indigenized forms of opera to great acclaim. With
the removal of Apartheid legislation the institutionalized need for a separate cultural
organization for Coloureds has disappeared and with it the special, albeit unjust,
circumstances that made the Eoan Group what it was during its opera producing years.
However, even for the current Eoan Board obtaining funding for their cultural activities
continues to problematic and it is clear that up to this day Eoan has not been able to rid
itself of the stigma it incurred when accepting funds from the Apartheid government. It
was only in 1989 that the Group decided to discontinue their annual application for
subsidies from the government. The Argus of 17 March 1989 reported the decision as
follows:
The Eoan Group will no longer accept finance from the State.
The pioneering 50-year-old organisation decided at a recent meeting to ‘free itself’ from
dependence on government aid and in the future not to apply for nor accept funding from
the Department of Education and Culture (House of Representatives). The decision was
made because the Eoan Group ‘believes that its destiny coincides with that of the
broadening democratic movement encompassing the majority of the people of South
Africa.
Aligning itself ‘firmly with non-racialism’ in all spheres of life in the country, the group
rejects apartheid ‘which is very much still alive’ and urges that all measures used to
maintain it be removed.
Although the Eoan Group has a long history of cultural involvement with the people of
Cape Town, according to a Press release ‘this history has not always been one which the
progressive community could support’.
For many years activities at the Joseph Stone complex had been boycotted by ‘large
sections of our communities’ due to the perception that the group was ‘closely aligned to
the government and that its activities were designed to promote a divisive ethnic
culture’.323

323

Garth Verdal, ‘Eoan Group will no longer accept aid from the State’, Tonight, supplement to
The Argus, 17 March 1989. Eoan Archive, box folder 494c.

148

1990
2 February: The ANC, SACP, PAC, COSATU and other political organisations are
unbanned.324
11 February: Mandela is released from prison.325
1994
South Africa holds its first democratic elections and a new political era is inaugurated.

A decade later, in a 1998 funding proposal, Eoan’s compromised historical position was
articulated as follows:
Funding is the one aspect which has occasioned the Eoan the most trauma. The Group has
always been funded by the State. In the first instance this funding was dramatically
curtailed by the government of the day with the creation of the Performing Arts Councils,
which from inception received the lion’s share of arts funding. Even what little was
received by the Group from time to time, was elicited only with some agitation. Secondly,
during the apartheid years, the community viewed the receipt of state funding, however
modest, as complicity with a repugnant regime, and declared the Group a pariah.
Community support therefore virtually ground to a halt. In addition, the involvement of
certain high profile politicians, during the same period, as executive members further
incensed the community. It was a time of resistance politics and participation in any state
sponsored structures was taboo. Undoubtedly, by this time the Group had become a
political football.326

Rejected by their own people and effectively phased out of the White community, the
artistic achievements of Manca and many of Eoan’s singers, dancers and actors had come
to a tragic end. Few efforts have since been made to revisit the achievements of this
exceptional organization or to pay tribute to some of the individual artists. In 2000 a
recording of Eoan’s 1960 performance of Rigoletto was released by Donald Graham of
G.S.E. Records. To this day it is the only commercial compact disc release of Eoan’s
operatic performances.327 In 2004 Vera Gow received a National Order Award (the Order
of Ikhamanga in Silver) from the South African government ‘for her excellent contribution
324

http://www.liberation.org.za/library/Library/ANC_Materials/ANC-history.htm, accessed 20
July 2008.
325
Ibid.
326
Author unknown, Eoan Group Funding Proposal, p. 5. The document is not dated, but is
probably from early 1998 because there are referrals to plans for the second half of 1998. Eoan
Archive, box 60, folder 494c.
327
No author, ‘Vergete opnames vir CD hermeester’, Die Burger, 11 July 2000,
http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/dieburger/2000/07/11/4/6.html, accessed 9 May 2008.

149

to the development of arts and culture in South Africa and sterling performance in the field
of operatic music.’328 In 2005 May Abrahamse and Johaar Mosaval each received a gold
Molteno medal from the Tricentenary Foundation for their life contribution to arts and
culture,329 and in 2007 May Abrahamse (aged 76) was awarded a Kanna from the Klein
Karoo National Arts Festival for her life contribution to arts and culture.330

2.13

Conclusion

When the current writer started working on the Eoan Archive as part of a larger project run
by the Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS) my expectations were to find an
instance of South African opera production not dominated by White notions of what opera
should properly be. Of course this was an inherently racist assumption, taking as its
premise the belief that people with a different skin colour would naturally adhere to a
different aesthetics which could then be theorized as an example of indigenization in South
African opera.
Although this chapter is predominantly based on the paper archive, now housed at the
University of Stellenbosch,331 it could not but be informed by the interviews the current
writer had started as part of the oral history book project initiated by DOMUS. Whilst
working with the paper archive it was possible to imagine Coloured identity as something
entirely separate and culturally distinct from White South African identity. That this

328

http://www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/orders/2004/gow.htm, accessed 8 May 2008.
No author, ‘Vier kry Molteno-medalje vir bydrae tot kunste’, Die Burger 18 November 2005,
http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/dieburger/2005/11/18/DB/14/maasstigting.html, accessed 8
May 2008.
330
Willem de Vries, ‘Abrahamse snoer jare saam ‘, Die Burger, 14 May 2007,
http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/dieburger/2007/05/14/SK/8/willemMAY.html, accessed 8 May
2008.
331
The collection was transferred to DOMUS in February 2008. The contract between the current
Eoan Board and DOMUS stipulates that the collection will be kept at DOMUS on a 99 year loan
agreement. DOMUS also has a contractual obligation towards the Eoan Board to publish a book on
the organization and its history.
150
329

happened naturally in the case of the present writer bears testimony to the legacy of
continuing apartheid narratives in the present South Africa.332
The interviews with former Eoan singers and group members ruptured this constructed
notion of difference. Not only did many of these interviewees look like ‘whites’,333 but it
also became clear that the opera aesthetic of the Eoan Group aspired to European (more
specifically Italian) ideals of opera. In other words exactly the opposite of the present
writer’s expectations emerged as this historical narrative was constructed. It became clear
that Apartheid’s insistence on racial distinctness prompted the Eoan Group, consciously or
unconsciously, to disprove or undermine this distinctness by producing ‘universal’ opera.
The startling conclusion is that, contrary to expectation, the adherence to European notions
and aesthetics became the most effective local strategy of resistance to Apartheid’s
alienating insistence on difference. This is not to say that Eoan’s opera productions were
about resistance, the historical narrative constructed in this chapter, if anything, proves the
opposite. Also, as this chapter makes clear, there are serious and unresolved issues about
the agency, control and interaction between the Coloured casts and their White managers.
But the acceptance of Italian opera as a site of music making, self confirmation and shared
humanity by May Abrahamse, Vera Gow, Gerald Samaai, Joseph Gabriels, Patricia van
Graan, Phillip Swales, Gordon Jephtas and all those classified as Coloureds, made of
Italian opera a South African genre without it needing to mutate or change into something
‘South African’. What this reveals about indigenization of opera in South Africa is that
sometimes the process of indigenization is not marked by concrete change. If Eoan had
performed ‘distinctly South African productions’ (locally composed operas, locally
adapted sets or costumes, politically informed stagings, etc.) these would, as exceptions,
arguably have remained protest texts confirming opera as a foreign genre. In enabling a
history such as the one constructed in this chapter, Eoan made Italian opera an indigenized
South African practise. The same cannot be said for the Italian opera produced by CAPAB
or in the State Theatre, as these productions remain associated with Apartheid elitism and
high culture. Through Eoan, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, La Boheme, Die
332

This phenomenon is for example discussed in Jonathan Jansen’s book Knowledge in the Blood
(published 2009) which deals with the issue of generational transfers of racial narratives among
Afrikaners.
333
During interviews conducted as part of the DOMUS book project, interviewees frequently
mentioned how their parents pressured them not to apply for reclassification as whites.
151

Fledermaus, Cavalleria Rusticana, Madam Butterfly, Carmen, L’Elisir D’Amore and
Barber of Seville thus became operas with SA performance histories. Ironically, given
Apartheid’s ‘civilizing mission’ and Euro-centric cultural chauvinism, this was not an
achievement by South African Whites.
Indigenization, we are forced to consider, depends not only on concrete mutations,
adaptations, changes and responses to local environments, but also on historical context.
As the last chapter of this dissertation will show, this possibility of reading indigenization
in opera is historically contingent. The casting of black opera singers in CTO productions
in radically different political and social conditions in 2009, enacts a different dynamic of
indigenization than the one discussed here.

152

Chapter 3. White skin, black masks: the aesthetics of indigenization in Masque

In her article ‘“An aesthetic of redemption”: Reading Masque as public culture’, Martina
Viljoen writes that Masque ‘radically differs from other African-inspired works that are
performed largely by white musicians trained in the Western classical tradition’.1 Viljoen
motivates this statement by contrasting Hans Huyssen’s 2005 opera to ‘the simplified
representations of so-called “rainbow nationalism” or the narrowly defined essentialized
categories that characterize some post-Apartheid scholarly work’.2 More specifically, she
cites a cast comprised of ‘singers and instrumentalists from the widely diverging fields of
traditional African, Early European and also conventional “classical” music’,3 a score that
makes ‘provision for both European and African singers’,4 where ‘performers are able to
relate freely to their specific traditional backgrounds, as well as to different styles of
contemporary expression’.5
Viljoen’s article on Masque is only a single instance of the varied discursive reception
generated by the performance of the opera.6 Yet, it is an important one, not to be compared
with the reviews generated in local newspapers or the parochial and often ill-tempered
debates characteristic of the new music scene in Cape Town.7 In contrast, Viljoen’s article
occupies a scholarly discursive space: one in which the impact and meaning of Masque in
relation to the society in which it was performed is seriously investigated. Precisely
1

Martina Viljoen, ‘“An aesthetic of redemption”: Reading Masque as public culture’, Muziki 3(1),
2006, p. 127.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Ibid.
6
The première took place in the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town on 28 October 2005, followed by
three more performances on 1, 3 and 5 November 2005. Reviews and articles about the opera
include the following: O.J. Brooks Spector, ‘Defining local opera in a way that balances tradition
with the unusual’, Sunday Independent, 6 November 2005; Carl Fourie, ‘Giving opera a local
flavour’, The Argus, 2 November 2005; Louis Heyneman, ‘Vernuwings is boustene van môre se
musiek’, Die Burger, 7 November 2005; Hans Huyssen, ‘Boustene van musiek-toekoms moet nóú
verfyn word’, Die Burger, 16 November 2005; Deon Irish, ‘Music art of, for and by the people’,
Cape Times, 3 November 2005; Gottfried Maas, ‘Nuwe opera bied heelwat, stel eise aan gehoor’,
Die Burger, 2 November 2005; Brent Meersman, ‘Masque, Theatre Pick of the Week’, Mail and
Guardian, 5 November 2005; Barry Smith, ‘Masque’ Opera, March 2006; Jörg Them, ‘Befreiung
der Masken’, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, September/October 2006.
7
See the newspaper articles by Maas, Heyneman en Huyssen in Die Burger as referenced in
footnote 6. This debate is discussed in more detail on pp. 180-2.
153

because of this, her easy change in focus from Masque as a ‘tangible means by which
actual, material “spaces” may be transformed’8 to the conceptual opposites she presents, as
quoted above, between the African and European components of the opera, makes her own
critical reception look more like the kind of essentialized post-Apartheid scholarly work
that she criticizes than the ‘enabling space’ that the opera represents.
It may be argued that this is a facile criticism, for how does one construct an idea of a
complicated enabling transformational space in words without resorting to the kinds of
essentialized concepts seemingly disbanded by this space? This is a seminal point of this
article. The argument of Masque as a transformational space of aesthetic indigenization, in
the opinion of this writer, cannot be made successfully on the same terms employed to
discuss less serious and ambitious works probing the essence of a twenty-first century
South African sound. In other words, if the hallmarks of simplified representation are
easily identified binaries such as African/European, Western/traditional, ‘authentic’ and
‘inauthentic’ performance, as well as ‘truthful’ or ‘non-truthful’ means of expression,
surely the idea of Masque as a transformational space (Viljoen’s description) is none of
these things, or perhaps a unique combination of these things that erode the simple binary
identity thereof. It is also clear that the way of approaching Masque as a ‘transitional
space’ views the discourse of transformation or indigenization or hybridization – i.e. the
whole meaning-generating structure of language applied to music – as an essential
aesthetic component of the music. This means that the same discursive vocabulary and
conceptual apparatus of simple oppositional binaries cannot be employed critically to
probe what the opera means. So, if Viljoen’s way of (re)-presenting Masque in writing is
somehow inadequate, is there a more adequate way to arrive at an estimation of the
meaning and significance of this work as an example of aesthetic indigenization?
Viljoen is clearly sympathetic to the opera and appreciative of the composer’s intentions.9
Consequently her argument is based primarily on information obtained from the composer
as well as an examination of the score meant to find justification for the composer’s
8

Viljoen, p. 127.
There exists a disturbing tendency in writing on South African music to privilege the composer’s
voice to an unprecedented degree. Clearly, Viljoen (who is a colleague of Huyssen’s at the
University of the Free State) took much of the information that supplies the premises of her study
from the composer’s own views on the work. A number of statements in her article are taken
verbatim (and unreferenced) from press releases written by the composer.
154
9

statements about the work. Not surprisingly then, her criticism is mainly directed towards
newspaper critics whose ‘negative judgment points to a grave misreading of the libretto’s
allegorical nature’10 and who lament the absence of ‘emotionally laden arias’.11 However,
the research conducted by the present writer regarding the reception of this work by
singers, instrumentalists, critics, the public and all who were involved in the staging and
production of the opera contextualizes the intentions of the composer and evidence found
in the score. This approach allows for more explorative avenues in the quest to reach a
broader, more complex understanding of the impact and meaning of Masque in relation to
the society in which it was performed and consequently this case-study’s specific view on
aesthetic indigenization.
During the annual conference of the Musicological Society of Southern Africa12 at the
College of Music in Cape Town in August 2005 (two months before the première of
Masque) the composer addressed delegates on the work, the process of getting it staged
and the many problems he faced in that process. In words taken from the libretto, Huyssen
said that ‘it takes an ear to give you a voice, it takes an eye to give you a face’.13 He was
not convinced that local audiences would have adequate perceptive awareness to
understand the work. Disregarding the composer’s notion of a ‘correct understanding’ of
the work, Huyssen’s remark proved remarkably sentient of the extraordinary lack of
homogenous understanding and appreciation that characterized this specific production.
This chapter will argue that the composer’s aesthetic vision in Masque was not shared by
the performance context responsible for its public reception, shifting the focus therefore
from the composer’s vision (and manifestations thereof in the score) to the music’s
reception by performers and audiences. This shift of focus will not mean that either the
composer’s pronouncements about his work or the score became insignificant; only that
these perspectives are usefully contextualized by other contexts. The argument in this
chapter will unfold as follows. First an exposition of the composer’s vision for this work, a
description of the libretto, the characterization, orchestration and the use of voice and
10

Viljoen, p. 129.
Ibid. p. 130.
12
During this conference the society changed its name to the South African Society for Research in
Music (SASRIM), an example of how issues surrounding indigenization are played out in the
academe as well.
13
Act I Scene I, pp. 16-7 of the full score.
155
11

second a discussion of the performance and audience reception of the opera. The present
writer followed the process of production since 11 October 2005 through to the last
performance on 5 November 2005. During this time interviews were held with performers
and important members of the production team including the composer and librettist. This
will be discussed more fully later in this chapter.

3.1

Imagining Masque

3.1.1

An opera of opposites

Masque is presented on the programme cover as ‘an African Opera’, composed by Hans
Huyssen, a white South African from German descent, born in Pretoria in 1964. 14 The
composer initiated the production of the opera in November 2005 in Cape Town’s theatre
complex, Artscape.15 The casting in this opera specified seven African characters (five
masks, the Griot and a street musician) to be sung by black singers and three European
characters (the curator of the museum, a policeman and an anthropologist) to be sung by
white singers. The choir comprised approximately twenty black singers. Besides a group
of ballet dancers, the opera also involved three separate and specified orchestral groups: a
group of indigenous African instruments representing ‘the African world’, a baroque
ensemble representing the idea of origin and a contemporary orchestra representing the
modern European world.
In this opera ‘reality’ is played out on two levels: on the one hand the European city where
the material and rational are the only accepted realities, on the other hand the ‘truth’ of the
mythical and imaginative world of the African masks.16 These worlds alternate often and
14

Huyssen grew up in the German-speaking environment in Pretoria, exposed mainly to European
culture. In the early eighties he studied cello and composition at the University of Stellenbosch.
From 1986 to 2000 he was based in Germany where he furthered his skills as baroque cellist and
composer.
15
The composer was the sole driving force behind the production. It was evident from the
fieldwork that without his personal determination the production of this opera would not have
happened.
16
During an interview on 26 October 2005, librettist Ilija Trojanow told the present writer that he
knows from experience that African people have a different experience when they see a mask than
Europeans. According to him the mask is a living symbol for them. In his view few Europeans
understand this diversity of perception between African and European cultures.
156

seamlessly throughout the opera. At times they run concurrently and when this happens
there are moments of blending, although moments of conflict occur more often. The
composer consciously chose to accentuate clashes caused by lack of understanding
between these two worlds in a rather crude or blatant way.17
Indeed Huyssen’s vision for this opera was to create a musical conversation between two
seemingly conflicting cultures. From the start he was adamant that his music is not a
fusion of different cultural styles, but rather juxtaposition or a conversation on equal
levels.18 In this opera it was Huyssen’s intention to emphasize the issue of difference
between people of different cultures. In the bi-polar world of this opera, music and stories
from Africa were treated on an equal level to music and stories from Europe. Indigenous
African instruments were juxtaposed with European instruments and in the score equal
importance was given to the separate instrument groups. For the composer it was of
paramount importance that a musical conversation should be possible on stage, without
condescension and with mutual respect, a conversation where the integrity of each culture
is kept intact but separate.19
On the other hand, the opera was created with the intention of exploiting and presenting
difference between Africa and Europe.20 The narrative of the opera does not gloss over the
severity of clashes caused by lack of understanding and even at the end of the opera, the
plot negates a solution or the resolving of differences. Yet, the composer’s statement in the
programme notes to the production sounds strangely contradictory: ‘Would one be able to

17

The construction of two worlds of reality or experience in an opera is not foreign to the genre.
Some famous examples include Wagner’s opera Der Fliegende Holländer where the material or
outside world of Daland and Erik is set opposite the interior reality of Senta and the Holländer.
Another example is Tannhäuser, where the sphere of the reactionary Wartburg is set opposite (or
alongside) the more progressive world of the Venus mountain. These worlds are also reconstructed
in Wagner’s music. This is also the case with Masque.
18
This was made clear to the present writer during many discussions with the composer and others
in the run-up to the première. The composer also formulated it as such during a radio interview
with Johan Botha on the programme Dis Opera on 23 October 2005. It was broadcast on the
Afrikaans channel (Radio Sonder Grense) of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
19
See Huyssen’s commentary on page 4 of the programme notes.
20
In the course of the production, it became clear to the present writer that singers, musicians and
critics have largely misunderstood this point. Most often the music was referred to as, e.g. ‘a good
mix between African singing and opera as a European art form’.
157

accommodate contrasts, differences, contradictions and discrepancies, yet create a unified
expression?’.21 (My italics.)
One can argue that the composer’s application of the terms ‘Africa’ and ‘Europe’ appears
to be rather simplistic binaries, as he seems to imply fixed meanings to these worlds. It is
however evident that the two continents represent a much more complex and hybrid
content in the opera, so that trying to underpin these terms as stable opposing poles with
fixed or congealed meanings is an underestimation of the complexity thereof. We are faced
here with the interesting situation that the composer, in order to illustrate complex
interrelatedness, is forced to adopt a simplistic binary model. This is all the more
interesting because Huyssen’s other collaborative projects, for instance Fynbos Calling,
testify to a much more integrated and sophisticated intellectual approach to this issue.
A further issue of importance to the composer is the notion of ‘musical context’. During
his fourteen year stay in Germany, Huyssen trained amongst others with the renowned
conductor and advocate of historically informed performance practice, Nicolaus
Harnoncourt, and through this exposure became convinced of the importance and
influence of contextual factors on the composition, performance and reception of music.
Due to this awareness Masque was conceived as a manifestation of the issue of context in
African music making. The composer’s intention was to present African music on the
‘artificial’ stage of the genre of opera, as close as possible to his perception of how it was
performed in the ‘original cultural context’.

3.1.2

Libretto

The story of Masque goes as follows: Five African masks are housed in a European
museum for many years. During these years they are studied and classified as admirable
but lifeless objects by scholars and curators alike. One night they are called to life by the
touch of a visiting African storyteller, the Griot. The masks wake up and decide to escape
from the museum. On the streets of the city they meet other displaced African characters
and through interaction with their mythic world, restore them to their original calling. But
soon the masks are imprisoned again when they are arrested as illegal immigrants. Neither
21

See Huyssen’s commentary on p. 5 of the programme notes.

158

the prison warden nor the curator of the museum seems to have any perception of the
imaginative world of the African masks.
The programme notes for the October 2005 performance describe the story in more
imaginative and poetic terms, and are worth quoting at length:
ACT I
Scene I
A traditional story-teller, the Griot, conjures up the busy station of an anonymous Western
capital where we encounter a blind and homeless man, Sam. The Griot and the crowd
become an internal voice, urging Sam to draw on the strength of his past. Sam, however is
confused as to how to follow this voice. As if in answer, the Griot takes us back to before
this story began, to the beginning of the world when God made the five elements ... Stone,
Iron, Fire, Water and Air. Out of these elements, God fashions mankind. However, every
time mankind becomes proud, God sends in succession the balancing forces of Blindness,
Sleep, Sorrow and Death.
Scene II
The Blind One, the Tired One, the Sad One and Death are on display. They are African
masks in a museum and have become mere objects of artistic and historical value for the
curator, Liebenberg, and his visiting colleagues. To the Griot the masks are very much
alive. So vividly do they stir his imagination that he recollects their history and – by
touching them one by one – dispels the curse that had cast them into lifeless figures. With
their powers thus regained, the masks decide to follow prophecy by escaping and seeking a
way home.

ACT II
Scene I
Blindness, personified by Nomfama, is waylaid by the ever-charming Sam. The encounter
moves towards understanding with the mutual sharing of past woes. Finally, Nomfama
urges Sam to act as his father, a Griot, taught him. Policemen rush in to arrest the ‘troublemakers’.
Scene II
Liebenberg, returning to the museum after a strike, is shattered to discover the
disappearance of his beloved masks. He does not notice that the Griot has unveiled the
final mask – Phakade, the Trickster of Eternal Change, the final balancing force – and in
his despair he clutches at it. Once again, the curse is lifted and the mask comes to life. Torn
between his usual logic and being confronted by a living mask, Liebenberg is traumatized.
The police inform him that they have in custody four strange beings claiming to be masks
from his museum.

159

Scene III
The masks are once again confined, this time in a real prison. As they have been
apprehended as suspicious foreign subjects, the looming threat of deportation promises
their longed-for homeward journey. Liebenberg adamantly objects to this. But then
Phakade unexpectedly intervenes, calling on forces that shift the focus of the debate to an
altogether different level, finally clearing the way for a more appropriate and deeper
perception of who and what the masks really are. Sam, now no longer blind, accepts his
22
true calling by raising his voice as messenger and guardian.

It should be mentioned that this production of the opera was a substantially shortened
version of Huyssen’s original conception of the opera. By the time the work went into
production, the composition of the middle section of the opera was not yet completed with
the result that Act II was almost entirely cut. This not only shortened the opera from three
acts to two acts, it also substantially disfigured the storyline of the opera. A number of
concepts could not be developed in this production, and due to this, the plot may have
come across as less convincing.23 The producer, Geoffrey Hyland, additionally cut the last
two scenes from the final act of the opera in order to adjust it to his idea of a ‘more
effective’ ending. For the purpose of discussing the libretto in this chapter, it has proved
useful to refer to certain sections from the omitted act. This fragmented, incomplete,
almost hacked-apart character of the libretto will become an important factor in
considering what kind of meanings are inherent in Masque, something that will only be
addressed later in the chapter.
As mentioned earlier, ‘reality’ in the opera is played out on two levels: the European city
where the material and rational are the accepted reality and the ‘truth’ of the mythical and
imaginative world of the African masks. On the language level the libretto is written in
two different styles to match these two ‘realities’, providing an additional structural prop
for the material. These levels are constituted by prose for the imaginative world of the
African masks and ‘normal conversational language’ for the world of material and rational
reality. Much of the text sung by the masks and griot are therefore in prose. These sections
are also richly allegorical, using a decidedly different frame of reference than the text of

22

See the programme notes, p. 6.
The composer viewed this production as ‘incomplete’ and his plans for a second production
include all three acts.
23

160

the European characters. Nomfama (the mask of blindness) for example describes herself
as follows:
I am the witch-woman / they say, that hides / the sun, at night / in her own womb.
I am the tree / they say, that falls / on the assembly ground / to be grabbed by the hair / and
pulled away.
I am the witch-woman / they say. I confess / I have killed many rabbits / I have killed
many moons.
I have held the hand / of the woman, whose flesh / was eaten by the chief / I have cleansed
her of all / that he left between her legs.24

It is significant that the two styles are occasionally mixed in ordinary conversations
between the masks and characters from the material world, constituting a weakening or
softening of the binary worlds otherwise dominating the conception of the opera. When
this doesn’t happen, though, these two styles are almost used as code language, identifying
who belongs where. A small example will suffice to illustrate this. In one of the scenes that
was omitted from the October 2005 production, Buthongwana (the mask of sleep) is in
conversation with Sonia, a student waitress in a fast food restaurant. He speaks in
allegorical prose, she reacts in confusion in conversational language. After some time
though, she too starts speaking in rhyme, almost as a sign of entering ‘his world’, only to
‘correct’ herself quickly.
Seven days a week,
as long as you pay.
Shit, I’ve started,
talking your way.25

One almost gets the sense from this passage that movement from one world to the other is
prohibited, or in some way undesirable. It is almost as if the barriers are built into the style
of the language, the latter not only reinforcing the idea of a bi-polar world where ‘African’
and ‘European’ are incompatible, but also leaving one with the feeling that the traditional
African world is excluded from the material world, a fissure which cannot be bridged.
Changing the focus from the level of language to the level of plot, another interesting
feature of the libretto not so much articulates itself clearly, as makes itself felt on the level
24

Act I Scene II.
This part would have been Scene II of the middle act of the opera. In this production Scene I of
this act was used as planned, Scenes II-IV were left out. The opera continued with Scene I of Act
III, which became Scene II of Act II.
161

25

of a palpable moral subcurrent. Put in other words: the libretto moralizes at its audience.
Part of this feeling has to do with the unarticulated premises that underlie the plot, for
instance that the value system of the mythical world is somehow superior to that of the
material world. Implied is a notion that the ‘African world’ is one close to nature, an
environment where humanity’s true calling can be lived. It suggests that these things have
become forgotten dreams in the Western world; even stronger, that the material world has
robbed the African masks of their true value by displaying them in a museum, rendering
them lifeless objects of curiosity and study.
In Act I Scene II, for example, the curator and anthropologists discuss the masks in a
scholarly fashion. Half way through this scene the Griot, who witnesses the discussion in
the background of this scene, starts reflecting on what he hears, singing these words:
Man grew proud. What a strange pride possesses him.
Man grew blind. What a strange blindness possesses him.
Man grew sleepy. What a strange drowsiness possesses him.
Man grew sad. What a strange sadness possesses him.
Man didn’t grow. Man had died.26

As the African story teller, the Griot represents a moral high ground, a person attributed
with god-like characteristics such as the ability to infuse life into dead masks/people and
restore them to their ‘true calling’. It is therefore not difficult to register the suggestion that
the Griot deems the curator, his friends and by implication their life’s work and the
Western world they represent as ‘proud’, ‘blind’, ‘sleepy’, ‘sad’ and ‘dead’.
It is interesting that Viljoen’s article on Masque, as has already been pointed out, stays
very close to the composer’s own conception of the work, and adopts a similar kind of
moralistic tone when she discusses criticism directed at the opera. Her answer to a
newspaper critic’s description of the libretto as ‘muddied with allegory and a cosmological
lecture’27 is that ‘this negative judgment points to a grave misreading of the libretto’ and
that it ‘not only implies an insensitivity to the nature of primitive ... art, but also an
undervaluation of the more spiritualized dimensions of Trojanov’s libretto’.28 She further
attributes moral value to the function of the libretto by stating that ‘part of this vision is the
representation of musical performance as an essentially redemptive activity in a confused
26

Act I Scene II, bars 131 to 183.
Viljoen, p. 129
28
Ibid. p. 129.
27

162

and depraved world’.29 One can easily read ‘proud’, ‘blind’, ‘sleepy’, ‘sad’ and ‘dead’ into
Viljoen’s view of the critic’s opinion.
However, during the run-up to the first performance of the opera the composer was at
pains to point out that his intention was quite the opposite. In his press release, he states
that ‘[the opera’s] aim is to create a situation where some of the deep-rooted values,
motivations and differences will confront each other, yet be contextualized and treated in
an unbiased manner’.30

3.1.3

Characterization

Characterization in Masque was achieved by a variety of means. Naturally aspects of each
character are portrayed by the content of the words he/she sings, as well as costume and
movement, but in this opera characterization was further enhanced by instrumental
accompaniment. The composer chose a specific instrument to accompany each character,
the sound almost playing the role of a ‘signature tune’, providing a kind of auditory
‘visibility’. Each of the African roles was associated with a specific indigenous African
instrument and, likewise, each of the European roles with a contemporary European
instrument.
On deciding which instrument to assign to each of the African characters, Huyssen
consulted Meki Nzewi, ethnomusicologist at the University of Pretoria. He enquired if
guidelines existed within the African tradition that regulate which instruments should be
associated with a specific individual depending on their social standing or the role they
play in the hierarchy of their specific tribe. Nzewi admitted there were many such ‘rules’,
but advised Huyssen to use his instinct as a composer when making these choices.31 The
following instruments were assigned to the main figures: the Griot is accompanied by the
uhadi,32 Nomfama (the mask of blindness) by the umtshingo,33 Buthongwana (the mask of
29

Ibid. p. 130.
Press release written by the composer.
31
Interview with Huyssen on 1 March 2006.
32
A Xhosa bow instrument with a calabash. The sound is produced by striking the string with a
light stick.
33
A traditional Zulu instrument made of a single hollow pipe with a number of holes to alter the
pitch. Sound is produced by blowing into the pipe. During the performance of the opera this
instrument was replaced by an Indian flute as the umtshingo player could not manage the part
163
30

sleep) by the akadinda,34 Ntsizi (the mask of sorrow) by the umrhubhe,35 Nokufa (the
mask of death) by the mbira,36 Phakade (the mask of immortality or ‘eternal change’) by
six kudu horns37 and Sam (the blind singer) by the guitar. The museum curator, Marius
Liebenberg, is accompanied by woodblocks. The cast also makes provision for five ballet
dancers to portray the symbolic message of each of the five masks in dance, but during the
performance this initiative was scuppered. As was noted earlier, the libretto treats the
African and European characters differently; the former’s text is in prose whilst the latter’s
text is ordinary speech. For the purpose of illustrating characterization in Masque, we turn
to the Griot and the museum curator Marius Liebenberg, two characters from the
seemingly opposing worlds of Africa and Europe.
Even before Liebenberg appears on stage, the woodblocks announce the coming of the
curator. The evenly spaced fast moving quavers, a major ninth apart, simulate the precise
and even ticking of the seconds hand of a clock, clean and sharp, driven by automation and
never a split second out of time (see Example 1). Soon the curator appears, a small man in
white overalls, pen and paper in white gloved hands. In great haste he sweeps his visitors
(two anthropologists, both also gloved) through the museum, introducing them to the
priceless masks. It is clear that the masks are of great value to Liebenberg, his life’s work,
objects he has made his own through meticulous study.
The curator’s vocal line is composed for tenor and is characterized by short and repetitive
notes (the sixteenth note being the most common note value), a new syllable assigned to
each consecutive note. The music has a frenetic quality to it, the antithesis of flow or
relaxation. The text portrays a character that holds the African masks in high esteem, but
his one-dimensional scholarly perception of them is rather obvious when he introduces one
to his colleagues:

composed for her. The sound of the Indian flute approximated that of the umtshingo closely. As the
orchestra was seated in the pit, this change was not visible to the public or critics.
34
A Ugandan marimba played by two musicians standing on either side of the instrument.
35
A traditional Xhosa bow instrument (without calabash). The sound is produced by striking the
string with a light stick.
36
A traditional Zimbabwean instrument also known as the thumb piano. Sound is produced by
plucking strips of cane or metal which are fixed to a wooden surface.
37
This ‘group instrument’ requires six musicians.
164

Exhibit B49/303, a master-piece in its own right, bearing witness, as is in evidence, of a
visual hierarchy so typical of cosmological masks. The anthropomorphic superstructure,
38
establishes a schematism of stupendous philosophical purity.

Example 1: Act I Scene II, bars 37 to 46

The Griot’s character is sharply contrasted to that of the curator. The colourfully clad
African, authoritative in his every movement, attracts centre-stage attention. His role is
that of the story teller, keeping the memory of the African myth alive, infusing new life
into dead masks, he holds a position highly regarded in the traditional African world. The
Griot is primarily accompanied by the uhadi, an instrument of soft and almost vulnerable
tone, rich in overtones.39 The music composed for the uhadi can be described as a
performance pattern, a two-beat figure comprising two triplets on C and B-flat
alternatively, neither of which has the authority of a tonal resting point (see Example 2
below). Clear instructions are given to the musician in the score:

38

Act I Scene II, bars 29 to 42.
During the production the sound of the uhadi (and several other African instruments) had to be
electronically amplified.
165
39

The uhadi should be played in the traditional style, with special attention to the resounding
40
overtones with all resulting inflections, implied by the notated bass line.

The content of the Griot’s text also stands in sharp contrast to that of the curator. Above
the performance pattern a florid and flowing vocal part appears for the Griot. Often his
role is that of observer, the wise old man who reflects on the actions of others. His
observations of the curator and his friends visiting and discussing the masks, are typical of
this:
Man grew proud, what a strange pride, possesses him
Man grew blind, what a strange blindness possesses him
Man grew weary, what a strange drowsiness possesses him
Man grew sad, what a strange sorrow possesses him
Man didn’t grow, man had died.41

Example 2: Act I Scene II, bars 175 to182

It is clear enough that these examples of characterization also emphasize the binary
thinking in which much of the opera has been conceived. As illustrated in the discussion of
the vocal line, the accompanying music and the libretto, the griot and curator represent
40

See p. 1 of the score.
These words also correspond with the characteristics of the four masks: blindness, sleep, sorrow
and death.
166
41

opposites in a number of ways. Despite the fact that the composer’s aim was to portray
fully rounded characters, in line with characters from operas by e.g. Mozart and
Montiverdi,42 the one-dimensional portrayal of these characters is exacerbated by the fixed
social understandings of what an African story teller or a white scholarly curator might be
imagined to be.

3.1.4

Orchestration

The orchestral score calls for three separate instrumental ensembles; a group of indigenous
African instruments representing the mythical African world, a contemporary orchestral
group representing the modern world and a group of period Baroque instruments
representing the idea of ‘origin’. The role and representative significance of each of these
groups constitute an important part of Masque, not only in its conception, but also in the
execution and, at times, the subversion of the intentions of the composer. The composer’s
press release states the following regarding the orchestration:
[The opera’s] idiom will reflect the diversity of musical styles to be found in the culturally
heterogeneous South African history, more specifically that of the Cape, given the
participation of traditional Xhosa musicians. The cast will comprise of singers and
instrumentalists from the fields of traditional African, Early European as well as
conventional ‘classical’ music. Accordingly the score asks for traditional African, Period
Baroque as well as contemporary Western instruments. As each group will make its
contribution in a very specific musical idiom, the resulting ‘soundscape’ will be one of
richly varied textures – giving expression to the contemporary South African experience,
which, with its varied heritage finally begins to cherish the differences and strives to
orchestrate them in a meaningful way, instead of calling for a fashionable but
43
compromising cross-culture mêlée.

In the above quote the composer refers to the contemporary orchestral group as
‘conventional’, possibly referring to its ‘conventional’ or familiar tone quality compared to
the less familiar sounds produced by the other ensembles. However, it consists of an
unconventional combination of sixteen instruments, one player per part: violin, viola,
cello, double bass, acoustic guitar, electric bass guitar, flute, oboe, clarinet (plus bass
clarinet), saxophone (alto and tenor), bassoon, horn, timpani, tam-tam, flexaphone and
drum set. The indigenous African instruments are the umtshingo, mbira, umrhubhe,
42
43

Interview with the composer on 01 March 2006.
Press release written by the composer. This document was obtained from the composer.

167

akadinda, uhadi, djembe, igubu, umasenguane, dununba, kudu horns, shakers, hosho and
bells. Due to the natural soft timbre of these instruments, a number of them had to be
amplified to enhance their audibility in the theatre during the performance. The Baroque
orchestra consists of baroque violin, recorder, two cornetti, two trombones, bassoon and
tambourine.
Huyssen’s music is composed in a free-tonal style, importing compositional techniques
and styles from a variety of backgrounds. The styles are implemented in the score
depending on the demands of the libretto. The creation myth in Act I Scene I, for example,
is composed in the style of a baroque oratorio,44 the music accompanying the blind street
musician, Sam, is in the style of maskanda45 and the interruption by the police of the
festivities after Sam regained his voice and his sight (Act II Scene II) is strongly atonal.
Although the instrumental groups were conceptually divided to represent different worlds
or ideas (to quote the composer: ‘each group will make its contribution in a very specific
musical idiom, the resulting “soundscape” will be one of richly varied textures’),46 the
aural experience of the orchestration by the present writer was more in the line of a unified
mode of expression than a mode of contrast or variation. The desired ‘richly varied
textures’, which the three ensembles of diverging sound qualities were intended to
produce, was experienced rather as an expansion of the standard orchestral sound achieved
through the addition of Baroque and African instruments, instead of a device creating
contrast or variety. The binary construction underlying the libretto, characterization and
the use of voice is not overtly audible in the orchestral music because the three groups
often play at the same time and the music for the various ensembles overlaps. This leads to
a lack of contrast, the thick consistent band of orchestral sound undermines the dramatic
potential of the opera as the texture and intensity of the music stays more or less the same
throughout. During the performance under discussion, all three ensembles were seated in
the orchestra pit, thus being invisible to the audience and effectively exacerbating the lack
of audible distinctiveness.
In the light of other compositions of Huyssen’s oeuvre, where he often combines
traditional European instruments with traditional African instruments (for example Fynbos
44

Act I Scene I, bars 194 to 282, pp. 27-43 of score.
See Viljoen, p. 117, footnote 9.
46
Interview with the composer on 01 March 2006.
45

168

Calling), it is evident that Huyssen is a skilled composer in orchestrating these diverging
soundscapes. One can argue that the aural experience of a unified soundscape is in fact
reaching the politically stated goal, as quoted above, or as formulated differently in the
programme notes: ‘Would one be able to accommodate contrasts, differences,
contradictions and discrepancies, yet create a unified expression?’.47
There is, however, another, less idealized and more convenient interpretation. During an
interview with the composer some months after the performance,48 Huyssen mentioned to
the present writer that he realized that the differences in tone colour between the various
orchestral ensembles did not come across to the audience as he had intended. He realized
that this happened because the music for the separate orchestras overlapped too often. He
further mentioned that should he ever be able to produce the opera again he plans to seat
the African ensemble on stage visibly to enhance the distinctions between the orchestras.
Yet again we are confronted with a work conceived in a binary framework, but this time
accompanied by the admission that the intention remained unfulfilled in performance.

3.1.5

Voice

In Masque traditional Western singing techniques ideally had to give way to other
conceptions of voice production. Huyssen expected from the singers singing the African
roles a kind of sound closer to the tone quality of ‘singing in the kraal’ rather than the
polished and cultivated tone quality they learn during their training. His vision was to
create a sound ‘authentic’ to the spirit of indigenous African music and culture, based on
the assumption that ‘African voice production’ as a separate aesthetic model would serve
an ‘African’ opera in the best possible way. On a technical level, it meant a sound with as
little as possible vibrato and, to quote the composer, ‘a sound which comes from the
stomach, without any pretence and in the moment’.49

47

See Huyssen’s commentary on p. 5 of the programme notes.
Interview with the composer on 01 March 2006.
49
Interview with the composer on 1 March 2006. It is interesting to note that the composer was not
able technically to explain his sound ideal in clearer or more accurate terms.
169
48

Example 3: ‘Avant la Scène’, bars 1 to 28

The opening scene of the opera50 is an example of Huyssen’s quest for the so-called
‘African voice’. This scene is staged as follows: In the darkness a single beam lights up the
colourfully clad Griot. His cloak is a flamboyantly red, orange, green and yellow, he
stands with arms raised and rod in his hand. The Griot, an important mythical figure who
awakens ‘dead’ masks, the storyteller who keeps the African spirit alive from generation to
generation, is the embodiment of ‘authentic’ Africaness. The sound of the accompanying
uhadi rises from the orchestra pit in anticipation. He sings:
Perform, my father said.
Perform, as if it were a holy act? said I.
It is, it is a holy act, said he.
Perform, my father said,
50

‘Avant la Scène’, bars 1 to 28.

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Perform as if, as if nothing exists but through you, through your song and your word! said
he.51

The vocal line, composed for baritone, is characterized by a number of interval leaps in
short succession, at times spanning a range of two octaves within four beats (see Example
3).52 The tonality hovers around C. The melody provides no obvious formal structure and a
number of seemingly unimportant words such as ‘he’ and ‘will’ are set to long melismas.53
The melody therefore evokes a feeling of free movement and improvisation above the
steady and repetitive motive of the accompanying uhadi.54 Several written instructions in
the score request of the singer legato singing, the application of crescendo’s and
decrescendo’s as well as marcato accentuations. However, no mention is made of the
quality of voice required.
Comparing the composer’s request for an African vocal sound to the way in which the
Griot’s part is composed, raises questions. The vocal line is obviously technically
demanding; it requires the singer to do a number of quick successive jumps as well as long
melismas, it is composed in a free-tonal style and demands pitch and breath control. The
question arises whether it is technically possible for a singer to sing this line and at the
same time produce the tone quality Huyssen requests (as mentioned above, a sound with as
little as possible vibrato and, ‘a sound which comes from the stomach, without any
pretence and in the moment’). 55 Traditional African music is known for its relatively small
melodic range, this characteristic being evident in the music composed for the African
instruments that accompany the African characters in the opera. In other words, can one
request an ‘African sound’ in a vocal line not composed in ‘typical African’ style? On the
other hand, is this, in line with the experimental nature of the work, rather a question of
experimenting with what has not yet been done, pushing the boundaries of what has
traditionally been deemed impossible?

51

Ibid.
See bars 14 to 15.
53
See bars 17 to 20 and 22 to 24.
54
In pursuit of ‘authentic African music’ the incorporation of improvisation within the formal
parameters of the opera was important to the composer. To achieve this, improvisation had to be
‘practiced’ to prepare the singers to be able to improvise on stage at specific points in the opera.
For a more detailed description of one such section, see the description of sections 16 and 17 from
Act II Scene I later on in this chapter.
55
Interview with the composer on 1 March 2006.
171
52

Another example of the intentional use of ‘African voice’ as a separate aesthetic model is
the Griot’s Song and Apprehension in Act II Scene I, sections 17 and 18.56 These sections
are also an example of the incorporation of improvisation into the opera. It is preceded by
the scene where Nomfama (the mask of blindness) meets the blind street musician, Sam.
She convinces him of his true calling and he regains his sight and his voice. This scene is
intended as a celebration in ‘African style’. In the score this section is written out in two
bars only, each consisting of a whole note rest with a fermata as illustrated in Example 4
below.
Example 4: Bars 465 to 466

The composer’s instruction for bar 465 is as follows: ‘traditional praise song – African
improvisation’, and bar 466 reads: ‘spontaneous audience reaction and partition to the
praise song – African improvisation; at the height of the party sudden interruption by the
full orchestra’.57 During the performance under discussion here, the traditional praise song
in this scene involved the main African characters, a traditional praise singer, the entire
choir and the group of African instruments (in the orchestra pit). The intended audience
participation did not happen during this performance.
As Nomfama sings the words ‘your father failed, your cousin strayed, you yourself were
blinded and bound, but now is the moment to step onto your own ground’,58 the praise
singer rushes onto the scene and starts shouting an African praise song. Sam joins in, as
does the choir and other masks with ululations, whistling and dancing. In the orchestra pit
56

Bars 465 to 466.
See p. 145 of the full score.
58
Act II Scene I, bars 461 to 464.
57

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the African instruments sound out at the same time as a scene of song and dance with
intense energy unfolds. The praise singer and Sam sing their praises in an African
language: shouting loud and, compared to polished European opera voice quality, crudely.
After approximately one minute of festivity, the scene is interrupted by aggressive music
from the contemporary orchestra and flashing lights as the police rush on stage to arrest the
noisy trouble makers. This unusual and striking section lasts barely seventy seconds of the
total duration of ninety minutes of the opera. Although this scene is in its entirety
performed on instruction of the composer, the music itself consists of improvised
traditional African music which has been rehearsed thoroughly during the weeks preceding
the performance.

3.2

Reception

As mentioned in the introduction, this chapter will argue that the composer’s aesthetic
vision in Masque was not shared by its public reception. The focus here is therefore
redirected from the composer’s vision (and manifestations thereof in the score and
publication material surrounding the opera) to the music’s reception. This does not render
the score or composer’s intentions less valuable – the current writer uses this material
abundantly – but contextualizes them. Additionally the ethnographic fieldwork conducted
by the present author will be used to read elements of Masque against the grain. The
following section will discuss the reception of Masque by singers, instrumentalists, critics,
the public and all who were involved in the staging and production of the opera. It will
further highlight how the reception deviates from the composer’s pronouncements about
the work (and composer-based critiques like that of Viljoen) and how the performance
context of the première proved inadequate to produce a work of this scale.
The present writer followed the process of production from 11 October 2005 through to
the last performance on 5 November 2005. During this time ten rehearsals were attended,
primarily as observer. In addition, interviews were held with performers and important
members of the production team including the composer, librettist, the producer, his
assistant and a number of singers. All four performances were attended, the first and last as
a member of the audience, the intermittent performances as back-stage observer.
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Interviews were also held with the composer four months before the production started as
well as four months after the last performance. The project was approached as an
ethnographic study in order to observe closely the actions, attitudes, discussions and
interactions between the different role players amongst themselves and between them and
the material of the opera. Consequently the writing in the following section will veer
between the conventionally academic and the ethnographically descriptive. As stated
earlier in this chapter, this approach allows for more explorative avenues in the quest to
reach a broader, more complex understanding of the impact and meaning of Masque in
relation to the society in which it was performed and consequently this case study’s
specific view on aesthetic indigenization. This will be informed by the discrepancies and
lack of understanding between the composer’s intentions and the artists’ and public’s
experiences of the work, but also by the discontinuities between the composer’s intentions
and the realization of those intentions. The material will be structured by referring in turn
to the use of voice, the role of the orchestra, reactions to the libretto, Huyssen’s logistical
problems in staging the performances and the performances themselves.

3.2.1

The use of voice

In the months preceding the première of Masque, Cape Town Opera provided Huyssen
with a cast of three professional singers to sing the leading roles, of which two were black
singers and one white, all of them previously trained at the University of Cape Town’s
Opera School. The rest of the cast (including the other five leading roles and the choir)
consisted of students from the Opera School. Of this group two were white and the rest
(about 20 singers) black.
The main character in the opera, the African story teller, was sung by Fikile Mvinjelwa.
During the past few years, he had already established himself as a professional opera
singer in South Africa, singing major roles in operas such as Rigoletto, Nabucco, Tosca
and Faust. Mvinjelwa is also an advocate of new and local opera and has sung a number of
roles in contemporary opera such as Enoch in Roelof Temmingh’s opera Enoch, Prophet
of God and also King Dinuzulu in Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu by Mzilikazi Khumalo.
On introducing Mvinjelwa to Huyssen’s idea of vocal sound for this production, the
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composer explained that the singer was initially rather skeptical. After some individual
rehearsals with the piano without clear progress on this issue, Huyssen took along the
uhadi player who was to accompany the story teller throughout the opera. For Mvinjelwa
this was the first time singing with the uhadi in an operatic context and, according to
Huyssen, the ‘penny dropped’ with Mvinjelwa the moment he heard the sound of the
uhadi. According to the composer, the singer immediately understood the context of
Huyssen’s thinking and was able to make a sound approximating Huyssen’s idea.
Mvinjelwa himself was rather careful in his own opinions, shying away from the emphasis
on difference between European and African singing. In my interview with him, he said
that he did not experience Huyssen’s idea of sound as a different way of singing:
There is no African versus European singing. In opera you have to project your voice,
otherwise no one will hear you. I have done many different kinds of opera and have never
used traditional shouting yet, but it is all opera.

However, Mvinjelwa was convinced of the merit of Huyssen’s thinking and assisted the
composer in trying to convince and educate the rest of the cast in this regard.
The role of Sam, the blind musician, was sung by Skumbuzo Kunene. He hails from
Swaziland and at the time of the production was a student of the well-known singing
teacher Nellie du Toit. Kunene grew up in Swaziland, where he sang in the local choir and
got to know opera by watching DVDs of Verdi’s operas. He fell in love with Verdi and
singing this kind of opera has remained his career dream. Huyssen also clashed with
Kunene’s teacher about the technique of singing required for the production, and Kunene
felt that there was definitely a difference in the way Nellie du Toit taught him to sing and
what was expected from him in Masque. According to Kunene, Huyssen wanted him to
‘shriek and shout’, which hurt his voice. The composer and singer nevertheless came to
some kind of compromise and he did experience the opera as a good production.
On questioning one of the white singers, Arthur Swan, yet another point of view surfaced.
Swan also did not like to focus on the differentiation between African and European voice
production and said: ‘that would be a white man’s idea of what a black voice is’.
According to him Huyssen also expected him to shout and shriek at times, but he
negotiated with the composer, told him that he could not do that and Huyssen accepted his
reasoning. Swan referred to Mvinjelwa’s actual singing as ‘shouting and shrieking at a
175

pitch’.59 Referring to the opera on a compositional level, Swan was not convinced of the
story as such and also did not know what to make of terminology such as ‘indigenous
opera’. He also mentioned that the voice parts were not composed in an accessible way
with many difficult rhythms and leaps. The only white female singer in this production,
Sophie Harmse (also an established singer in Cape Town), was outright negative about the
opera and condemned the work as ‘junk’ and ‘incoherent’.
What does one make of these diverging opinions? The fieldwork presented evidence of a
certain ambivalence or reluctance amongst singers, white and black, to accept and fully
engage with the concept of ‘indigenous African singing’ as a technique in the operatic
arena. On the aesthetic level one may assume that the perceived reluctance derives in part
from the all-too common skepticism towards any new music, a skepticism which was also
prevalent in a number of reviews, especially those printed in Die Burger.
There is of course the matter of education. Again the composer had a clear opinion on this:
he felt that singing education at South African institutions was insufficient and onedimensional. According to him singers at the Cape Town Opera School are only taught to
sing in the style of nineteenth-century Romantic opera, with Pavarotti and Domingo as role
models.60 Huyssen further explained that in Europe singers are exposed to a much wider
frame of reference during their training and a good singer can produce any kind of sound
when asked to do so. This seems fair enough, but would such a desired production of
sound reflect ‘an authentic African voice’, or rather a highly cultivated European
imagining of what an African voice may sound like? Perhaps Huyssen had in mind the
kind of voice that could for example also perform Sequenza by Berio and one might be
entitled to ask: is singing like an African man an approximation of ‘authentic African
voice’, or just another technique in the repertoire of the twenty-first century’s treasury of
sound effects?
Perhaps most interesting though, it emerged that neither the composer nor the singers were
able to describe in technical terms how to produce this African voice, in the same way that
one can technically describe how to use European voice. The composer was not able to
describe it in more accurate terms other than ‘vibratoless singing’, ‘from the stomach’ or
59

There is, incidentally, no hint in the notated music of this desired sound effect.
Since the Cape Town Opera School’s inception in 1920s, the school has been run predominantly
by Italians.
176
60

‘in the moment’. One suspects that he assumed that the African singers would, with these
words, understand what kind of sound he had in mind. He may have assumed that the
sound of for instance the uhadi resembled that of a distant memory, called up by the
association with the indigenous instrument. His experience with Mvinjelwa, who had some
understanding of it after hearing the sound of the uhadi, indicates this. But, perhaps the
appeal of African voice lies on the level of ‘origin myth’, so common in writing and
thinking on South African music. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in a comment the
composer made during the run-up to the première: ‘As a white composer in South Africa, I
write an opera about indigenous African culture. I ask an African singer to sing like an
African man, but he does not want to, he wants to sing like a white man.’61

3.2.2

The orchestra

As was evident from newspaper reviews and feedback from individuals, the use of African
instruments in Masque was experienced by many as positive and innovative. During the
intervals and after each performance members of the audience showed particular interest in
the African instruments as the Todi Ensemble spontaneously improvised, entertaining the
curious onlookers. The Mail & Guardian critic, Brent Meersman, even mentioned that the
orchestras were ‘all unfortunately hidden away in the conventional orchestra pit. In Act II
patrons shifted to the edges of their seats to glimpse the kudu horn ensemble.’62 The use of
African instruments simultaneously with instruments from the classical tradition is
characteristic of Huyssen’s oeuvre. However, the process of transferring indigenous
African music to the artificial space of the opera house, proved to be much more difficult.
As the composer stated in the programme notes:
Would it be possible to include traditional African music, without sacrificing its
unassuming poetic qualities? Could one incorporate African instruments and closely bind
them into an essentially dramatic form, yet do justice to their essentially non-dramatic
idiom?63

However, the issues that caused the majority of immediate problems for the composer
were technical rather than aesthetic. Notating African music in the Western idiom as well
61

Telephone conversation with the composer on 07 October 2005.
Brent Meersman, ‘Masque’, Mail and Guardian, 5 November 2005.
63
See programme notes, p. 4.
62

177

as tuning the instruments to even-tempered tuning was necessary in order for the three
ensembles to play together and to play in tune. The African instruments also had to
accompany the singers whose parts were composed in even-tempered notation. The uhadi,
which partnered the griot, was for instance tuned in B-flat. Huyssen personally took
responsibility for tuning the instruments and explained that by the time he had finished
tuning the last African instrument of the ensemble, the first one was out of tune again.
Another technical problem was that many of the instruments were not available and had to
be made on request. Due to circumstances the akadinda, for example, was only available
one week before the first performance.64
According to the composer the biggest difficulty to overcome was to find African
musicians to take part in the production. Huyssen had previously collaborated with Dizu
Plaatjies, a musician from the University of Cape Town who specializes in traditional
African instruments. The initial plan was that Plaatjies would provide the musicians for
this project, but he withdrew six months before the première. Huyssen knew a number of
African musicians who occasionally played together but were not formally engaging in
African music-making. These musicians decided to form a group, the Todi Ensemble,
specifically for the production of Masque. Further problems arose from this situation as the
members of the Todi Ensemble were used to spontaneous music making, natural to
traditional African music and few had any professional experience. A number of them
could not read notation and the composer therefore started to teach them. Although they
could play in the spontaneous environment, having to perform intricate African rhythms
and melodies in the organized time structure of an opera proved to be an almost
insurmountable obstacle. The kudu horn ensemble (six players) for instance managed to
play correctly in time only once during the entire production process; at the third
performance of the opera on 3 November 2005.
The present writer’s first acquaintance with the Todi Ensemble was during a rehearsal on
11 October 2005 in one of the practicing rooms at the College of Music at the University
of Cape Town. They were rehearsing the improvisational section of the ‘Griot’s Song’, Act

64

The akadinda that was used for practicing was in a lower key. The result was that up until one
week prior to the première, Buthongwane (the mask of sleep) continually had to transpose his part
down and it was only one week before the première that the cast as a whole could hear the
akadinda (and Buthongwane’s part) in the right key.
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II Scene I. This scene was intended to be a celebration in ‘African style’ after the blind
musician Sam had found his voice and regained his sight. Huyssen composed no music for
this section and negotiated with the musicians what kind of music should be played,
continually pointing out that it should be ‘their own’ music and checking whether they
identified with his suggestions. On enquiry I was told that all musicians grew up in the city
and the townships; none were from rural areas. Huyssen requested music that should be ‘a
celebration of joy when you have found your voice again’. As they practiced, the texts for
the praise singer and Sam were worked out, the women were encouraged to ululate, and
the rest of the group played their instruments and danced. At some stage during this rather
intense rehearsal, the singer Skumbuzo Kunene dropped an aside: ‘You know, Hans is
teaching me to be wild again!’65
Throughout the run-up to the première of the opera the professional demands on this group
to perform in opera production continued to be particularly problematic. During tutti
rehearsal Huyssen used every possible moment to rehearse with them.66 The kudu horns (a
group of six musicians) had to play a complex pattern where each horn blows a single note
split seconds apart, a pattern which may have ‘come natural’ in the original performance
context, but seemed very difficult when staged in the operatic environment. The leader of
the Todi Ensemble, Kgaladi Thema, replied evasively: ‘The rhythms are difficult, but we
are enjoying ourselves. The kudu horn is not that difficult to play but the embouchure
needs to be exercised. But aah, they are stinking!’67 (referring to the horns). As already
mentioned, eventually the kudu horns performed their solo without mistakes only during
the performance on 3 November.
Soon it emerged that the umtshingo was not technically able to manage the part composed
for the instrument.68 The composer decided to replace the sections for the umtshingo with
the Indian flute which has a similar quality of sound. The part was then played by the
flautist of the contemporary orchestra and on mentioning to the flautist that she always
accompanied Nomfama (the mask of blindness), she replied: ‘O, I did not even notice, I
65

He later told the current writer that Swazi’s do not normally celebrate that loudly and wildly.
It was evident that, due to the many logistical problems he had to sort out himself, Huyssen’s
nerves where stretched to the limit and lead to occasional outbursts during these rehearsals which
including remarks such as ‘bad rehearsals make for good performances’.
67
Interview with Kgaladi Thema on 27 October 2005.
68
It is not certain whether the problem stemmed from the instrument itself or if the musician could
not manage the part.
179
66

just play the music in my score’.69 The difference in sound was barely audible to the
audience. A professional flautist from Stellenbosch who attended the performance on 1
November later enquired from the composer who played the prominent ‘traditional flute
solo’, asking ‘what kind of indigenous instrument it was’.70
It seemed as if Huyssen at this point in time experienced a degree of disillusionment or
frustration with African musicians. Although he had done a number of projects where he
collaborated closely with traditional African musicians, he directed strong critique towards
them in the run-up to the première of Masque. During the annual conference of the
Musicological Society of Southern Africa at the College of Music in Cape Town in August
2005, the composer introduced conference attendees to the pending première of Masque
and, amongst others, said that:
Traditional African music [must] ... step out of its comfort zone, where it hides behind
secrets and mysteries, to account for itself and to explain. To me that is the biggest
underlying challenge. You only get to experience the real indigenous music once you are
let into the inner circle of African indigenous musicians.

During an interview on national radio shortly before the première, Huyssen also mentioned
that politicians and scientists bemoan the fact that much of Africa’s cultural treasures are
being lost, but that, in his experience, nothing is done to preserve or promote the little that
there still is.71
One week before the première, the contemporary orchestra and the Baroque ensemble
started attending rehearsals. The entire Baroque ensemble was flown in from Europe and
most of the other musicians were members of the city orchestra with years of experience
behind them. Obviously used to professional circumstances, these groups performed well,
although a sense of apathy was prevalent. Besides a few comments about the composer’s
apparent lack of conducting skills, just one person dared an opinion on the opera itself, the
timpani player Bill Holland. Holland is actually an American who has lived in South
Africa for 25 years. His negative opinion was therefore surprising as he described the work
69

Short interview with flautist Bridget Rennie during the interval of the performance on 01
November 2005.
70
Personal letter written to the composer by Stellenbosch flautist Marietjie Pauw.
71
Radio interview with Johan Botha on the programme Dis Opera on 23 October 2005. It was
broadcast on the Afrikaans channel (Radio Sonder Grense) of the South African Broadcasting
Corporation.

180

as having a too complicated score with a composer who was not able to conduct. The
underlying sentiment of the libretto obviously irritated him as he referred to it as an
‘Apartheid story’.72

3.2.3

Logistical problems in getting the work staged

A rather oblique picture emerged on investigating the logistic problems Huyssen faced in
order to stage the opera. The composer was the sole driving force behind this production
and it was evident from the fieldwork that without his personal determination and tenacity
the production of this opera would not have become a reality. The overall impression
gleaned from fieldwork showed an insufficient infrastructure for the production of new
music, exacerbated by a lack of support and co-operation from the existing authorities in
this specific case study.
A contract for the production of four performances of Masque was signed with Cape Town
Opera in October 2004 and provision was made for singers to take part in the production.
However, no support was provided to help the composer with the ensemble of traditional
African instruments. After Dizu Plaatjies withdrew from the project, Huyssen claimed he
received no help in finding alternative musicians, obtaining instruments for the production
or teaching the Todi Ensemble to perform in circumstances which were new to them.73
During an interview with the present writer, the producer of the opera, Geoffrey Hyland,
shared the composer’s opinion that the management of Cape Town Opera did not do much
to help iron out logistical difficulties. Furthermore, in July 2005 Cape Town Opera
apparently informed the composer that the agreement of four performances was to be
reduced to three. The composer refused to accept this and had to stand firm to retain the
conditions of the original contract.74
Funding for the production proved to be another problem. There was no system providing
support in this regard and Huyssen had to find his own sponsors. He secured funding from
The National Arts Council, Pro Helvetia and The Swiss Development Corporation for the

72

Interview held with Bill Holland on 01 November 2005.
Interview with the composer on 15 July 2005.
74
Ibid.
73

181

composition of the work as well as for the Todi Ensemble. Funds for the rental of the
premises and payment of the singers, musicians and the production eventually came from
Cape Town Opera, but Huyssen had to negotiate these grants in person and he felt that he
received no support from the management of the company.75
By early 2005 Huyssen wanted to start rehearsing with singers in order to test his idea of
voice production on singers and to see what kind of singers he would have for the
production to further compose the parts. Already at this stage Huyssen was faced with
huge problems, first in obtaining singers and secondly he immediately ran into conflict
with the style and technique of singing that the students were taught. The singers were
apparently only contracted by July of that year and according to the composer they had no
idea of the kind of sound he wanted or how to produce it because they were mainly taught
voice production for opera singing from the late Romantic period.
The agreement was made that the opera would be produced by students of the Opera
School at the University of Cape Town’s College of Music as well as a number of
professional singers from Cape Town Opera. The cast eventually comprised three
professional singers and the remaining 85% consisted of students. As the bulk of the cast
was inexperienced, the composer found the technical standard of singing not sufficient and
a professional attitude lacking. In this regard the director, Geoffrey Hyland, again
supported Huyssen’s sentiment and mentioned that he needed to work intensively with the
students as they still had to learn how to move on stage.76 He also mentioned that the
students tired easily, forgot to eat before rehearsals and could not sing properly as they
became hungry. Furthermore, students had to be transported by minibus from the
university campus in Rondebosch to rehearsals at the Artscape Theatre (a drive of
approximately 15 minutes). Apparently this was not well organized and it resulted in many
late arrivals and absenteeism. According to the composer there was not a single rehearsal
where all members of the choir were present. In an even worse situation, during the
performance of the opera on 1 November, only one tenor of the choir showed up.
During an interview with the composer on 1 March 2006 Huyssen said: ‘what was on stage
[during the production] was not what I had in mind when I composed the work; my
75

Interview with composer on 1 March 2006.
During the rehearsal on 13 October 2005, he encouraged the students to move convincingly and
said: ‘Learn it, practice it, otherwise you can only make CDs.’
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76

intentions have failed’. One cannot but realize that it would have been different had the
logistical circumstances been more favourable. Huyssen also mentioned that he would
never be able to stage the opera again in similar circumstances.

3.2.4

The performances

Opening night 28 October 2005. I am surprised to hear that the house is sold out. A sense
of excitement fills the air, much German is spoken as Huyssen’s support network arrives in
throngs. Although Cape Town Opera’s professional cast includes a substantial number of
black singers, not many black South Africans are expected in the audience as the
traditional opera audience still seems predominantly European. However, a substantial
number of black South Africans are attending.
The cast does their best during the performance, Fikile Mvinjelwa in the lead, singing a
convincing Griot. During interval I move quietly between groups to catch the commentary.
Cautious comments vary from ‘the music does not do me much’ to ‘I don’t really know; the
choir sections are interesting’ to ‘if it wasn’t for the visual spectacle and the text on the
screen I would have struggled to follow’. Another voice adds that he can’t get a grip on
the style, ‘it’s such a mixture’. Nevertheless, I sense that the audience is intrigued albeit
somewhat ambivalent about what to make of this out-of-the-ordinary opera. Having
attended ten rehearsals during the three weeks prior to the première, the music and the
story have grown on me, the opera has almost become familiar and my sense of ‘first
hearing’ has long disappeared. As the curtain falls at the end of the opera the audience
applauds long and loudly, acknowledging enjoyment and appreciation through a standing
ovation. The Todi Ensemble adds a exuberant ten minutes of music and dancing in the
orchestra pit, during which time admirers from the public come to the front to see the
instruments and the traditional dresses.
The subsequent three performances on 1, 3, and 5 November are attended well by the
public. The second performance, traditionally being the most difficult after the initial
excitement of the première, frustrates the composer. Concentration and focus are lacking
and Huyssen is very unhappy about the standard of the performance. I sit behind the stage
and observe the comings and goings of singers, dancers, choristers and support staff, once
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again impressed by the technical staff who work like a well-oiled machine to stage an
opera without hickups. Afterwards I walk through the public in the parking area and snap
up remnants of commentary. Once again it varies from an ecstatic ‘fantastic’ to a doubtful
‘weird’. The third performance proves to be technically the most satisfying, including the
one and only successful run by the kudu horn section. At the end of each performance the
Todi Ensemble entertains the public with song, dance and celebration.
Reviews appeared in the main newspapers of the Western Cape, The Cape Times, The
Argus and Die Burger, as well as two national papers, The Mail & Guardian and The
Sunday Independent, and the British journal, Opera. 77 A remarkable difference can be
noticed in the attitude between the reviews from the Afrikaans and the English-speaking
press.
The English press focused predominantly on the new perspectives Masque as new music in
South Africa offered. Carl Fourie wrote in The Argus of 2 November that ‘Masque takes a
solid step forward in the continuing search for a unique South African opera style’ while
Deon Irish of The Cape Times described it as ‘an unremitting move towards an
unquestionable African art form’. 78 Meersman of the Mail & Guardian went further by
describing it as:
... a 21st Century piece – mankind moving closer to achieving a universal consciousness
and a more equable world order – based on understanding the historical interconnections
of different traditions, rewriting victor’s history and questioning prejudiced Western
perceptions of other cultures.79

Further credit is given to the composer by Barry Smith, whose review was published in
Opera:
That [Huyssen] was largely successful in overcoming many [...] problems is a tribute to the
boldness of his vision in being prepared to tackle such a daunting task [...]. It is the kind of
work that needed to be written despite the numerous artistic and financial risks involved. In
this respect it proved an important stepping-stone if not a musical landmark.
The final result also proved to be something of a witch’s brew: not many would have been
convinced by the thought of the Cape Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, an early music
group (in this case the imported Marini Consort Innsbruck) and the Todi Ensemble (of
African instruments) playing in tandem, nor would they completely understood the
77

A comprehensive list of reviews is referenced in footnote 6 of this chapter.
Deon Irish, ‘Music art of, for and by the people’, Cape Times, 3 November 2005.
79
Brent Meersman, ‘Masque’, Mail and Guardian, 5 November 2005.
78

184

seemingly bizarre amalgam of styles ranging from Baroque fugal and sequential effects,
the ‘flat mournful trumpets’ effects of Purcell, music-hall, an on-stage guitarist, and plenty
of atonal and African elements. But this was part of Huyssen’s daring experiment as he
80
blazed some kind of trail in his quest to find a possible future for opera in South Africa.

However, Smith had his reservations regarding the compositional aspects of the work:
The music, while certainly not lacking dramatic ideas and honest fervour for its
inspiration, often seemed to have ‘too many notes’ (as the Emperor is reputed to have
remarked to Mozart on one occasion). Part of the problem was its frenetic almost
perpetually angst-ridden quality. One longed for a moment of repose, a lessening of
intensity, a lightness of touch, perhaps even an occasional moment of lyricism. The
scoring too often caused problems for some of the singers when their voices were simply
overwhelmed by the density and volume of the scoring against which their voices were
81
pitted.

The critics writing for the Afrikaans press, Gottfried Maas and Louis Heyneman,
approached the issue of new South African music from a different perspective. Both
argued that the work was difficult to digest and would not be performed again soon. Under
the heading ‘New opera offers much, makes demands on audience’,82 Maas stated his
personal preference:
For me, a layman to whom the European masters from the Baroque to the late Romantic
are staple food, Masque’s mix is interesting rather than enjoyable. People who prefer
memorable melodies and comfortable harmonies will have difficulty finding it here.
Together with what can be seen on stage, the music can be digested. [...] The hour and
forty five minutes (interval included) felt long enough.83

Heyneman, reflecting on Masque as well as a work by the South African composer Roelof
Temmingh which was premièred shortly after Masque,84 continued in similar fashion:
The reaction of the normal music lover was the same in both cases: the acquaintance was
enough for now, thank you. Give us what we know, or at least, music which falls within
our emotional frame of reference. [...] Both works are difficult to digest. Most music lovers
do not have the framework to understand Huyssen’s complicated mix of musical language

80

Barry Smith, ‘Masque’, Opera, March 2006.
Ibid.
82
The original heading in Afrikaans is: ‘Nuwe opera bied heelwat, stel eise aan gehoor’; translated
from the Afrikaans by the present author.
83
Gottfried Maas, Die Burger, 2 November 2005; translated from the Afrikaans by the present
author.
84
Roelof Temmingh’s Concert Ouverture was premièred by the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra on 4
November 2005 in the Cape Town City Hall. Louis Heyneman is the CEO of the Cape
Philharmonic Orchestra.
185
81

and technique, and the absence of singable tunes and conventional harmonies makes the
85
work simply inaccessible.

He further expressed doubt about future performances of both works, but concluded by
alluding that:
Both Temmingh and Huyssen, although diverse in style, are part of the small tip of the
pyramid without which there is no striving for refined art, no matter how much the normal
music lover grumbles about it. Without the tip of the pyramid the broader substructure
86
cannot exist.

The negative and condescending tone of both these critics is difficult to miss. Neither of
them seems concerned about new music in South Africa and how these works relate to the
society of the day. No mention is made in either of the reviews of what the opera might
endeavour to say about South Africa or the new music produced today. Their concern
seems to be directed toward music as a strategic ploy which needs to sell seats and
entertain the ‘general’ music lover. This negativity is all the more remarkable as the
Afrikaans press in the Western Cape as a rule dedicates at least one A2 page per day to the
arts, whilst English press generally only reviews opera or ballet (which is not daily) and
coverage of chamber or orchestral music is often non-existent.
Several reactions were published in Die Burger following the reviews by Maas and
Heyneman. One reader mentioned that:
[Heyneman’s] use of generalization such as ‘the reaction of the normal music lover was ...
the acquaintance was enough for now, thank you’, bothers me. With much excitement and
apprehension did I attend the première of Masque and I was not disappointed. Yes, I do
love the beautiful and gripping melodies of classical opera, but I was enchanted by this
new creation from Africa.87

Stephanus Muller, musicologist and lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch wrote:
Whether these viewpoints from critics represent personal preferences or are pragmatic
windsocks that register the so-called public preferences or disapprovals, is unsure. One or
two untried members of the public who attended the opera voiced their discontent with the
reviews, which suggests the possibility that the public may judge new music more
graciously than those who write about it. What is evident however, is that new South
African compositions and productions are seldom given the chance to be developed by
85

Louis Heyneman, Die Burger, 7 November 2005; translated from the Afrikaans by the present
author.
86
Ibid.
87
Die Burger, letters from the public, 16 November 2005.
186

repeat performances as the nucleus of an indigenous repertoire. Leaving aside the reasons
for this or the particular composer and the quality of his work: this is a culturally
88
impoverished state of affairs.

Huyssen also added his voice in reply to Heynemann by writing:
It seems strange that a cultural impresario claims on behalf of the ‘general music lover’
that the ‘acquaintance (with new music) was enough for now’, whilst the same audience in
actual fact showed enormous interest (proved by the almost sold-out performances of my
opera Masque) and reacted overwhelmingly positively. Why criticize the success achieved
by those who worked together to make (an indeed difficult) project work by claiming that
it is nothing less than one’s moral obligation to sit through expensive and inaccessible
works – for the vague gain of a potential increased appreciation by future generations? And
why so hastily preach condemnation that neither works will be performed again soon?89

The composer shared with the present writer some of the feedback he had received from
friends and colleagues. Most of them were positive, although criticism was also expressed.
The Stellenbosch musicologist Winfried Lüdemann remarked that Huyssen’s use of
traditional African instruments was an integral and self-evident part of the music, not an
exotic flavour, complimenting the composer on the fact that compared to some other
composers who try to compose similar music, he was more successful. However, agreeing
with critics like Maas, Heyneman, Smith and Brooks Spector of the Sunday Independent,
Lüdemann mentioned that he felt Huyssen should have given the general music lover some
more ‘memorable musical moments’,90 underlining the sentiment also expressed by Barry
Smith. The poet and writer Antjie Krog summed up much of the effort that went into
producing the opera: ‘... what an amazing event tonight was. I can't even begin to think
about the amount of planning, organizing, coordinating, energy, good will, begging,
extortion, blackmailing and love that went into it all. Congratulations for an amazing
product.’91

88

Stephanus Muller, Die Burger, 5 December 2005; translated from the Afrikaans by the present
author.
89
Hans Huyssen, Die Burger, 16 November 2005; translated from the Afrikaans by the present
author.
90
Personal letter from Winfried Lüdemann to Hans Huyssen, no date.
91
Personal letter from Antjie Krog to Hans Huyssen, no date.
187

3.2.5

The libretto

The libretto evoked much criticism from newspaper critics and singers. In his review in the
Cape Times of 3 November, Deon Irish’s criticism was directed toward the onedimensional portrayal of the European characters pitted against the more sympathetic
depiction of the African roles, accentuating the underlying moralizing tendency of the
libretto. This also struck the present writer during the rehearsals; the European characters
were almost projected as caricatures, not only through the text they sing, but also in the
way they were asked to act and pronounce their words. After interviewing the director
Geoffrey Hyland, I realised that Hyland over-accentuated these latent characteristics of the
European characters in order to achieve more contrast between the African and European
characters.
Huyssen later explained that this was an unhappy result of circumstances as his intentions
were rather the opposite. 92 Here again the fragmented, incomplete, almost hacked-apart
character of the libretto proved disadvantageous to the overall message of the opera. As a
result of the cutting of the entire middle section of the libretto, the development of the
characters was severely curtailed. The composer was furthermore of the opinion that the
singer who sang the role of the curator, Arthur Swan, did not have the artistic capacity to
infuse the character with life and compassion. These sentiments were echoed by Barry
Smith:
Both libretto (by the Bulgarian writer Ilija Trojanow) and music at times probably needed a
touch of the blue pencil: the story is highly allegorical and convoluted ... obfuscated in
highly prolix, often moralizing and philosophical terms and, frankly, often ludicrous
language. ‘My days of bleak were gone in a streak when he pampered me for a full whole
93
week.’ Enough said.

The moralizing tendency of the libretto was picked up by more critics. Brent Meersman
from the Mail & Guardian wrote:
The attempt to treat words (which have meaning) as the abstractions of musical sound is
intellectually stimulating but emotionally – and I would therefore argue operatically – selfdefeating. The bursts of straight recitative were a telling relief.
The libretto is the major problem. The story – and one cannot help but think of comparable
failings with the Handspring Puppet Company’s Tall Horse here – also a museum theme,
92
93

Interview with the composer on 01 March 2006.
Barry Smith, ‘Masque’, Opera, March 2006.

188

roots in Malian culture, similar set – muddied in with an allegorical cosmological lecture –
94
struggles to emerge and cannot hold our interest.

The Sunday Independent published a review by J. Brooks Spector. He also found difficulty
with the libretto, hinting at the lack of effective dramaticism picked up by Hyland:
However, the story line, as currently presented, has problematic elements. The conflict
between the main protagonists, and thus in turn the conflict between the concept of
masques as museum objects or authentic, embedded cultural engines, could be crisper.
Thus adjusted, the audience would be drawn more closely to the raw edges of this conflict
through the characters. The need for vivid conflict is important when the music, albeit
interesting and subtle, operates within relatively narrow emotional bands.
This challenge actually confronts many recent works because contemporary composition
style has relegated vocal roles from the centrality of their 18th and 19th century position to
a circumstance where they have become just one more element in a greatly expanded
orchestra. But the end of arias like Au Fond du Temple Saint, Nessum Dorma or Un bel Di
means that the emotional cores of operatic characters become less accessible to audiences.
As a result, something else must come forward to take up the slack so that the dramatic
95
tensions in the story line are understandable and approachable.

3.3

Conclusion

Brent Meersman’s Mail and Guardian-review concluded as follows:
Masque is still a fresh and unstable work, somewhat like a wet oil painting that has already
been framed and hung in a gallery before it has set. The music itself is the strongest
element and Huyssen has resplendently achieved his stated aims.96

Meersman’s use of the words ‘fresh’ and ‘unstable’ is striking. So is his connection of
these words with a recently completed oil painting of which the paint is still wet, but which
has been provided with a frame and exhibited for display in a gallery. Indeed, the
expectations surrounding a work like Masque are similar to those of a painting on display.
Audiences visit opera theatres to see completed, framed, aesthetic visions in a museum of
listening conditioned by the nineteenth century. In the case of Masque, however, the
‘freshness’ and ‘instability’ that Meersman detected after a first hearing are in this chapter
exposed to be more than just analogous to the ‘unsettled’ quality of wet paint, which

94

Brent Meersman, ‘Masque, Theatre Pick of the Week’.
O.J. Brooks Spector, ‘Defining local opera in a way that balances tradition with the unusual’.
96
Brent Meersman, ‘Masque, Theatre Pick of the Week’.
95

189

implies that formal issues in the work have been resolved. In this chapter the writer has
argued that the formal issues have not been resolved in Masque. The libretto was cut and
adjusted for the specific run of performances in Cape Town. This was not done for
aesthetic reasons alone, but ostensibly because of practical problems. Compromises had to
be reached with regard to the composer’s ideals of voice production and of orchestral
integration.
Listening to the official recording of Masque, it is also clear that much of what the
composer wrote was left unperformed or was wrongly or badly performed. What was
heard in the Artscape Theatre Complex on 28 October, 1, 3 & 5 November 2005 was not a
complete work as yet unsettled in its formal conception, but, I would argue, an incomplete
artistic vision in which the tensions playing out in the musical and dramatic material
resulted in an incomplete, experimental and fractured structure. Taking our cue from
Adorno, we could articulate this dynamic as follows:
Of the same origin as the social process and ever and again laced through by its traces,
what seems to be strictly the motion of the material itself moves in the same direction as
does real society even where neither knows anything of the other and where each combats
the other. Therefore the composer’s struggle with the material is a struggle with society
precisely to the extent that society has migrated into the work, and as such it is not pitted
against the production as something purely external and heteronomous, as against a
consumer or an opponent.97

Immediately following on from the passage on the ‘tendency of musical material’, Adorno
uses the concept of ‘immanent reciprocation’.98 It is this process of tension and paradox
and aesthetic yearning that characterizes Masque more than anything. Reading the score of
the opera and taking the composer at his word leaves us short of an estimation of Masque’s
meaning as a representative text of aesthetic indigenization. Both text and composer’s
intent are bound to fall short to explain these ruptures, as both ideologically behold the
idea of the opera.
It was only by studying the opera in rehearsal, in performance and in reception that the
composer’s struggle was seen not only as a struggle with material, but clearly also a
struggle with society and the expectations and abilities of South African society to come to
grips with this particular vision of an ideal society. This change of focus between what is
97
98

Theodore Adorno, Philosophy of New Music, Frankfurt Am Main 1976, p. 32.
Ibid.

190

written in the score and what is heard, between what the composer intended and what
people understood, between the dramatic fusion of opposites and the continued conceptual
identification and separation of these opposites revealed Masque as an event or process
that graphically illustrates aesthetic indigenization as a hugely problematic idea. The
simpler, easier, more demonstrative the transformational gesture or rhetoric (such as
quotation of black tunes, use of black rhythms or instruments), the more easily it is
understood, appreciated and endorsed by performers and audiences. At the same time, such
easily understood gestures are by definition powerless to change established ideas. They
are, to use another Adornian term, already ‘neutralized’. On the other hand, aesthetic
attempts to represent the transformational space in more intellectually, musically
performative ways – and it is being suggested the Masque does just that – will inevitably
and even characteristically disrupt and fail to live up to societal expectations.
Perhaps then aesthetic indigenization is not so much a problematic idea but an arena for
the working out of problems on the level of material; problems that are not exclusively or
even primarily musical problems, but social problems. This would imply that aesthetic
indigenization is always only a process, and one ill-served by scholarly or artistic
demonstrations of successfully completed ‘works’ as instances of autonomous mirrors of
society. When Muller writes that ‘what is certain, is that new South African works and
productions thereof are rarely given the opportunity to be performed regularly to develop
the nucleus of an indigenous repertoire. Whatever the reasons for this and notwithstanding
the composer and the work: this is an impoverished cultural situation’,99 he misses the
point. Huyssen’s Masque fails the test of a work that can be absorbed into the repertoire of
the rarefied world of Cape Town Italianate opera. Because of this, it remains open and
openly receptive to society and life. This could well be the ultimate condition for aesthetic
indigenization in South African music to happen.

99

Stephanus Muller, ‘Maak dié klank deel van kultuur’, Die Burger, 5 December 2005.

191

Chapter 4. Cape Town Opera: tradition and change as strategies of survival

4.1

Introduction

In his Master’s thesis, Composition in crisis: Case studies in South African Art Music
1980-2006, Thomas Pooley discusses the crises local composition has been facing since
the early 1980s due to a shift in paradigm caused by political changes in the country. He
argues that ‘the demise of Apartheid and the rise of democracy resulted in an institutional
and aesthetic crisis for the field of composition, embodied in musical terms by a shift away
from a Eurocentric paradigm to a cross-cultural one that embraced various “African
elements” within a framework of modernism and discourse of accessibility’. 1 Exchanging
the word ‘composition’ with ‘opera production’ this seems an apt description of the crises
local opera production have had to deal with since the 1980s and the concomitant new
course it has taken during the past two decades.
At first glance, the production of opera in South Africa today has changed significantly
since the days of the four Performing Arts Councils (PACs), CAPAB, NAPAC, PACT and
PACOFS. These councils were established by South Africa’s Apartheid government and
responsible for opera production in the country from 1963-1998.2 During the existence of
the Performing Arts Councils, opera production largely endeavoured to emulate the
Western aesthetic and cultural models as closely as possible. Although government
officials were not necessarily interested in opera production per se, Pooley describes the
value of art music for the Apartheid government as that of ‘symbolic capital’.3 Art music
symbolized European culture and because it was viewed to be of greater value than
indigenous or local art,4 it was heavily subsidised by government. The political structures
1

Thomas Pooley, Composition in Crisis: Case Studies in South African Art Music 1980-2006.
Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 2008, p. 1.
2
Opera production by the PACs flourished predominantly during the 1970s and 80s. CAPAB,
however, continued to produce opera on large scale until the mid-1990s.
3
Pooley, Composition in Crisis: Case Studies in South African Art Music 1980-2006, p. 18.
4
This attitude could also be found in the local classical music industry in the widespread and
unqualified high appraisal of artists and music from abroad. The lack of confidence in home-grown
talent (unless such talent had a career in Europe) and the subsequent lack of stature given to local
artists has often been lamented by producers as a stumbling block in the development of local
192

underlying the country’s cultural policy were not conducive to the exploration of Africa’s
indigenous cultures in the production of opera or any other cultural productions. However,
due to the policies of the Apartheid government, widespread cultural boycotts by the
international community resulted in the isolation of local arts production.5 Thus, by the
mid-1980s, opera in South Africa was not only cut off from international stimuli but also
isolated from the creative possibilities of its own environment.
It is safe to assume that production trends will always change, but the social and political
changes in South Africa during the past two decades have had an unprecedented and
specific impact on the production of opera. With the change of political dispensation in
1994, the gates of creative possibility were flung wide open as producers had renewed
artistic and intellectual access to the Western and African worlds. In theory, the new
dispensation brought with it a freedom of association and the possibility to develop local
opera production and composition into something new and unique. In practice, however, it
was clear that opera production in South Africa was forced on a new course during which
it had to face major practical challenges. The substantial government subsidies the PACs
depended on in previous years were almost completely withdrawn6 and continuing to
produce opera was just one of many immediate crises these formerly heavily subsidized
institutions had to deal with. Thus, on a logistical level, realizing these new artistic
possibilities proved to be very difficult.
The new era brought a host of challenges and opportunities, many of which can be traced
in the stipulations of the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage as published by the
ANC government in June 1996.7 The practical implications of the policy advocated in the
White Paper exposed South African composers and musicians working in the European
classical idiom to increased structural pressures to reflect the indigenous cultures of their
environment in their work. Subsidies for opera production were being increasingly granted

opera production. It was clear that, due to Apartheid, the authority of the ‘European experience’
had kept South African production and its audiences in a ‘colonial condition’. In the 1980s, the
film critic Barry Ronge coined this tendency ‘overseazure’.
5
The cultural boycott is discussed on pp. 52-3 in Chapter 1.
6
No author, Programme notes: Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April 2009.
No page numbers.
7
This document has been partly referred to in Chapter 1 and will be quoted from and discussed in
more detail during the course of this chapter.
193

on condition that greater demographic representation takes place in productions as well as
audiences.
The challenges that faced opera production by the mid-1990s were not limited to political
issues only. The artistic, managerial and aesthetic aspects of opera production were also
unchartered territory. By 1990 some of the PACs had started to restructure their
organizations to include all racial and culture groups,8 and a growing number of African
opera singers made their presence felt. Angelo Gobbato mentions that by the early 1990s,
the existence of large numbers of exceptional operatic vocal talent among the black
community could no longer be denied. What became a pressing artistic issue, however,
was the creation of a suitable operatic repertoire for these singers and the possible
adaptation of the production styles of the standard repertoire to create novel dramatic
possibilities and credibilities, given the sudden transformation of operatic casts from being
9
98% white to casts being 98% black’.

Furthermore, the effect of the new funding structures forced opera companies to become
privatized organizations responsible for generating their own income. Opera companies
now had to create viable business models along which they could operate and survive.
Fifteen years into democracy, opera in South Africa seems to have consolidated, and in
some cases presenting itself as an invigorated form of art. In 2009 four companies had
been producing opera in the country for a number of years. They are Cape Town Opera10
and Isango Portabello (or Dimpho Di Kopane),11 both situated in Cape Town, and Opera
Africa12 and the Black Tie Ensemble,13 situated in Johannesburg and Pretoria respectively.
All of these organizations operate as private companies and are dependent on subsidies in
some or other way. The artistic directors of three of the four companies, Cape Town Opera
(CTO),14 Opera Africa (OA)15 and the Black Tie Ensemble (BTE),16 have all worked in

8

Pooley, Composition in Crisis: Case Studies in South African Art Music 1980-2006, p. 19.
Angelo Gobbato, ‘History’, http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/history2008.html, accessed 25
July 2009.
10
See website on www.capetownopera.co.za.
11
This company also operates as Dimpho Di Kopane and produces film, theatre and opera. See
website on www.ddk.etownship.co.za, or http://www.portobellopictures.com/About/IsangoPortobello.
12
See website on www.operaafrica.co.za.
13
See their website on www.blackties.co.za.
14
CTO’s current artistic director, Christine Crouse, was CAPAB’s last opera director.
15
OA’s current director, Sandra de Villiers, was closely involved with opera at NAPAC in Durban.
194
9

similar positions under the previous dispensation. Isango Portabello’s director, Mark
Donford-May, hails from the United Kingdom.
Reflecting on South Africa’s fifteen years of democracy has also revealed that, contrary to
expectations and despite the changes brought about since the ANC has come to power,
much in South Africa has stayed the same. This chapter will explore how a local opera
house negotiates the continuation of a tradition with the ‘new set of rules’ that have
governed opera production in South Africa since 1994. My choice for a case study has
fallen on Cape Town Opera (CTO). This company not only reflects the pressing demands
for change so pervasive in South African society as a whole, but also displays the signs of
an ongoing tradition. Most of its artistic top management are individuals who held similar
positions in the pre-1994 dispensation. Furthermore, the very core of the product they
deliver, opera, is an art form rooted in European tradition. This chapter will investigate the
dynamic between the opposing and complementary forces of change and tradition as
practised by Cape Town Opera today. This includes the demands of sponsors, artists,
managers and audiences, but also considers how the company operates in a multi-cultural
environment in order to reflect its social realities. In exploring this dialectic between
tradition and change, it is hoped that a hitherto unexplored aspect of opera indigenization
will be revealed.

4.2

Tradition and change

South Africans have come to assume that the new dispensation ushered in by the ANC
government of 1994 changed all aspects of daily life. Although it did so in a variety of
spheres, reflecting on politics as well as cultural activities of the past fifteen years, it is
clear that despite new policies and a number of substantial changes, the new governing
structures often resemble their pre-1994 counterparts, resulting in far less change than
anticipated and sometimes assumed. R.W. Johnson illustrates at length in his book South
Africa’s Brave New World,17 how policies aimed at restructuring and addressing past
16

This company has been active since 1999 and was set up by former manager of PACT Opera,
Neels Hansen and South Africa soprano Mimi Coertse.
17
R.W. Johnson, South Africa’s Brave New World, London, 2009.
195

inequalities have not rendered the results of growth and development as anticipated and in
many cases perpetuated power imbalances, poverty and corruption. The intensity of the
nationwide demonstrations and strikes by organisations on grassroots level in the months
following the 2009 elections are a demonstration of the frustrated expectations of
previously disadvantaged communities after fifteen years of democracy.
On the other hand, it is also clear that policies implemented by the ANC government – of
which most are based on ideological premises that are different to those of the previous
dispensation – cannot be held accountable for all changes, or the lack thereof. The fact that
Cape Town Opera’s singing corps consists mostly of black singers, for example is not
solely due to a change of policy forced onto CTO by the requirements of the White Paper
of 1996. The emergence of substantial numbers of black singers in the field of opera and
their subsequent dominance in South African opera houses have also been driven by forces
other than politics. Although the phenomenon has been aided by changes in the political
system in terms of making opera accessible to black people in an environment previously
dominated by whites, it has had a history of its own and speaks rather powerfully to the
issue of the indigenization of opera in South Africa. In this chapter I argue that many
traditions particular to opera production that have been practised for many years, continue
to be practised in South Africa, despite the sweeping political changes introduced to our
society after 1994. What then, if any, is the role of politics in the drive to achieve change
in cultural spheres? Furthermore, with specific reference to opera in South Africa, what is
the meaning of and the relationship between ‘tradition’, ‘change’ and ‘indigenization’?
The term ‘tradition’ has often been positioned as polarized to ‘change’ or ‘progress’; it has
been associated with that which is ‘past’ while change has been associated with ‘present’.
In popular sociology the term has generally been used to describe a phenomenon that
impedes change.18 However, in other fields of the academy, for instance that of cultural
anthropology – of which the field of study includes traditional cultures and their
preservation – the term has been viewed in a more favourable light. A neutral stance
towards the term ‘tradition’ is advocated by Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison in their
book Music and Social Movements when they write that ‘it is sometimes observed, by
those who have looked into particular traditions, that it only takes two generations to make
18

Ron Eyerman & Andrew Jamison, Music and Social Movements, Cambridge, 1998, p. 26.

196

anything traditional: naturally enough, since that is the sense of tradition as active
process’.19 The notion of tradition is here described as a coexistence of past and present in
which tradition is ‘whatever is persistent or recurrent through transmission’.20 The words
‘active process’ are pivotal to understanding this notion, especially with regard to music
and musicians. Eyerman and Jamison elaborate on the process-component of tradition as
follows:
A tradition, for us, is a process of connecting a selected or ‘usable’ past with the present –
with ongoing, contemporary life. In music [...] the tradition can be considered a kind of
grammar, or basic language, within which a particular song or piece of music is
constructed. The musician, songwriter, or composer must first learn the notation and the
melodic and rhythmic procedures of the tradition in order to make music; otherwise it
could not be passed on. But, at the same time, artistic creation requires that those rules be
broken, or at least amended, so that the tradition can be rejuvenated by adding something
new to it, and by becoming embedded in an individual or collective performance. It is
important to recognize, however, that there is a tension, or, better, an extremely fine line,
between the dogmatic following of tradition, and, with it, the collection of the traditional,
and the creative embodiment of tradition, or what might be termed innovation within
tradition. But no artistic expression would be possible without a tradition to inform it, or
enclose it.21

Drawing on the idea that embedded in tradition, especially in the arts, one will always find
a degree of change, I am proposing to investigate Cape Town Opera’s activities through
the lens of a ‘mutating tradition’. Important issues in this regard are, for instance, in what
areas of CTO as an organization has change manifested itself? What has changed and
why? Who drives these changes? More importantly, have changes been motivated by
political, ideological, artistic, cultural or economic considerations? Which activities have
been carried over unchanged from the previous generation and why? Are certain unaltered
practises dogmatically defended and consciously kept in their ‘unaltered state’, and if so,
why? How do artists, audiences and sponsors perceive these changes and how do they
react to them?
The ANC government’s drive to ensure demographic representation at all levels of
economic engagement in our society is clearly driven by political imperatives. An instance
of imposing politically inspired motives on artistic endeavours is illustrated in the opening

19

Raymond Williams as quoted in Eyerman & Jamison, Music and Social Movements, p. 26.
Edward Shils as quoted in Eyerman & Jamison, p. 27.
21
Eyerman & Jamison, Music and Social Movements, p. 29.
20

197

paragraphs of the pre-amble to the White Paper of 1996. Here Dr Ben Ngubane, then
Minister of Arts and Culture, writes that,
South African society has been undergoing fundamental transformation over the last two
years. In accordance with the principles of justice, democracy, non-racism and non-sexism,
every sector of our society is facing change. While this may be unsettling for some, for
many, it brings hope that their needs, views and aspirations will now also become part of
the mainstream. South Africa's first democratically elected Government has contributed to
this process by creating our first Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. South
Africa is indeed on the brink of experiencing a cultural Renaissance.
The arts, culture and heritage cannot be an exception in this transformation process, since
they too were overtly affected by the mal-distribution of skills, resources and infrastructure
during the Apartheid era. In fact, given that the arts are premised on freedom of expression
and critical thought, transformation in this area is crucial to empowering creative voices
throughout the country, and is thus integral to the success of the democratic project.22

The drive is termed ‘transformation’ and because it is associated with rectifying
inequalities created during the Apartheid era, its overtly political motivation is
unmistakable. Although this dissertation investigates the indigenization of opera,
‘transformation’ in this context could be regarded a political articulation of a desire to
achieve indigenization, making it relevant to this discussion. What has become known as
‘affirmative action’ is an institutionalized pressure to employ individuals from ‘previously
disadvantaged backgrounds’ into empowering positions at all levels of society. The range
of this study does not justify a discussion of the merits and/or limits of this system. Suffice
to say that by 2009, the effects of the uncritical enforcement of quota systems have been
noted in some spheres of South Africa’s society (notably sports) and subsequently
abolished.23
The performing arts have not emerged unscathed in this regard. In a discourse that
confuses politically and artistically motivated change, Cape Town Opera (CTO) was
recently publically accused of parading transformation. Michael Arendse24 launched his

22

Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. White Papers on Arts, Culture and
Heritage, June 1996, p. 2.
23
South Africa’s Minister of Sport and Recreation, Makhenkesi (Mike) Stofile, who is also a
member on Board of the SA Rugby Association, has recently publicly defended the abolishment of
the quota system in rugby. He argues that players who are selected on this basis feel that they are
not selected on merit, but on skin colour. They are therefore placed under unfair pressure.
http://152.111.1.87/argief/berigte/dieburger/2009/07/29/SK/26/SNSTOFILE-SK.html, accessed 30
July 2009.
24
Arendse is the nephew of Dulcie September, an anti-Apartheid activist who was presumed to
have been killed by Apartheid forces in Paris in 1988. Arendse now works for ESP Africa who
198

attack on CTO in an article published in The Cape Times, entitled ‘Plodding to a fine
transformation tune in Cape Town’. He pointed out, quite rightly, that by 2007 ‘every
major performing arts organization and venue in Cape Town is still headed by whites’.25
Although he admitted that ‘there are black and coloured actors, singers, dancers, technical
and middle management staff’, he argued that there are no ‘suitably trained and qualified
people to fill particularly senior posts due to the lack of formal training available in these
disciplines.’26
In his reply, CTO General Manager, Michael Williams, answered to Arendse with
arguments that position CTO’s attempts at transformation as both politically and
artistically informed. He stated that:
The opera projects undertaken over the past 17 years [...] were all done in the name of
transformation. Everyone working at CTO was swept up with the idea that what we were
doing was a process by which the previously disenfranchised majority could enter into the
mainstream of public life. Transformation does not mean the mere replacement of white
with black at the top of an organisation.27

Admittedly, training senior management staff and opera directors is a costly endeavour,
can take many years and retaining such staff proves to be even more difficult.28 However,
Williams responded to the hidden threat in Arendse’s critique that his job was on the line
when he wrote that, ‘what should happen to those “whites” who are in leadership positions
and who have played a major role in transforming the arts and kept their companies
producing quality performances over some very difficult years?’29
It is clear that the current management at CTO have successfully reshaped the company
and pulled it through difficult times and, in doing so, have fared very well in comparison
to other local institutions who practise the classical arts. Williams continued his reply to
organizes the Cape Town Jazz Festival.
http://www.dac.gov.za/speeches/dminister/2009/27Mar09.htm, accessed 29 July 2009.
25
Michael Arendse, ‘Plodding to a fine transformation tune in Cape Town’, The Cape Times, 10
April 2007.
26
Ibid.
27
Michael Williams, ‘Singing the praises of Cape Town Opera’, The Cape Times, 8 May 2007.
28
The black opera singer, Marcus Desando, has been staff director for CTO since 1999 and was
directing opera on a freelance basis for some time. He was offered employment in Pretoria in 2008
and has been directing opera productions for TUT since.
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/news/article.php?r=/view/capetownopera/1451, accessed 14
August 2009.
29
Williams, ‘Singing the praises of Cape Town Opera’, 8 May 2007.
199

Arendse by highlighting the many black singers that have been trained by CTO. He
described the company’s pursuit of high artistic standards (which implies that the singers
receive first class training), their success on national and international levels and
concluded with his vision for the company:
CTO is not a state-run institution and though we are mindful of our public responsibility
and proud of our transformation record, our main priority is the highest artistic standards,
regardless of whether the singer, director, conductor is black or white. Opera requires the
alchemist’s ability in creating the full force of its power. [...]
My vision for CTO is to transform the operatic aesthetic in South Africa. By this I mean
that CTO will continue to train and develop South African singers, to encourage directors,
designers and composers to respond to opera as Africans, and to build an audience that
loves the work we do.30

From the above it is clear that CTO, like many other companies past and present – in their
discourse at least – adheres to the rules set out by the current political environment. If they
don’t, they will never be able to rid themselves of the image of opera as an art form
symbolizing legislated privilege under the previous dispensation that accepted and
enforced European supremacy. In 2007 CTO even boasted a Black Economic
Empowerment (BEE) compliance rate of 97%.31 Indicative of the pervasive influence of
politics on the South African environment in general, CTO is probably the only opera
company in the world boasting such a strong BEE rating. But, Williams also touched on
another dimension of indigenization, CTO’s drive to ‘transform the operatic aesthetic in
South Africa’.32 The influence of the paradigm shift towards ‘Africa-ness’ on the decisionmaking process of opera directors and management will be further discussed under the
section entitled ‘Artistic Management’.

30

Ibid.
Ibid. Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has been legislated by the Mbeki
administration of the ANC. The objective of this policy is to stimulate the racial transformation of
the business sector. Companies officially declare the percentage of black empowerment that has
taken place in their company as well as the company’s job creation track record.
32
Ibid.
200
31

4.3

The Company

On 19 April 2009, CTO celebrated its tenth anniversary with a gala concert held at the
Artscape Theatre Complex. The company’s considerable vocal talent was on display
during this glittering event and the programme consisted of solo, choral and orchestral
excerpts from operas by Wagner, Verdi, Gounod, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and
the South African composer Mzilikazi Khumalo. CTO not only showed off its soloists, but
also presented an opera chorus consisting of 120 singers accompanied by the Cape
Philharmonic Orchestra.33
It is surely significant that the closing item on the programme was the last movement from
Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Signalling a message to the world that, just as Beethoven
‘intended his Symphony No. 9 to be a powerful ethical statement’,34 CTO was practising
good cultural ethics, celebrating a multi-racial brotherhood among artists and experiencing
the joy of opera as a form of art by all. The programme notes for this celebratory event
specifically mentioned that,
In a concert in Berlin in 1989, to celebrate the destruction of the wall, Leonard Bernstein
changed the word Freude (joy) to Freiheit (freedom), claiming that ‘Beethoven would have
given us his blessing in this heaven-sent moment’.35

The concept of a Cape Town-based privatized opera company was born in 1995 when the
PACs were informed that government subsidies, through which professional opera
production had been made possible from 1963 onwards, would be gradually phased out
over a period of three years, coming to a complete halt in 1998. Michael Williams, current
General Manager of CTO, remembers that ‘CAPAB Opera was faced with an ultimatum:
sink or sing!’36 Williams described the ensuing panic amongst CAPAB Opera’s
management and other opera enthusiasts:
I vividly remember the emergency meeting held at Angelo Gobbato’s home in 1996 when
members of the Friends of the Opera and others interested in the idea of opera gathered to
discuss a future beyond the sinking ships of the arts councils. The lounge might have been
too small to accommodate the many people who gathered there, but no room would have
33

Programme notes: Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April 2009.
Ibid. Notes on the concert programme were written by Albert Horne, CTO’s chorus master.
35
Ibid.
36
Ibid. Address by CTO’s General Manager, Michael Williams.
34

201

been big enough for the passionate and forceful declaration that opera must survive in Cape
Town. No one felt more strongly about this crisis than Angelo Gobbato, who spoke at
length about the trajectory of the history of opera singing in South Africa and its
contribution to the city’s cultural identity.37

Under the direction of Jan Kaminski and with the backing of several opera-loving business
people, CTO was launched as a Section 21 Non-Profit organization in 1998, offering
employment to the entire staff of the opera section of the former CAPAB.38 Gobbato later
wrote that compared to the other PAC’s, CAPAB’s opera section experienced the
smoothest transition to a private company of all and could start operations in 1999 with a
production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail.39
In CTO’s decade long existence, the company has left no stone unturned in its bid to
uphold its status as South Africa’s foremost opera company. From 1999 onwards the
company produced approximately eight productions per year of which two productions
were usually choral performances and an average of one new production per year. The
repertoire largely featured the standard fare that has been presented to Cape Town’s
audiences for decades and operas by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Bizet featured most often,
although less frequently performed operas such as Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Kern’s
Showboat have been firm favourites as well. Lesser known operas by Händel, Monteverdi,
Britten and Purcell have also been performed.40 From 2005 CTO has been able to tour
abroad annually and since then Norway, Sweden, Germany and Kenya have been visited.
In October 2009 the company once again travelled to Europe to perform Gershwin’s Porgy
and Bess in Wales and Scotland. During these ten years CTO also staged twelve
productions featuring local composers, including works by Michael Williams, Thomas
Rajna, Allan Stephenson, Martin Phipps, Mokale Koapeng, Peter Louis van Dijk and Hans
Huyssen.41

37

Ibid.
Angelo Gobbato, http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/history2008.html, accessed 28 July
2009.
39
Programme notes: Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April 2009.
40
The 2008 production of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea was received well by critics
and public.
41
Programme notes: Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April 2009. The works
listed are Michael Williams’s By the River and Orphans of Qumbu, Thomas Rajna’s Amarantha
and Valley Song, Denzil Weale’s Love and Green Onions, Hans Huyssen’s Masque as well as an
opera written by Martin Phipps, Mokale Koapeng and Peter Louis van Dijk, Earthdiving.
202
38

The advantages of co-operating with other production houses have not gone unnoticed and
CTO has benefitted artistically and financially from co-productions locally and abroad.
The company regularly joins forces with local institutions such as the UCT Opera
School,42 Spier, Artscape, the Eoan Group and the V&A Waterfront. It has also
collaborated with the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees in Oudtshoorn and the National
Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Since 2005 it co-operates with opera houses in Europe,
amongst others Staatstheater Nürnberg (Germany), Den Norske Opera (Norway),
Norrlands Operan (Sweden), Fondation d’Enterprise SPHERE (France), Malmö Opera
(Sweden) and the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Germany).
CTO currently employs 54 full time staff of which 31 are singers, 14 artistic staff
(management and trainers) and the remaining nine staff members deal with either finance,
marketing or related administrative tasks. Of the 54 staff members, 34 are black, coloured
and Indian and 20 are white.43 The General Manager, Artistic Director and Finance
Manager are all white, whilst the Marketing Manager and Outreach Coordinator are black.
Compared to other companies currently producing opera in South Africa, CTO has the
highest number of staff as well as the highest annual turnover of productions which usually
comprises of a minimum of four full length operas and four other productions in the form
of operatic concerts or choral productions. The Black Tie Ensemble in Pretoria manages
two productions a year which are both often in the form of operatic concerts44 whilst Opera
Africa’s turnover is one production per year.45 Isango Portobello, previously known as
Dimpho di Kopane, manages approximately one or two productions per year. However,
the latter company’s productions are highly original and strongly indigenized as can be
seen by their famous productions of uCarmen eKhayalitsha in 2006 and The Magic Flute
in 2007. Both productions have received international accolades.46

42

The support of the UCT Opera School, through which a continuous stream of able opera singers
are passed on to CTO cannot be underestimated. This collaboration dates from the inception of
CAPAB in 1963.
43
Adriaan Fuchs, Marketing Plan: Cape Town Opera, Unpublished assignment, UCT Graduate
School of Business, UCT, June 2009, p. 8.
44
http://www.blackties.co.za//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=74,
accessed 10 August 2009.
45
Interview with Christine Crouse, 25 August 2009.
46
http://www.portobellopictures.com/About/Isango-Portobello, accessed 10 August 2009.
203

4.4

The rise of the black opera singer

The twenty years spanning 1980 to 2000 saw a remarkable transformation with regard to
the vocal forces involved in South African opera production – not only in Cape Town, but
at all the opera centres in the country. In 1980, at the height of the Apartheid era, no
singers of colour were to be found on South Africa’s opera stages. By 2000, 85% of all
singers employed at opera houses were black singers. By 2009 this trend has shown no
signs of declining.47 The dominance of black singers in local opera houses will most likely
continue as local opera schools, such as the UCT Opera School and CTO’s in-house
training units, The Voice of the Nation Studio and The Voice of the Nation Ensemble,
continue to annually admit many aspiring black opera singers.48 Between 1999 and 2007
CTO has trained 53 black singers of whom 80% have become professional singers.49 A
number of black opera singers currently pursue successful careers at opera houses abroad
or are the recipients of study opportunities in the West. Three of CTO’s principal singers,
for instance, have recently been offered performing and training opportunities abroad. The
baritone Fikile Mvinjelwa is currently singing with the Metropolitan Opera House in New
York for their 2009-2010 season and soprano Golda Schulz will be studying at the Julliard
School for Music from September 2009 onwards.50 In July 2009 the soprano Pretty Yende
won first prize in all four categories of the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing
Competition in Vienna after which she was contracted to sing for La Scala in Milan for
two years.51
Angelo Gobbato has been synonymous with opera production in the Western Cape for
almost forty years.52 His reputation rests, amongst others, on the fact that he was
responsible for training scores of opera singers at the UCT Opera School whilst also
47

Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
Ibid.
49
Annaleigh Vallie, ‘Soul of opera is on SA’s stage’, Business Day, 19 August 2007. By 2008 this
number had grown to 61. See also Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April
2009. No page numbers.
50
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/newsletterJul09.html, accessed 10 August 2009.
51
Murray La Vita, ‘Twee jong operasterre verlaat SA’, Die Burger, 15 August 2009, p. 3. It is the
first time in the history of this competition that one singer has walked away with all four prizes.
http://www.mio.co.za/article/pretty-yende-makes-sa-proud-2009-07-07, accessed 18 August 2009.
52
Gobbato retired from CTO in 2005 (and from the UCT Opera School in 2009). However, when
speaking about him, most staff at CTO still says ‘Angelo Gobbato is Cape Town Opera’.
204
48

directing opera for CAPAB and later CTO. From the mid-1980s he openly advocated the
potential of black opera singers in Cape Town’s townships. Together with the then chorus
master Vetta Wise and composer Michael Williams, he developed CAPAB’s choral
programmes through which they gained access to black singers from 1988 onwards.53 His
vision for opera in Cape Town included making opera accessible for people living in the
townships. Michael Williams recalls how Gobbato instructed him when he joined CAPAB
Opera as assistant director in 1989: ‘Create African operas, take them into the townships of
Cape Town and turn young people on to the idea of opera’.54
In an interview with the present writer Gobbato explained that he was always convinced of
great singing talent among black people in the townships because of the strong choral
tradition that had existed there for many years. Furthermore, he was of the opinion that the
existence of the Eoan Group and their popularity as an opera company during the early
Apartheid years proved that opera appealed to the indigenous people of South Africa.
However, gaining access to the black community in the 1980s was not easy. The political
tensions of the day polarised the black and white communities and made intercultural
exchange very difficult. Access was facilitated with the appointment of Vetta Wise as
chorus master at CAPAB, as she was acquainted with a network of black choral directors
at the time. In 1988 CAPAB started a choral collaboration project with schools in the
townships. Entering the townships as an opera company – and representing an art form
which was associated with the Apartheid government – was not a risk-free undertaking at
the time.55 Gobbato recounts how they negotiated with the headmasters of a number of
schools who allowed CAPAB to visit their schools. The agreement was that the staff at the
township school would not prevent them from doing opera programmes, but they would
also not encourage them or protect them in the event of an attack.56 Although the choral
53

According to Gobbato, James Conrad from NAPAC in Durban was the first person at any of the
PACs to train and employ black opera singers. Conrad and his wife, Rosely Hunt, did so from the
early 1980s onwards. The circumstances in Natal were more conducive to this initiative due to the
strong choral tradition among the Zulu people and the generally more liberal politics practised in
Natal at the time. Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
54
Williams, ‘Singing the praises of Cape Town Opera’, 8 May 2007.
55
Gobbato explained that although the PACs were funded by national government and had to
report to them directly, those employed at the PACs were not necessarily government supporters.
Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
56
During this interview Gobbato expressed his admiration for former Eoan singers who joined
CAPAB in those years. Civil unrest against white institutions was so strong that singers Virginia
Davids, Ronald Theys and Sidwell Hartman risked their cars being petrol bombed or tires slashed
205

programme functioned for some years, the resistance from the black community in Cape
Town towards opera training at the traditional white universities remained strong until the
end of 1990. From 1981-1990 Gobbato trained approximately 50 singers at the UCT Opera
School of which only two were black. With the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990, this
changed overnight. Gobbato described it as follows: ‘The floodgates opened, literally!
Within two years 120 black opera students enrolled at the UCT Opera School’.57
The UCT Opera School has always provided CAPAB and later CTO with a steady stream
of singers, providing employment and exposure for singers. In 1992 alone four singers
enrolled who later became lead singers at CTO before moving on to other opportunities:
Abel Motsoadi, Fikile Mvinjelwa, Marcus Desonda and Sibongile Mngoma. Motsoadi
went on to study at Julliard and sang at the Metropolitan in New York, Mvinjelwa has
been CTO’s lead baritone for ten years and is currently singing at the Metropolitan,
Desonda developed into an opera director and recently took up employment in this field in
Pretoria, and Mngoma enjoys an illustrious career in the country. In 2009 Mngoma was
appointed to CTO’s Board of Directors.58 Similar career scenarios for others black singers
have become reality since.
Much has been made of the so-called talent or natural aptitude of black students for opera
singing. Gobbato is of the opinion that there is no difference between the racial groups and
the only reason why there are more black singers on South African opera stages than
white, is because there are more black people in the country than white.59 He does however
concede that the singer’s cultural background can make an impact on the development of
an opera singer. A number of characteristics of black culture are perceived to support
development in opera training. The Xhosa language is for instance particularly suitable for
the pronunciation of the Italian language. Kamal Khan, current head of the UCT Opera
School, confirms this by saying that ‘local singers are adept at singing in the Romance

because they sang opera and were branded as ‘sell outs’. Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12
August 2009.
57
Ibid.
58
No author, Cape Town Opera Annual Review 2008/2009, p. 16.
59
Ibid.

206

languages, especially Italian. Many of the indigenous languages, particularly Xhosa, share
the same vowels and consonants as Italian.’60
With regard to acting abilities and movement on stage, Gobbato explains that many white
singers will stand still with their arms straight whilst they sing because they have been
trained to control their physical movements in a social environment. Black people from the
townships are generally more prone to using their bodies in expressing themselves in all
sorts of social situations and thus find it natural to move on stage whilst singing. In his
experience some of his black students have learnt in one year what some white students
learnt in four years.61
Telling stories in music is said to be part of township culture, a trend which translates
easily into opera performance. This may also point towards an answer to the much
rehearsed question of why opera is popular with black singers in South Africa, despite the
art form’s historical links with Apartheid and subsequent colonial associations. ‘Opera as a
large scale musical expression appeals to the black population of our country’, says
Gobbato.62 Pauline Malefane, a former trainee at the UCT Opera School who shot to fame
with her rendition of the title role in the 2006 production of uCarmen eKhayelitsha63
explained that,
It’s very much part of our African tradition to tell stories in music. [...] That’s what I love
about opera. The stories and characters are universal. They are about how people live, how
they communicate, how they go about their lives – and it remains relevant today. We have
a song for everything, whether it’s marriage, a child’s birth or a boy’s initiation.64

Former UCT Vice-Chancellor and current patron of CTO, Dr Mamphele Ramphele
confirms that ‘Africans have always engaged in their praise singing – a similar means of
expression. Both contain the same qualities, in that they tell a story through singing and
performance’.65

60

Annaleigh Vallie, ‘Soul of opera is on SA’s stage’, 19 August 2007.
Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
62
Ibid.
63
uCarmen eKhayelitsh won the Golden Bear award in Berlin in 2006.
64
No author, ‘The Olympics of Singing’, Skyways, October 2006, pp. 54-6.
65
Ibid. It is no co-incidence that the African opera, Masque, incorporated praise singing. See the
section ‘Voice’ in Chapter 3 of this dissertation for a discussion of this.
207
61

In my interview with him, Gobbato further explained that, in his opinion, people from the
townships live in conditions that are intensely dramatic and that opera is popular because
black singers identify with the melodrama of opera. According to him the unstable social
circumstances within which Verdi lived and composed in nineteenth-century Italy often
resemble the living circumstances of townships today.66 This further contributes, in his
opinion, to the difference between singers from South Africa and those from Europe: ‘In
Europe everyone is polite, in social circles you’re not allowed to speak out load or shout.
It’s all very democratic, everybody sings well, but they all sound the same. African singers
still have that wild primal force which makes you the king on stage.’67 The American
opera and theatre producer, Chuck Hudson, adds that ‘Black South African’s [...] acting is
exciting and passionate, stripping away the reserve and preciousness often apparent in
European performances’.68
CTO’s current artistic director, Christine Crouse, argues along similar lines, although for
her the timbre of the ‘African voice’ distinguishes itself from the European voice. She is of
the opinion that ‘we might not always have the musical polish or the sophisticated
musicology behind [the voice] that the European company might have, but there is a lot of
passion, a lot of exceptional voices that you will not find in Europe’.69 Crouse is also quite
specific about the vocal timbre of the ‘black voice’:
The kind of colour and vibrant voice in [our] chorus is unheard of overseas. These people
have bigger voices, it’s more resonant. They make a huge sound that blows away the
overseas audiences because they are not used to hearing that. The sound is fairly unique;
you don’t find this colour of sound amongst the white [singers] of Europe.70

On enquiring what exactly constitutes the uniqueness of the African voice, Crouse
continued to describe it as ‘a fatter voice, rich and creamy and vibrant’ while she
contrasted it to the European voice which is often ‘small and slim’. After providing this
description, she did admit that this might not be true in all cases.71 She concedes that the
difference in sound quality might not necessarily be caused by a genetic difference because
66

Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
Ibid. In the same interview Gobbato said that Scandinavian singers spend much time during their
training learning to loosen up and open their mouths in order to produce volume.
68
Annaleigh Vallie, ‘Soul of opera is on SA’s stage’, 19 August 2007.
69
Interview with Christine Crouse, 25 August 2009.
70
Ibid.
71
Ibid.
208
67

‘black people grow up singing, if they are sad they sing, if they are happy they sing, and
yes, they have a certain energy and vibrancy that they bring to a production.’72 According
to Crouse, this ‘energy’ at times also impedes on a production when that is not the kind of
sound that she as artistic director wants. Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, which CTO
produced earlier in 2009, was for instance a stylised production with geishas and the
forcefulness had to be toned down.73
Taking Grant Olwage’s writings on the racialization of voice into consideration – he
discusses how the sonic identity of choral voices has been classified in terms of race74 –
the issue articulated here seems somewhat different. What Gobbato and Crouse seems to
be saying is not that one can hear a particular ‘race’ in the quality of the sound of the
voice, but that one can (also) hear a particular social experience in the interpretation of
classical operatic works by African opera singers. It appears that the sense of otherness or
uniqueness of the voice coming from South Africa (a voice that has been trained for
operatic singing) and especially the black African voice, lies not so much in matters
technical, but in the timbre of the voice and specifically in the so-called spirit that lies
within the performance, a spirit which is regarded as ‘born from the African experience’,
or as Gobbato perhaps naively put it ‘filled with a wild primal force’.75
These opinions leave one feeling slightly uncomfortable, illustrating as they do the extent
to which the African operatic voice feeds into well-documented notions of the exotic. It is
furthermore clear that the African operatic voice, as described above, is viewed as the
embodiment of a ‘nationalist’ or ‘South African’ experience and is therefore attributed
with characteristics that have their origin in political nationalism rather than in music. This
kind of discourse is not unfamiliar to opera. The patriotism that can be detected here was
widespread during the Apartheid years when singers like Mimi Coertse, Cecilia Wessels
and Gé Korsten were icons of Afrikaner national pride. Coertse’s latest biography,
published in 2007, is for instance entitled ’n Stem vir Suid-Afrika (A Voice for South
Africa) and, similar to other books written about her, portrays her as having a unique voice

72

Ibid.
Ibid.
74
Grant Olwage, ‘The Class and Colour of Tone: An Essay on the Social History of Vocal
Timbre’, Ethnomusicology Forum, 13 (2), November 2004, pp. 203-26.
75
Interview with Angelo Gobbate, 12 August 2009.
73

209

that did the country proud.76 These trends are also present in writings by musicologists
who have for decades occupied the space of the political left. In her review on Grant
Olwage’s recently published book Composing Apartheid, Carina Venter has pointed out
how the voice is attributed national importance in Christine Lucia’s discussion of black
choral singing. Venter notes that ‘the unmotivated importance that Lucia attaches to voice
is particularly interesting in the context of this book, for the strange reason that it echoes
the views of white musicologists who supported the Afrikaner nationalist project.’77
Attributing nationalist values to the operatic voice is of course not entirely new to opera or
to South Africa. Victoria Johnson has argued convincingly in her book Backstage at the
Revolution that Paris Opera survived the French Revolution because, during the century
preceding the Revolution, French opera was marketed as a national asset.78 With regard to
the African operatic voice this trend seems to be a continuation of a tradition which, in this
case, disregards race. It may therefore be that the notion of the ‘black voice’ is less
politically contingent and racially determined, than is discursively inevitable when talking
‘opera’.

4.5

Artistic management

CTO’s former and current artist directors, Angelo Gobbato, Christine Crouse and Michael
Williams,79 have all supported Africanized interpretations of operas from the standard
canon. New operas by local composers, aiming at the exploration of Africa as a subject in
opera, have also been commissioned.80 As is the case with ‘the rise of the black opera

76

Mimi Coertse, ‘n Stem vir Suid-Afrika, my storie soos vertel aan Ian Raper, Litera Publikasies,
2007.
77
Carina Venter, Review on ‘Composing Apartheid’, to be published in the next edition of Muziki
which was not yet available at the time of writing.
78
Johnson, Victoria, Backstage at the Revolution, University of Chicago Press, 2008.
79
Williams is officially CTO’s General Manager, but is also a composer and frequently directs
CTO’s opera productions. He was assistant artistic director to Gobbato during CAPAB’s years.
80
Among these are Roelof Temmingh’s three operas which were performed in the 1990s (see
Appendix for list), works by Peter Louis van Dijk, Mokale Koapeng and Allan Stephenson as well
as the opera Five:20 which has been commissioned from five South African composers, Hendrik
Hofmeyr, Peter Klatzow, Bongani Ndodana-Breen, Allan Stephenson and Martin Watt. Five:20
will be performed in 2010.
210

singer’, ‘Africanization’ as a technique in directing opera as well as a theme in local opera
composition can be seen as a politically and/or culturally motivated drive for change.
Of the 101 productions listed in CTO’s 10th Anniversary brochure that have been
performed between 1999 and 2008, twelve have been categorized as ‘indigenous works’ –
approximately 12% of their total output.81 The remaining 89 productions not labelled as
‘indigenous’, have nevertheless been subjected to varying degrees of indigenization. The
2007 production of Mozart’s Zauberflöte, for instance, directed by the internationally
acclaimed South African artist, William Kentridge, did not use CTO’s black singing corps.
Although he explored a number of issues specific to the South African environment, for
example the notion of colonialism, Kentridge seemed to prefer the exploration of the
esoteric aspects of Mozart’s opera as images relating to the political and social realities of
the country.82
For CTO’s former artistic director, Angelo Gobbato, the drive to indigenize – or
Africanize – is a problematic notion. Although he regards it as an important issue that will
determine the future of opera in the country, he does not lend it unqualified support and
feels that the choice of repertoire should be made on the basis of the kind of voices one has
at one’s disposal and not because of the skin colour of the singers. ‘Indigenization should
serve the junction of the best of your talent with the available repertoire.’83 Gobbato argues
that Africanization that results from a so-called ‘national character’ of opera production is
Zeitgeist-bound because ‘history has proven that the exploration of national interests in
opera is a temporary initiative’.84 He is also apprehensive about the Africanization of
standard works as ‘it changes the meaning of the work’.85 Gobbato seems to prefer African
81

Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April 2009. CTO’s 2004 production of
Eric Chisholm’s operas Dark Sonnet and The Pardoner’s Tale have not been included in their list
of ‘indigenous works’, despite the fact that both opera’s were composed on South African soil. The
fact that these operas do not per se address some kind of African theme may have been the
reasoning behind this exclusion. This further feeds into the debate on what is seen by whom as
indigenous.
82
This production was initially commissioned by Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels and premiered
in April 2005. It has since then toured to Lille, Tel Aviv, Napels, New York, Johannesburg and
Cape Town. The latter was a co-production with CTO in 2007. In the local press this production
has widely been advertised as ‘Kentridge’s Magic Flute’ with a lesser focus on Mozart as the
creator of this work. See also: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, (ed.), Flute, Krut Publishing, 2007.
83
Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
84
Ibid.
85
Ibid.
211

trends in new works rather than the adaptation of existing works into an African context.
In 1998, just before CAPAB Opera closed its doors and transformed into CTO, the
company produced a strongly Africanized version of Puccini’s La Boheme, renaming it La
Boheme Noir. At the time of this production, Gobbato was not fully supportive of the
initiative, but felt he had to give it a chance. According to Gobbato, a much more sensible
Africanization project was the performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Spier in 2002.
This was a ‘dance opera’ where the music of large parts of the original dance sections had
been lost and the interpolation of African dance by African musicians (under the direction
of Dizu Plaatjies) into the opera was, according to Gobbato, a natural development. For
Gobbato the adoption of African themes and myths into the opera transformed Dido and
Aeneas into a new composition and thus made it more meaningful from a creative point of
view.86
Due to the racial composition of CTO’s singing corps, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess has
been a favourite of the company as the opera is set for Afro-Americans and calls for black
singers. The work has been performed by CTO locally and abroad for several years.
According to Gobbato the choice was not because the singers were African per se, but ‘it
does help if you don’t have to paint everybody black’.87 For the same reason CTO has
produced Scott Joplin’s ‘ragtime’ opera Treemonisha in 2006, a work which is seldom
performed because, like Porgy and Bess, the opera is about black people in America.88 In
2008 CTO took the Porgy and Bess production on tour to Berlin and decided not to
provide it with an African adaptation, but to do an American interpretation. Later this year
the company will again travel with this production, this time to the United Kingdom. For
this tour CTO’s current artistic director, Christine Crouse, decided to imbue the opera with
a stronger South African character. It will be set in the Soweto of the 1950s and, reflecting
current social realities, Crouse highlights the issue of buildings that are invaded by
Africans in Johannesburg. 89 Indigenous instruments like the penny whistle and mouth
organ will also be used. Crouse hopes to show case the company’s characteristic
exuberance, stating that ‘for the overseas audience we are concentrating again on our
86

Ibid.
Ibid.
88
The story of the opera champions education as the only way to self-realization, a theme which is
relevant in South Africa as well.
89
In Porgy and Bess the characters live in a former aristocratic mansion which they have illegally
invaded.
212
87

strengths – that our local singers are rhythmical and love to sing and dance and have this
wonderful passion and spirit.’90
CTO has also commissioned artistic directors from outside the company to do productions.
In one of its more adventurous productions, Verdi’s Macbeth in 2001, CTO acquired the
skills of theatre producer and playwright Brett Bailey, known for his provocative and avant
garde work in theatre, and South African composer Peter Louis van Dijk. The production
resulted in a shortened version of the original opera with a text that highlighted a postcolonial message. Sections of the music were adapted for alto-saxophone, djembe and
marimba and the opera was staged in a guerrilla war in Sierra-Leone.91 The production was
repeated in 2007, its content further updated to current local politics and the opera was
renamed macbEth: the opera. The result was a production so out of the ordinary that the
newspaper heading ‘Macbeth as you’ve never seen it’ if anything underplays the extent to
which the work had been indigenized. A review stated that:
This is not the Macbeth that European audiences have come to expect. Bailey and Van
Dijk have adapted and interpreted Verdi's opera of ambition, corruption and witchcraft into
the idiom of contemporary and mythological Africa. Against a backdrop of super-power
politics, occult practices and Chinese imports, an African general and his European wife
murder their king, unleashing atrocities on the crumbling African state they seize.92

The degree to which this production had been adapted also blurred the line between
existing opera and new opera composition. Verdi’s Macbeth was subsequently listed by
CTO as the performance of an ‘indigenous work’93 and the composer responsible for the
musical adaptation, Peter Louis van Dijk, listed it as a new work on his own list of
works.94
However, the profile of CTO’s audience base has had a substantial influence on the degree
to which the company has ventured into non-traditional interpretations of standard operas
or the presentation of new operas. As is the case with all South African opera companies,

90

http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/newsletterJul09.html, accessed 10 August 2009.
Herman Wasserman. ‘Opera, ‘n onredbare Eurosentriese kunsvorm?’, Litnet,
http://www.oulitnet.co.za/klank/09opera.asp, accessed 17 August 2009. Although this internet
review is not dated, the article suggests that it refers to the 2001 production.
92
No author, ‘Macbeth as you’ve never seen it’. http://www.southafrica.info/news/arts/macbethbunfight.htm, accessed 17 August 2009.
93
Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April 2009.
94
www.plvandijk.co.za/list_of_works.htm#StageWorks, accessed 17 August 2009.
213
91

CTO is to a large extent financially dependent on audience approval and public image.
This reveals something of the vulnerability of opera production in the country.95 Not
having the artistic freedom resulting from full state subsidies (as for example the Berlin
Opera which is owned and fully funded by the German State),96 CTO also does not have a
large enough audience base to financially support artistically adventurous undertakings (as
for instance opera production in New York). The bulk of CTO’s artistic output over the
past decade has therefore been rather traditional.
Crouse is of the opinion that ‘indigenizing a piece just for the sake of indigenizing is
wrong’ and emphatically declared that ‘we don’t do that.’97 Reflecting social realities does
however have an influence on the choice of repertoire as well as the decision to set
productions in a certain style. In October 2009, CTO will for example produce the
American contemporary opera by Jake Heggie, Dead Man Walking. The promotional
material on the production states that the opera is ‘telling an extraordinary true story that is
extremely relevant to contemporary South Africa where public opinion is overwhelmingly
in favour of a reinstatement of the death penalty.’98 The events leading up to the death
penalty in this specific story – that of rape and murder – are furthermore particularly
relevant social issues in South Africa today.
Opera’s power to entertain and its ability to provide a few hours of escape from often
depressing realities, remain a criterion for CTO’s management decisions on repertoire and
presentation. Crouse feels that South Africans are sometimes tired of indigenized
interpretations and come to the opera to escape because ‘people want to leave reality and
go to a land where they can enjoy themselves’.99

95

Audience numbers and its financial stake in CTO will be discussed in the section ‘Finance and
Marketing’ of this chapter.
96
Berlin-based musicologist, Nepomuk Nitschke, explained to the current writer that because
Berlin Opera is state owned, the German public expects the company to perform work that reflects
the reality of the social surroundings. In Germany this trend has been coined ‘Realtheater’.
Nitschke, Nepomuk. Personal e-mail correspondence, 18 August 2009.
97
Interview with Christine Crouse, 25 August 2009.
98
Promotional material: CTO Opera Season October – November 2009.
99
Interview with Christine Crouse, 25 August 2009.
214

4.6

Finance and Marketing

The survival of opera as an artistic and political structure in South Africa during and after
the extensive political changes around 1994 finds an interesting parallel in France in the
survival of the Paris Opera during and after the French Revolution. Despite playing out
more than two centuries earlier and in a context entirely different from the South African
situation, Paris Opera faced much the same criticism from social and cultural activists at
the time. A royal institution par excellence, steeped in financial privileges and draped in
elitist splendour, the institution was associated with the tyranny of the French Royal House
and during the Revolution Paris Opera became a prime target for the reforming zeal of
revolutionaries. However, after surviving the volatile years between the French Revolution
and the reign of Napoleon, the institution regained its former status and, for reasons of its
own (which will be discussed further in the penultimate section of this chapter), the French
state continued to subsidise Paris Opera.100
Opera in South Africa was not that lucky. The financial structures that enabled opera
production through the PACs from 1963 onwards were subject to radical change after
1994. In 1996 all four PACs were informed that the existing structures would be replaced
by a National Arts Council (NAC) and that by 1998, all funding channels instated by the
pre-1994 government would cease to function.101 This decision came at no small cost to
the Ministry of Arts and Culture of the new government. Addressing the issue of the
(re)distribution of state funds via the PACs, whose legacy was the practise of (almost)
exclusively European art forms, is articulated in the White Paper of 1996 as follows: ‘The
activities of these institutions, their continued access to State monies, and their putative
transformation, has created more controversy than any other issue facing the Ministry.’102
However, the practical implications resulting from the new policy regarding state funding
as stipulated in the White Paper meant that an application for financial assistance by an
opera company would be regarded on the same level as any other cultural group who
wished to apply for funds.

100

Victoria Johnson, Backstage at the Revolution, pp. 1-2.
White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage, Chapter 4, par. 1.
102
Ibid. Chapter 4, par. 11.
101

215

On a structural level, the transition from CAPAB to CTO therefore resulted in a complete
change. The management structure of the former PACs was based on the German model
whereby government owned the organization and fully subsidised the arts. The internal
structures of the PACs were managed by artists who reported directly to government.103
When the new funding structures came into being, CTO essentially became part of the free
market and its only option was privatization. Having chosen this model, privatization
enforced a business model on the company that made it heavily dependent on marketing
and fundraising. Although opera companies have been managed as private businesses in
places like the USA for many years,104 the privatization of a professional opera company
was unprecedented in South Africa at the time.
Gobbato relates how initially, CTO received almost no funding from the NAC and by 2008
‘after many applications and evidence of job creation for underprivileged communities,
Cape Town Opera receives an amount of less than 5% of its total annual budget from
national sources’.105 Tellingly, during the first years after the formation of CTO, the
provincial government of the Western Cape continued financial support of CTO.
Governance in Cape Town on the provincial level was at the time still in the hands of the
National Party (which had been in power since 1948)106 and felt that Cape Town should
have an opera company. However, financial support from the provincial government has
steadily been declining and by 2009 their contribution was less than 2% of CTO annual
turnover.107
CTO’s current fundraiser, Adriaan Fuchs, explained that the policy driving public sector
(i.e. the state or government) funding focuses on social development issues such as
education, training, skills development and job creation and when writing funding
applications, he predominantly showcases how CTO excels in these areas. According to
him the public sector funding structures (on provincial and national levels) are not
interested in the art of opera itself. CTO’s choice of repertoire, for instance, makes no
difference to the decision made by officials whether to grant subsidies to CTO or not.
103

Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
Ibid.
105
http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/history2008.html, accessed 27 July 2008.
106
At the 1994 elections, the National Party which governed the country since 1948, lost control in
all provinces except the Western Cape.
107
Interview with Adriaan Fuchs, 25 August 2009.
216
104

Although he would elaborate on repertoire in an application, what really counts are the
statistics showing how many jobs have been created, what kinds of skills have been taught
and how economic empowerment of the previously disadvantaged has taken place.108
During the past ten years, CTO has received funds from the public sector channelled
through the Department of Labour, the National Lottery, the Department of Arts and
Culture, the NAC as well as the Provincial Government of the Western Cape.109
The legislation on Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) that has been introduced by the
Mbeki administration also contributes to CTO’s income, albeit in an indirect way and on a
smaller scale. Private companies can earn points on their own BEE score card if they
sponsor organizations or incentives that are targeted at the development of skills of
previously disadvantaged communities or when they sponsor companies that have a good
BEE rating. Due to CTO’s high percentage of black singers as well as their demonstrable
education and training efforts (which will be discussed in the next section), the company
has a high BEE rating, which in turn makes CTO a favourable candidate for sponsoring.
Although these donations are not plentiful, Fuchs has for instance been able to secure
discount on shipping fares for CTO’s international tours.110 Private companies are further
eligible for a tax reduction on these donations under Section 18A of the Income Tax
Act.111
Fuchs was appointed at CTO in November 2006 with the aim to improve the company’s
fundraising and donor relations. Bearing testimony to his keen understanding of the system
and his skill at ‘playing the game’, the percentage of donated income received by CTO for
the financial year ending March 2009 has increased by 24% compared to the previous
fiscal year. For the first time in CTO’s existence, the NAC approved a R1,000,000 subsidy
to the company.112 The public sector contribution comprises 63% of the total donated
income, accounting for approximately 15% of CTO’s total annual income.113 Added to

108

Ibid.
Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
110
Interview with Adriaan Fuchs, 25 August 2009.
111
Cape Town Opera, Annual Review 2008/2009, p. 20.
112
Ibid.
113
Ibid, p. 20. The present writer has not been able to determine what percentage of CTO’s total
income is sourced from ticket sales to the South African public. Due to irregular reporting and
transfer of funds from Computicket to CTO, data presented in financial statements are
unfortunately unreliable.
217
109

this, CTO’s successful tours to Germany and Norway during this financial term resulted in
a 42% increase in CTO’s total annual turnover.114
Being reliant on a sound business plan, CTO realized the importance of a competitive
marketing strategy, as this plays an important role in creating revenue in the short and long
terms. Fuchs comments that:
Marketing an art form such as opera in today’s world is an extremely challenging task that
poses unique problems to the marketing manager. Opera is and always will be marginal
within the broader context of most modern societies. [...] Central to the dilemma is how to
go about marketing an art form that is largely viewed as ‘outdated’, catering to an elitist,
predominantly European audience. Within the South African context, opera is laden with
political, social and economic connotations and represents a time in our country’s history
during which many people were excluded from the opportunity to watch or enjoy opera.
Any marketing campaign that hopes to promote opera, should therefore strive to change
such perceptions, to address imbalances and to be inclusive, while demystifying the art
form and making performances more accessible.115

However, trying to change the public’s perception about opera has turned out to be harder
than anticipated and securing media coverage for opera production continues to be a
struggle.116 Developing new audiences, especially in the townships as well as the higher
income sectors of the public who traditionally do not go to the opera is, as Christine
Crouse put it, ‘a nut we haven’t cracked yet’.117 The latest Annual Review states that
approximately 5% of CTO’s expenditure has been spent on marketing.118 The company
has put various schemes in place to lower the financial and artistic threshold for lower
income groups by organizing transport and lowering prices. Higher income groups are
targeted by making ‘going to the opera’ a more prestigious affair and visitors to the opera
house are these days introduced to the building through a red carpet, literally rolled out to
welcome them.119 The most important marketing challenge facing CTO is to achieve a
mind shift with the public at large; to change the idea that opera is synonymous with
‘white’ culture and to overcome the notion that opera was an important stakeholder in the
previous dispensation’s cultural capital.120 During 2008 the company performed to

114

Ibid.
Fuchs, Marketing Plan: Cape Town Opera, p. 5.
116
Cape Town Opera, Annual Review 2008/2009, p. 8.
117
Interview with Christine Crouse, 25 August 2009.
118
Cape Town Opera, Annual Review 2008/2009, p. 29.
119
Ibid, p. 8.
120
Interview with Adriaan Fuchs, 22 July 2009.
115

218

approximately 95,000 individuals during 112 performances.121 These figures include the
performances during their tours to Sweden, Germany and Norway, which comprised
almost 50% of their total performances for the year.122
Crouse is of the opinion that financially, CTO has come a long way since the days of
CAPAB. Referring to the previous dispensation, Crouse twice repeated to the current
writer that ‘a lot of money was spent in those days’ and that, in contrast, the financial
burdens of a privatized company today ‘can at times be consuming’.123

4.7

Education and Training

Drawing a comparison between Paris Opera and CTO also renders other informative
insights. In her book Backstage at the Revolution, Victoria Johnson argues that the answer
to the survival of Paris Opera – an institution notorious for its privileged position for more
than a century – during and after the French Revolution, can be found in its founding
principles. The entrepreneurial instincts of its founder, Pierre Perrin, lead to the founding
of this organisation in 1667 on two principles. Perrin’s intention was on the one hand to
develop French opera into a national asset and on the other, to link Paris Opera to the royal
house by setting it up as an academy. The strengths of this organizational model carried
Paris Opera through the tumultuous social and political changes of the French Revolution
because first, it had a well developed academy as a teaching unit and second, a century
after its founding Paris Opera was indeed seen as a national asset of the French people
rather than of any particular social class.124
I should like to argue that the same two principles – albeit in completely different
circumstances and played out in different modes – have predominantly contributed to the
survival of opera in South Africa. Compared to other forms of classical music practised in
the country, opera has become a thriving cultural activity with a promising future.
Admittedly, opera is not regarded as a ‘national asset’ by South Africa’s government or by
121

Fuchs, Marketing Plan: Cape Town Opera. p. 91.
Cape Town Opera, Annual Review 2008/2009, p. 11.
123
Interview with Christine Crouse, 25 August 2009.
124
Victoria Johnson, Backstage at the Revolution, pp. 1-14.
122

219

society at large, but as illustrated earlier in this chapter, the voice of the black opera singer
has been ascribed the values of a ‘national asset’ by opera directors and academics. These
values guarantee a place for ‘the black voice’ or ‘the African voice’ and thus for opera
within the framework of what is regarded as part of the South African collective. These
values furthermore play a pivotal role in the survival of opera in the country because
within the ‘black voice’ lies the legitimation of African opera. The future of the production
and creation of opera in South Africa is inconceivable without the notion of African opera,
which in turn cannot hold its own without a sizeable contribution by ‘the black opera
singer’. Furthermore, as black opera singers continue to achieve by winning international
competitions or accolades, or by singing to great acclaim at first-class opera houses
abroad, their status as opera celebrities and ‘national assets’ is increasingly taken up in the
local media and, if not admired by the country as a whole, certainly supported by those in
the field.125
The second principle that contributed to the survival of the Paris Opera was the existence
of the royal academy. Louis XIV legislated and owned the academy and, as Johnson
illustrates, the academy at the Paris Opera not only stimulated discussion around opera – a
trend that was the norm at the time in any of Louis XIV’s other royal academies – but also
trained singers. The composer Lully, who was personally very close to the king, was
reported to be a great teacher. Through strict training and instruction he managed to
develop his own opera compositions and thus established French opera during the fifteen
years he was at the helm of this institution.126 Translated to the South African scenario, the
strong emphasis on education and training that has been part of opera production in the
Cape since 1952, has certainly contributed to its survival.
Johnson further elaborates on her theory of the impact of founding principles on long term
survival, saying that they ‘are, of course, themselves profoundly influenced by the
particular time and place in which they are conjured up, as well as by the particular social
position and individual disposition of the entrepreneur’.127 With this in mind, it is telling to
125

Pretty Yende has earned much media attention by winning the Hans Grober Singing
Competition in Vienna. Not only have her performances been shown on national television, she is
also the first black opera star to earn a full A3 page in a local Afrikaans newspaper. See Murray de
la Vita, ‘Pretty Yende, sopraan met ‘n singende hart’, Die Burger, 21 August 2009, p. 19.
126
Victoria Johnson, Backstage at the Revolution, pp. 119- 47.
127
Ibid, p. 19.
220

note that the mission statements of CTO, Opera Africa and the Black Tie Ensemble all
view the issue of education and training on par with their intention to perform quality
opera. This trend may be interpreted as an answer to the explicit discussion of the
inequality of education possibilities for black singers in the previous dispensation in the
White Paper on the Arts and Culture of 1996. However, it cannot be ignored that by the
time that these opera companies were being founded, huge numbers of talented black
opera singers had already come to the fore. The importance of training them into capable
singers to further their potential contribution to the survival of opera production may have
been foremost in mind when these mission statements were written. The CTO’s mission
statement explains that ‘Cape Town Opera is committed to the continued performance and
development of opera, operetta and musical theatre in South Africa striving for the optimal
employment and development of the required artists from all our communities’. 128
The value of in-house training and its impact on sustained production is not novel to opera
production in Cape Town and this aspect of the company can be viewed as an ongoing
tradition. Local opera production has been familiar with this concept since the inception of
the UCT Opera School in 1952 by Erik Chisholm, the Scottish composer and Dean of the
College of Music at the University of Cape Town. In the years preceding the establishment
of the PACs, opera in Cape Town was mainly produced by the UCT Opera School and the
Eoan Group. The latter also trained their singers, albeit under difficult and politically
compromised circumstances.129 After CAPAB was established in 1963 the staff and
students of the UCT Opera School were closely associated with opera production at
CAPAB. For many years Angelo Gobbato was head of the Opera School and at the same
time director of CAPAB Opera which later became CTO.130 When Apartheid legislation
started thawing in the early 1980s some of Eoan’s members also joined CAPAB.131 Inhouse training has made, and continues to make, an invaluable contribution to the
continued existence of opera in South Africa.
128

http://www.capetownopera.co.za/htm/about2008.html, accessed 10 August 2009.
This issue is discussed in Chapter 2.
130
A position which he described in his retirement as ‘of great contribution to the survival opera,
but it also killed me’. Gobbato retired from all opera activity in Cape Town early in 2009.
Interview with Angelo Gobbato, 12 August 2009.
131
Virginia Davids, for instance, currently professor in vocal training at the UCT Opera School,
used to sing with the Eoan Group in the 1970s. From 1984-88 she received further vocal training at
the University of Stellenbosch and enjoyed an illustrious career in the country after that. Prof.
Davids has taught many upcoming black opera singers, amongst others Pretty Yende.
221
129

CTO currently offers three training schemes to would-be opera stars as well as singers who
want to take part in opera production on a non-professional basis. Funds for these
initiatives are independently sought and sponsors currently include the UCT College of
Music, the Mellon Foundation, Standard Bank and the government training fund MAPPPSETA.132 The incentive for in-house training comes from management’s realization that
‘vocal training and skills development form the backbone of CTO’s performance
groups’.133 However, these training initiatives serve CTO on the financial front as well; as
described elsewhere in this chapter, training initiatives are vital in the bid to obtain funding
from the public sector and CTO has been demonstrably successful in this regard.
The first of these training schemes, the Voice of the Nation Opera Studio, offers
opportunities for opera singers who have had accredited training but need further
assistance in building a professional solo career. In this course ‘up to ten young singers
with exceptional voices and an identified potential for soloist careers’134 are trained. As
mentioned earlier in this chapter, 56 singers had been trained in this way by 2008. Singers
who are accepted into the Opera Studio receive monthly stipends, instruction in staging
and opportunities to sing in two professional operatic productions in the year of their
enrolment. They also have access to master classes from visiting artists.135
Singers who have had some vocal training but do not intend to become professional
soloists can get further training at the Voice of the Nation Ensemble, the second training
scheme. This facility also admits singers who have not had access to professional training
at tertiary education centres, but would like to become professional choristers. Singers are
auditioned for this course and the ability to read staff notation – which is not necessarily
the norm in local circumstances – is a prerequisite for entry. The Voice of the Nation
Ensemble has become CTO’s residential chorus, singing the chorus parts in opera
productions and forming the backbone of CTO’s other choral productions. This group also
takes part in CTO’s educational outreach programmes and community concerts. Opera
choruses from the standard canon are often translated into Xhosa for these concerts.
Individuals trained in this programme receive a monthly stipend, vocal coaching and
132

Cape Town Opera Annual Review 2008/2009, p. 14.
Programme notes: Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April 2009. See
section under ‘Training and Development’.
134
Ibid.
135
Ibid.
133

222

acting classes. During CTO’s tenth anniversary celebration, the 120-strong chorus was
showcased extensively.
CTO’s third training scheme is the Choral Training Program which is ‘geared towards
singers with an identified talent, but who lack access to formal music education
programmes’.136 This ‘lack of access’ is often due to the fact that singers do not meet the
minimum requirements to be accepted at the UCT Opera School. In practice this means
that those entering this programme do not read staff notation and do not have adequate
theoretical training to be accepted into tertiary education. All roles are therefore learned by
rote. Participants in this programme often take part in CTO choral productions and are
specifically used in their outreach programmes.
According to Crouse the huge numbers of black opera students who continue to present
themselves at training institutions also poses an ethical problem: ‘The UCT Opera School
is full, but after they’ve been trained, where do they go? We don’t have enough places for
these people to perform’.137 In financial terminology this can be described as too much
supply in a situation where there is too little demand. It is clear that the challenge of
stimulating a culture of ‘going to the opera’ amongst the public at large and tapping into
the younger generation of would-be opera lovers still lies ahead. In this regard opera has
not become a ‘national asset’ as yet.

4.8

Conclusion

Returning to the accusation, discussed at the beginning of this chapter, that CTO was
parading transformation,138 the difficulty (if not inability) to achieve change in the arts
through an argument driven and measured by political means only is well illustrated here.
This is a limitation already hinted at in Chapter 1, where constructing indigenization in
opera as (historical) process pointed towards the difficulties in imagining it as a vehicle to
politically ‘transform’ opera into an indigenous art form. In his attack, Arendse stated that
‘at CTO, there is no formal succession strategy, no one is designated to drive the
136

Cape Town Opera Annual Review 2008/2009, p. 14.
Interview with Christine Crouse, 25 August 2009.
138
Michael Arendse, ‘Plodding to a fine transformation tune in Cape Town’, 10 April 2007.
137

223

transformation process, there is no ad hoc or subcommittee at board level dealing with
transformation and the company has no transformation charter’.139 Arendse further
commented that although ‘CTO offers internships on the marketing, financial and artistic
sides of the organization, there is no training on the management side.’140 CTO’s general
manager, Michael Williams, rebutted these accusations by saying that ‘the CTO board
does not deal with this important matter in a subcommittee. Transformation of the
company at all levels has been a board priority since inception, and all members are
responsible for and participate in it’.141
Although this public spat illustrates that little is achieved through a debate that negates the
important distinctions between arts and politics where both sides choose their own
(different) rules of engagement, it is a telling example of the harshness of a performance
and artistic environment that is still heavily informed by the Apartheid past. It is also a
salutary reminder that in South Africa the arts ignore the imperatives of politics at their
own peril. It would be particularly opportunistic of this writer to slate CTO’s political
pragmatism in the light of Chapter 2 of this dissertation. The Eoan Group, as has been
shown, was a striking example of a South African opera company that tried to ignore
politics. Indeed, Joseph Manca is reputed to have said: ‘politics is a dirty word’.142 Politics
had its revenge for being thus spurned.
Despite the development of encouraging numbers of black South African singers that
points towards the emergence of a what one might call a home-grown, institutionalized
‘South African operatic culture’, Angelo Gobbato remains mindful of the limitations of the
local situation. Indigenization, according to Gobbato, focuses on the manifestation of
opera in a specific country and is therefore informed by notions of nationalism in music.
Gobbato argues that the emergence of the ‘folk-like’ or ‘folk-style’ in various countries in
the past and the concomitant rise of a national operatic tradition in such countries, have
typically resulted from political shifts. This trend can be traced in Italy, Germany and
France in the nineteenth century, followed by countries in Eastern Europe and Russia.143
Gobbato makes the thought-provoking point that the notion of ‘South African opera’, more
139

Ibid.
Ibid.
141
Michael Williams, ‘Singing the praises of Cape Town Opera’, 8 May 2007.
142
Interview with former Eoan singer, Patricia van Graan on 21 November 2008.
143
Interview with Angelo Gobbato on 12 August 2009.
140

224

than a hundred years after these developments, is out of phase with what is happening
elsewhere in the world and out of sync with what the world expects and understands as
opera today. What used to be ‘national’ in opera abroad has been replaced with an
aspiration towards the ‘international’, where everybody sings all kinds of opera.
Furthermore, Gobbato is concerned that the ‘strong-spirited singing’ of African singers
may be out of tune, so to speak, with the aesthetically polished performances typically
required by opera houses abroad.144
What Gobbato does not remark on, is the possibility that opera in South Africa is very
much in phase and in sync with local social and political conditions, which have seen
Afrikaner nationalism replaced by the African nationalism that has made such an indelible
mark on all art music production in South Africa since the early 1990s, including opera. It
is this context that finds CTO responding to its context in the ways described in this
chapter. To apply the term ‘indigenization’ to what was recorded here as a crisis
management of Cape Town opera in the late nineties which has continued to this day, may
seem exaggerated. And yet it is no different to saying, as was said in Chapter 1, that the
influence of Afrikaans translations and National Party support for opera have been
important forces in shaping what it understood by the term in South Africa today. The rise
of the black opera singer, local interpretations of operas from the standard canon and the
composition of new opera have all been discussed in this chapter as institutional strategies
for (political) survival, as well as factors in the indigenization of opera. Allowing for
changes in degree rather than principle, this kind of developmental trajectory is probably
true for all remaining opera companies in South Africa.

144

Ibid.

225

Conclusion

In the introduction to this thesis I mentioned the work on indigenization done by Carol
Babiracki and Amy Stillman, indicating that the strategies of indigenization explored here
might profitably be informed by their use and conceptualization of the term. Returning to
Babiracki’s description of indigenized church music in India as containing ‘subtle traces of
Western church music’, opera production in the Western Cape by comparison seems to
have remained predominantly European. However, Amy Stillman’s model describing the
five stages of indigenization in church music in Polynesia could perhaps be applied more
instructively to this dissertation. Stillman’s study provides a framework that can be used to
measure something that may still be emerging and that is not yet overtly visible (or
audible). In short, her model follows a trajectory of 1) the survival of indigenous music, 2)
the coexistence of indigenous and the ‘introduced’ music (in this discussion ‘introduced
music’ refers to opera), 3) the appropriation of material between indigenous and
‘introduced’ music, 4) the emergence of new musical idioms, and 5) the absorption of
these idioms into a new musical framework.
The production of opera from the standard canon and new opera composition in much of
Cape Town as well as the structural considerations of an opera company such as Cape
Town Opera could be placed at approximately stage three on Stillman’s scale (referring to
the ‘appropriation of material’). However, stage one on Stillman’s scale, referring to the
‘survival of indigenous music’ in South Africa, cannot be taken for granted as the status
and popularity of ‘indigenous African music’ today seem more precarious than ever. It is
likely that new opera composition could pave the way to further stages of indigenization
according to this model. Arguably Huyssen’s opera Masque could be seen as probing
towards the emergence of a new musical idiom, although the composer himself advocates
the viewpoint of coexistence (level two of Stillman’s model). Placing an indigenous
African music group next to a standard Western orchestra on the same stage and within the
same production, each playing ‘their own’ music, could be viewed as the emergence of a
1

Carol Babiracki. 1985. ‘Indigenizers’, in The Western Impact on World Music, Change,
Adaptation and Survival, ed. Bruno Nettl, Schirmer Books p. 97.
2
Amy Ku’uleialoha Stillman. 1993. ‘Prelude to a Comparative Investigation of Protestant
Hymnody in Polynesia’, Yearbook for Traditional Music, Volume 25, pp. 89-99.

226

new musical idiom and not the mere coexistence of different musical practises. An
investigation into other newly composed operas by local composers will most likely
produce different results than the current study. Operas such as Mzilikazi Khumalo’s opera
Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu, a Zulu opera described as ‘a celebration of the life and
music making traditions of the indigenous people of KwaZulu Natal’ may well present
other avenues towards a new musical idiom. Furthermore, the productions by Cape
Town’s other opera company, Isango Portabello, known for their strongly indigenized
adaptations, could also provide different results to the ones presented here. In this regard it
is interesting to note that Portabello’s artistic manager, Mark Donford-May, comes from
the UK and seems to be less concerned with the ‘traditional’ in opera production than
CTO’s management who have been producing opera in Cape Town for decades.
However, it is important to note that Stillman’s model cannot be applied to opera without
reservation. Her model is based on the indigenization of congregational music, which
implies a music that is designed with completely different purposes in mind than opera.
Not only is congregational music meant for use by mostly non-professional musicians, the
impulse towards indigenization in these musical practices is very different. In missiology
music forms an important part of demonstrating the new convert’s distinctiveness from the
unconverted. In current opera production in South Africa, distinctiveness from the
dominant culture may be a less than desirable outcome. Closing the gap between ‘the
West’ and ‘Africa’ seems to be the goal towards which local opera strives through
indigenization, as distinctiveness is inevitably informed by the perceived elitism of opera
as an art form. Furthermore, the danger of losing social and political relevance for
Christian missions in e.g. India, Africa or Polynesia had been a pressing issue much earlier
in history than for opera in South Africa. Babiracki notes that the battle against
indigenization of church music in Africa was waged and lost in the early twentieth century
already. In South Africa the battle for indigenization in opera is waging as I write this
dissertation.
In the introduction to this dissertation I argued that the indigenization of (classical) music
predominantly differentiates itself from exoticism in (classical) music in respect of the
3

http://www.operaafrica.co.za/princess_magogo.htm, accessed 19 March 2010.
Babiracki, p. 97.
5
Ibid.
4

227

circumstances within which these ‘techniques’ are used. Exoticism generally occurs when
artists, working in the language of the West, borrow music from other cultures and where
these new musical products are considered part of a society where the West is the
dominant culture. The indigenization of Western classical music differs from exoticism in
the sense that the dominant cultural context is not Western, but where the art form has
been introduced in the recent past by settlers from the West and where it is under pressure
to survive. Indigenization therefore assumes an aura of necessity not necessarily present in
the more voyeuristic impulses of exoticism. When the Provincial Arts Councils faced
disbandment in 1996, Michael Williams, current general manager of Cape Town Opera,
was reported to have said: ‘sink or sing’! Following this argument, one would expect that
the outcome of indigenization in musical works, performances or institutional structures
would sound (or look) different to exoticism. Indigenization suggests more invasive or
destabilising changes than those prompted by exoticism. If this hypothesis is accepted,
how does indigenized opera sound?
Chapter 1 (presenting a historical overview of opera in South Africa) illustrates that
indigenization took place long before questions regarding the reflection of societal and
political realities in opera became pertinent. Although traces of indigenization are less
pronounced in productions before 1994, the translation of opera into Afrikaans, for
instance, was driven by overt political aims and can be seen as a bid to increase the social
relevance of opera amongst Afrikaans speakers. Chapter 1 also suggests that the influence
of politics on the shaping of opera production, which in turn has an impact on
indigenization, cannot be underestimated. This is confirmed throughout the dissertation.
Although the influence of politics on opera production is a dominant theme in Chapter 2’s
presentation of the Eoan Group history, this chapter reveals a more complex side of
musical indigenization. Apartheid policy was based on an insistence on difference between
racial groups. In accepting and performing Italian opera according to ‘traditional Italian
styles’, Eoan resisted these claims. Eoan ensured that opera in the Western Cape could no
longer be seen as a ‘white’ or ‘European’ affair. It was, primarily, Coloured and therefore
indigenized.

6

Programme notes: Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, address by CTO’s General
Manager, Michael Williams.19 April 2009.
228

The second half of the dissertation discusses Cape Town Opera as a company (Chapter 4)
and the production of Hans Huyssen’s Masque, produced under the auspices of this
company (Chapter 3). Indicative perhaps of boundary-shifting creative work, Chapter 3
shows that only a small portion of the public and CTO’s singers, instrumentalists or
management were ready to accept Huyssen’s vision of ‘an African opera’. Despite
reservations about some of the composer’s ideas, the technical and artistic means through
which he tried to accomplish the production of ‘an African opera’, it clearly challenged
accepted notions of opera production. Chapter 4 illustrates that anachronistic conventional
notions of opera practice are still very much dominant in Cape Town, despite the radically
changed racial constitution of the singing corps within CTO. In fact, changes in
demographic representation seem to have had little impact on the content of opera
production in terms of indigenization and have rather been used by CTO’s management as
political arguments in their continued bids to secure funding. Although a degree of
indigenization may have occurred on the structural level of this company, notions that
threaten ‘traditional ideas’ about opera practice and composition are clearly viewed with
suspicion.
As the above makes clear, the emergence of Italian opera practice as a dominant aesthetic
in the Western Cape is perhaps one of the most unexpected continuities emerging from the
critical perspectives contained in this dissertation. It connects the past and the present, and
the aspirations of white, black and coloured South Africans. Whereas Italian opera is
regarded as central to local opera tastes and performance, it is ironic that indigenous
African music in opera is viewed by many as an exotic fad rather than an intrinsic part of
local cultural heritage. What this tells us about indigenization in local opera production is
not as simple as might be thought. On the one hand it would be possible to argue that the
dominance of Italian opera practice be viewed as an inhibiting force in the drive towards
indigenization, a classic instance of a performance ‘tradition’ becoming what Pierre
Bourdieu called habitus. As illustrated in Chapter 1, Italian opera historically dominated
the repertoire choices of local opera companies, especially since the inception of the
Provincial Arts Councils in 1963. In 1988, when the four Provincial Arts Councils
celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversaries, an article in the local arts magazine, Scenario,
stated that 75% of all opera performed in the country was from the standard Italian

229

repertoire, with German opera in second place and Bizet’s Carmen an annual favourite.7 In
Cape Town this trend continues to this day (see Chapter 4) despite the major political and
economic changes that affect opera production in the country; changes that have seriously
questioned the political, social and cultural relevance of opera in South Africa today. The
brochure published to commemorate Cape Town Opera’s 10th anniversary in 2009 lists all
productions given by this company since its inception, and confirms that repertoire choices
have not changed much from before 1994. So-called ‘indigenous works’, which
admittedly never occurred before 1994, are listed on a separate page and comprise twelve
items of which two are repeat productions. The placing of these works on a separate page
and under a separate heading is a clear indication that ‘indigenous works’ are still viewed
by CTO’s management as ‘other’ in relation to traditional opera repertoire and are also
marketed to the concert-going public as such.
Why is this the case, one might well ask. As stated before, many individuals who were
active as managers and producers of opera before 1994 continue to hold such positions in
South Africa and have also been training their successors. This is not to say that such
individuals are sabotaging local opera production, quite the contrary, but artistic agendas
have remained conservative. Audience preferences and the need of the private opera
company to make a profit also clearly influence decisions about repertoire. Furthermore, as
illustrated in Chapter 4, the current South African government is less interested in the
choice of repertoire than in economically empowering ‘previously disadvantaged’ singers,
regardless of the music they sing.
Chapters 3 and 4 illustrate that the aesthetics of voice production in Cape Town is heavily
influenced by Italianate ideals. This can be linked to the training of most local singers by
Italian nationals since the early twentieth century. For many years Cape Town was the
only centre in the country offering training in opera. This started at the South African
College of Music in 1926, managed by the Italian-born Guiseppe Paganelli. In 1954 the
Cape Town Opera School was inaugurated, with another Italian, Gregorio Fiasconaro, as
director. In later years Angelo Gobbato, who emigrated from Italy with his parents in
1950, took over this post only to retire in 2009 after which the first ever non-Italian, Kamal
7

See page 56.
Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April 2009, no page numbers.
9
Ibid.
8

230

Khan,10 was appointed as director of this school. As discussed in Chapter 4, Gobbato made
an enormous and in many ways positive impact on opera in Cape Town during a career
spanning more than fourty years. He was also instrumental in the survival of opera in Cape
Town after 1994. Other vocal trainers that have made major contributions towards
educating local singers as well as producing many operas, especially during the Apartheid
years, were Joseph Manca, Allesandro Rota and Olga Magnoni, all of Italian descent.
Chapters 2, 3 and 4 bear testimony to the popularity of Italian opera amongst opera singers
indigenous to South Africa. During fieldwork done for Chapter 3, the singer Skumbuzo
Kunene, for instance, mentioned to the current writer that he fell in love with Verdi and
Italian opera by watching DVD’s of Italian opera and that singing this kind of opera
remains his career dream. This indicates that the easy access to Italian opera via the media
further contributes to its popularity. Gobbato later explained his understanding of Verdi’s
appeal to black singers when he said that people from the townships live in conditions that
are intensely dramatic and singers therefore identify with the melodrama of opera.
According to him the unstable social circumstances within which Verdi lived and
composed in nineteenth-century Italy resemble the living conditions of townships today.11
The apparent unqualified support for Italian opera repertoire and Italian models of voice
production by black and coloured South African opera singers, complicates the argument
that the dominance of Italian opera practice be viewed as an inhibiting force in the drive
towards indigenization. It suggests that indigenization in music could have less to do with
the music itself and more with the people making the music.
Of course it is perfectly reasonable to argue that Italian opera repertoire is standard for
most opera companies worldwide and that the situation of opera in Cape Town in this
regard is nothing unusual. The article in Scenario referred to above, also mentions that the
South African statistics of the time were in line with those of the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York.12 A cursory glance at contemporary programming of major opera
houses in the West today confirms this trend. In this dissertation it is evident that for many
in the industry in South Africa, opera – and specifically Italian opera – presents a gateway

10

Khan hails from the United States.
See page 206.
12
See footnote 171 on page 56.
11

231

to a different life from one in the townships, life as a ‘second-rate citizen’ during the
Apartheid era or a life dominated by political violence, crime or poverty.
In the historical overview of the development of opera in the country (Chapter 1) I noted
that ‘opera seems to require the stable infrastructure and population density of a relatively
powerful economic metropolis in order to exist as a living practice’.13 The influence of
economic and political power centres on the development and content of opera in the West
is well documented and, as illustrated in this dissertation, opera practice in Cape Town is
no exception to this rule. Although smaller in scale than other opera centres in many first
world countries and negligible in terms of global companies who today control the
dissemination of recorded music, within the context of South Africa Cape Town is a
significant centre of opera production if only because it is the oldest Western settlement in
South Africa. The considerable importance of Italian opera in the Western Cape, although
not extended in this dissertation to other centres like Durban or Johannesburg, emerges as
a significant conclusion potentially also of importance for opera production in the rest of
the country.

13

See p. 24.

232

Appendix: List of South African operas and operettas

The list below records operas and operettas composed on South African soil that the
present writer could find during the course of this research. The list also includes operas by
composers who were born or lived in South Africa, but were residing outside the country
at the time when the listed works were composed.

Date

Composer

Title

1814

Lemming, Carl Frederick

Sapho14

1890

15

Ballet-opera
Opera

1891
1896

Searelle, Luscombe
Von Booth, Karl Edmund
Otto
Searelle, Luscombe

Prizes and blanks16
Kisses of Circe17

Operetta
Opera

1899
1914
1924
1928

Searelle, Luscombe
Bell, William Henry
Bell, William Henry
Bell, William Henry

Evalina18
Hippolytus19
Isabeau20
The mousetrap21

Opera
Opera
Opera
Opera

1930
1932
1934
1934
1935

Bell, William Henry
Manca, Joseph Salvatore
Bell, William Henry
Wegelin, Arthur Willem

Doctor Love22
San Maratto23
The wandering scholar24
Avenant25

Opera
Operetta
Opera
Operetta

Endler, Hans

Pa se dogter26

Operetta

14

Black Rover

Genre

The score of this work is considered lost. Jan Bouws, Solank daar musiek is…, Tafelberg, 1982,
p. 30. See also Jan Bouws. ‘Lemming, Frederik Carl’, South African Music Encyclopedia (SAME),
ed. J.P. Malan, Cape Town, 1979-1986, Volume 3, pp. 152-4.
15
J.P. Malan, ‘Searelle, Luscombe’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 223-5.
16
J.P. Malan, ‘Von Booth, Karl Edmund Otto’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 453-6.
17
J.P. Malan, ‘Searelle, Luscombe’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 223-5.
18
Ibid.
19
Hubert van der Spuy, ‘Bell, William Henry’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 152-160.
20
Ibid.
21
Ibid.
22
Ibid.
23
J.P. Malan, ‘Manca, Joseph Salvatore’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 192-4.
24
Hubert van der Spuy, ‘Bell, William Henry’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 152-160.
25
J.H. Potgieter, ‘Wegelin, Arthur Willem’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 465-9.
26
J.P. Malan, ‘Endler, Hans’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 18-22.
233

1938
1938
1939
1939
1941
1941

Endler, Hans
Swanson, Walter Donald
Bell, William Henry
Bell, William Henry

In old Vienna27
Robbie Burns28
The duenna29
Romeo and Juliet30

Operetta
Radio operetta
Opera
Opera

Swanson, Walter Donald
Swanson, Walter Donald

Radio operetta
Radio operetta

No date
No date
No date

Swanson, Walter Donald
Swanson, Walter Donald
Swanson, Walter Donald

Cocao for two31
The Amulet32
Die beertjie met die gelapte
broekie33
The little stock exchange34
Once upon a leap year35

No date
No date
No date
1942
1943

Swanson, Walter Donald
Swanson, Walter Donald
Swanson, Walter Donald
Pohl, Jan Luyt
Hallis, Adolph

Rip van Winkel36
Rough Diamond37
Zoe’s Dream38
In ‘n skewe straatjie39
Jakaranda40

Children’s operetta
Children’s operetta
Children’s operetta
Operetta
Radio operetta

1943
1943
1946
1946
No date

Hallis, Adolph
Kirby, Percival Robson
Pohl, Jan Luyt
Hallis, Adolph

Port of call41
Open or shut42
Heksekinders43
Love of gold44

Radio operetta
Opera
Radio operetta
Radio operetta

Hallis, Adolph

Operetta

No date

Hirschland, Heinz

A bowl of Constantia Red45
Johannesburg – Park Station
46

Children’s operetta
Children’s operetta
Children’s operetta

Opera

27

Ibid.
J.P. Malan, ‘Swanson, Walter’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 311-4.
29
Hubert van der Spuy, ‘Bell, William Henry’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 152-160.
30
Ibid.
31
J.P. Malan, ‘Swanson, Walter’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 311-4.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid.
35
Ibid.
36
Ibid.
37
Ibid.
38
Ibid.
39
J.P. Malan, ‘Pohl, Jan Luyt’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 81-3.
40
J.P. Malan, ‘Hallis, Adolph’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 158-160.
41
Ibid.
42
J.P. Malan, ‘Kirby, Percival Robson’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 102-9.
43
J.P. Malan, ‘Pohl, Jan Luyt’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 81-3.
44
J.P. Malan, ‘Hallis, Adolph’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 158-160.
45
Ibid.
46
Lily Wolpowitz, ‘Hirschland, Heinz’ SAME, Volume 2, pp. 233-5.
28

234

No date
1948
1949
1950
1950
1950
1951

Pickerill, William Joseph
Coates, Albert
Pohl, Jan Luyt
Coates, Albert

The mill of youth47
The boy David48
Nooi van Vleifontein49
The Duel50

De Kock, Lourens Bosman Potjierol51
De Kock, Lourens Bosman Soetkoek52
Chisholm, Erik
The Inland Woman53

Operetta
Opera
Radio operetta
Operetta
Children’s operetta
Children’s operetta
Opera

1951
1951
1952
1952

Myburgh, Dirk Petrus
De Kock, Lourens Bosman
Coates, Albert
Kirby, Percival Robson

Die jag54
Willemien55
Van Huncks and the Devil56
A maid of Amsterdam57

Operetta
Operetta
Opera
Radio operetta

1952
1953

Bon, Gerrit
Chisholm, Erik

Jarraigo58
Murder in Three Keys59

Opera
Opera

1953
1954

Joubert, John
Malan, Jacques Pierre

Radio operetta
School operetta

1954
1954

Malan, Jacques Pierre
Uys, Johanna Elizabeth
Joubert, John

Antigone60
Ridders van die Swartwoud61
Die towenaar van
Drakenstein62
Die goue hart63
In the Drought64

School operetta
School operetta
Opera

Rorke, Peter

Die nuwe dominee65

Comic opera

1956
1956

47

Walter Swanson, ‘Pickerill, William Joseph’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 59-61.
J.P. Malan, ‘Coates, Albert, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 281-3.
49
J.P. Malan, ‘Pohl, Jan Luyt’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 81-3.
50
J.P. Malan, ‘Coates, Albert, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 281-3.
51
De Kock also translated seven operas from the standard Western canon into Afrikaans. J.P.
Malan, ‘De Kock, Lourens Bosman’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 327-8.
52
Ibid.
53
J.P. Malan, ‘Chisholm, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 271-5.
54
J.P. Malan, ‘Myburgh, Dirk Petrus’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 271-2.
55
This work was commissioned by the SABC. J.P. Malan, ‘De Kock, Lourens Bosman’, SAME,
Volume 1, pp. 327-8.
56
J.P. Malan, ‘Coates, Albert, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 281-3.
57
J.P. Malan, ‘Kirby, Percival Robson’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 102-9.
58
J.P. Malan, ‘Bon, Gerrit’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 205-8. See also Johnson, Alexander.
http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Bonn,_Gerrit.html, accessed 24 June 2009.
59
J.P. Malan, ‘Chisholm, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 271-5.
60
J.P. Malan, ‘Joubert, John Pierre Herman’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 58-67. See also Alexander
Johnson. http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Joubert,_John.html, accessed 24 June 2009.
61
J.P. Malan, ‘Malan, Jacques Pierre’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 190-2.
62
Ibid.
63
J.P. Malan, ‘Uys, Johanna Elizabeth’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 395-6.
64
J.P. Malan, ‘Joubert, John Pierre Herman’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 58-67.
65
J.P. Malan, ‘Rorke, Peter’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 193-5.
235
48

Pohl, Jan Luyt
Pohl, Jan Luyt
Badings, Henk
Andresen, Hans Olaf

Skemermelodie66
Rowerkaptein67
Asterion68
Die heidenooientjie69

Radio operetta
Radio operetta
Television opera
Operetta

Faul, Lourens Abram
Malan, Jacques Pierre
Uys, Johanna Elizabeth

Prins van Monakatoo70
Die Minnesangers71
Sneeulandlegende72

School operetta
School operetta
School operetta

1960
1960
1960
1961

Faul, Lourens Abram
Andresen, Hans Olaf
Andresen, Hans Olaf
Chisholm, Erik

Skoenmaker Stillewater73
Die drie astertjies74
Die mieliefeetjie75
The Midnight Court76

School operetta
Operetta
Operetta
Opera

1961
1961

Joubert, John
Mocke, Veretia

Silas Marner77
Klasie die vlakhasie78

Opera
School operetta

1961

Pienaar, Rachel Elizabeth
Van der Westhuizen,
Hercules Pieter
Chisholm, Erik
Mocke, Veretia
Faul, Lourens Abram

Skrikkeljanie79

Operetta

Anneke van die Kasteel80
Canterbury Tales81
Die onvoltooide aria82
Die seemeeu roep83

Operetta
Comic opera
Operetta
School operetta

Malan, Jacques Pierre
Chisholm, Erik
Chisholm, Erik

Lodilla84
School operetta
The Caucasian Chalk Circle85 Opera
The importance of being
Comic opera

1956
No date
1957
1957
1957
1957
1958

1961
1962
1962
1962
1962
1963
1963
66

J.P. Malan, ‘Pohl, Jan Luyt’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 81-3.
Ibid.
68
Muller, Stephanus. Sounding Margins: Musical Representations of White South Africa. Doctor
of Philisophy Dissertation, 2000, p.81.
69
J.P. Malan, ‘Andresen, Hans Olaf’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 40-5.
70
J.P. Malan, ‘Faul, Lourens Abram’, Erik’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 57-9.
71
J.P. Malan, ‘Malan, Jacques Pierre’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 190-2.
72
J.P. Malan, ‘Uys, Johanna Elizabeth’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 395-6.
73
J.P. Malan, ‘Faul, Lourens Abram’, Erik’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 57-9.
74
J.P. Malan, ‘Andresen, Hans Olaf’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 40-5.
75
Ibid.
76
J.P. Malan, ‘Chisholm, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 271-5.
77
J.P. Malan, ‘Joubert, John Pierre Herman’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 58-67.
78
J.P. Malan, ‘Mocke, Veretia’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 247-8.
79
J.P. Malan, ‘Pienaar, Rachel Elizabeth’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 62-3.
80
J.P. Malan, ‘Van der Westhuizen, Hercules Pieter’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 414-6.
81
J.P. Malan, ‘Chisholm, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 271-5.
82
J.P. Malan, ‘Mocke, Veretia’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 247-8.
83
J.P. Malan, ‘Faul, Lourens Abram’, Erik’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 57-9.
84
J.P. Malan, ‘Malan, Jacques Pierre’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 190-2.
85
J.P. Malan, ‘Chisholm, Erik’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 271-5.
236
67

1963
1963
1963
1964

Chisholm, Erik
Mocke, Veretia
Wegelin, Arthur Willem
Temmingh, Roelof (snr.)

1964
1964
1964
No date

Faul, Lourens Abram
Uys, Johanna Elizabeth
Bezzio, Luigi
Bezzio, Luigi

No date
1965
1965
1967
1967
1967
1968
1968
1968
1968

86

Earnest86
The Life and Loves of Robert
Burns87
Alleen in die wêreld88
Die kortsluiting89
Die Nagtegaal90

Folk opera
Operetta
Opera sketch
Operetta
School operetta
School operetta
Opera
Operetta

O’Reilley, Stephen
Faul, Lourens Abram
Temmingh, Roelof (snr.)

Mooifontein se meisies91
Manewales by Mooidrif92
Il Grande Viaggio93
Pirimpaya94
The coming of the
Butterflies95
Ons vir jou96
En jy ly skade aan jou siel97

Harvey, Eva Noel
Eversen, Cromwell
Joubert, John

Yugao98
Klutaimnestra99
The Quarry100

Opera
Opera

Joubert, John
Melman, Ivan Michael
Rorke, Peter
Van der Mark, Huigrina

101

Under western eyes
The last of the just102
The reluctant corpse103
Volund104

Radio opera
School operetta
Operetta

Opera
Opera
Opera
Television opera
Opera

Ibid.
Ibid.
88
J.P. Malan, ‘Mocke, Veretia’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 247-8.
89
J.H. Potgieter, ‘Wegelin, Arthur Willem’, SAME, Volume 4, pp.465-9. See also Alexander
Johnson. http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Wegelin,_Arthur.html, accessed 24 June
2009.
90
J.P. Malan, ‘Temmingh, Roelof Willem’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 326-7.
91
J.P. Malan, ‘Faul, Lourens Abram’, Erik’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 57-9.
92
J.P. Malan, ‘Uys, Johanna Elizabeth’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 395-6.
93
J.P. Malan, ‘Bezzio, Luigi’, SAME, Volume 1, pp. 166-7.
94
Ibid.
95
J.P.Malan, ‘O’Reilly, Stephen’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 315-7.
96
J.P.Malan, ‘Faul, Lourens Abram’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 57-9.
97
J.P.Malan, ‘Temmingh, Roelof Willem’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 326-7.
98
J.P.Malan, ‘Harvey, Eva Noel’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 177-8.
99
This is the first serious opera with an Afrikaans libretto. Everson used serial techniques in this
composition. Jan Bouws, Solank daar musiek is…, 1982, p. 190.
100
J.P.Malan, ‘Joubert, John Pierre Herman’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 58-67.
101
Ibid.
102
J.P.Malan, ‘Melman, Ivan Michael’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 225-6.
103
J.P.Malan, ‘Rorke, Peter’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 193-5.
104
J.P.Malan, ‘Van der Mark, Huigrina’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 407-410.
237
87

Harvey, Eva Noel
Harvey, Eva Noel
Faul, Lourens Abram
Wessels, Maria Johanna

Esther105
Ruth and Naomi106
Legend of the Last Miracle107
Kom tog, Klaasvakie108

Grand opera
Opera
Opera
School operetta

Wessels, Maria Johanna
Wessels, Maria Johanna
Wessels, Maria Johanna

Pampoenkopland109
My besondere lied110
Speel tog B-mol111

School operetta
School operetta
School operetta

1970
1970
1970
1971

Malan, Jacques Pierre
Malan, Jacques Pierre
Malan, Jacques Pierre
Malan, Jacques Pierre

My Suiderland112
Die silwer sambreeltjie113
Die goue hert114
Freule Marieke115

School operetta
School operetta
School operetta
School operetta

1971
1971

Malan, Jacques Pierre
Wessels, Maria Johanna

Prys vir ‘n meisie116
Laps117

School operetta
School operetta

1971
1972
1973

Faul, Lourens Abram
Joubert, John
Malan, Jacques Pierre

Lekkerleefland118
The prisoner119
Boomvolkies120

Musical comedy
School operetta
School operetta

1974
1974
1974
1975

Faul, Lourens Abram
Mocke, Veretia
Wessels, Maria Johanna
Van Dijk, Peter Louis

Ponkie en sy donkie121
Die Goue Toorstokkie122
Ek is ‘n prins123
Die noodsein124

School operetta
Operetta
School operetta
Opera

1975

Mocke, Veretia

Blou, blou, waar is jy nou?125

Operetta

1969
1969
1969
1969
1969
1970
1970

105

J.P.Malan, ‘Harvey, Eva Noel’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 177-8.
Ibid.
107
J.P.Malan, ‘Faul, Lourens Abram’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 57-9.
108
J.P.Malan, ‘Wessels, Maria Johanna’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 483-4.
109
Ibid.
110
Ibid.
111
Ibid.
112
J.P.Malan, ‘Malan, Jacques Pierre’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 190-2.
113
Ibid.
114
Ibid.
115
Ibid.
116
Ibid.
117
J.P.Malan, ‘Wessels, Maria Johanna’, SAME, Volume 4, pp 483-4.
118
J.P. Malan, ‘Faul, Lourens Abram’, Erik’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 57-9.
119
J.P. Malan, ‘Joubert, John Pierre Herman’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 58-67.
120
J.P. Malan, ‘Malan, Jacques Pierre’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 190-2.
121
J.P. Malan, ‘Faul, Lourens Abram’, SAME, Volume 2, pp. 57-9.
122
J.P. Malan, ‘Mocke, Veretia’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 247-8.
123
J.P. Malan, ‘Wessels, Maria Johanna’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 483-4.
124
Kapp, Pieter. ‘Die akademie en opera’, Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, March 2008: 3. See
also http://www.plvandijk.co.za/list_of_works.htm, accessed 24/06/2009.
125
J.P. Malan, ‘Mocke, Veretia’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 247-8.
238
106

1975
No date
No date
No date
No date
1976

Mocke, Veretia
Mocke, Veretia
Mocke, Veretia
Mocke, Veretia

Bim die stoute beertjie126
Jan Wappies127
Lindie se wens128
Paddastrofes of Strandrots129

Operetta
Operetta
Operetta
Operetta

Mocke, Veretia
Van Wyk, Carl Albert

Die troue in die poppekas130
Die sirkusbeer131
Die lyding van Mattewis
Viljee132
Animal Farm133
Die skat van Vergelegen134

Operetta
School operetta

1978
1979
1979

Temmingh, Hendrik
Zaidel-Rudolph, Jeanne
Pienaar, Rachel Elizabeth

1980
1983

Mocke, Veretia
Zaidel-Rudolph, Jeanne

1987

Hofmeyr, Hendrik

1990
1990
1990

Hofmeyr, Hendrik
Volans, Kevin
Van Wyk, Carl

1993
1994

Volans, Kevin
Temmingh, Roelof (jnr.)

126

Moffie Muis135
A Rage in a Cage136
The Fall of the House of
Usher137

Opera
Opera
Operetta
Operetta
Rock opera
Chamber opera

138

The land of Heart’s Desire
Correspondences139
Fiela se kind140
The Man with Footsoles of
Wind141
Enoch, prophet of God142

Opera
Dance opera
Opera
Chamber opera
Opera

Ibid.
Ibid.
128
Ibid.
129
Ibid.
130
Ibid.
131
J.P. Malan, ‘Van Wyk, Carl Albert’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 438-441.
132
J.P. Malan, ‘Temmingh, Hendrik’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 325-6.
133
This work is incomplete. J.P. Malan, ‘Zaidel-Rudolph, Jeanne’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 516-8.
The opera is omitted from this composer’s list of works on Alexander Johnson’s website on South
African composers. See http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/ZaidelRudolph,_Jeanne.html, accessed 24 June 2009.
134
J.P. Malan, ‘Pienaar, Rachel Elizabeth’, SAME, Volume 4, pp. 62-3.
135
J.P. Malan, ‘Mocke, Veretia’, SAME, Volume 3, pp. 247-8.
136
Johnson, Alexander. http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/ZaidelRudolph,_Jeanne.html, accessed 24 June 2009.
137
Hilde Roos, Hendrik Hofmeyr: lewe en werk 1957-1998. Unpublished master’s thesis,
Stellenbosch University, 2000, p. 90.
138
Ibid, p. 91.
139
www.kevinvolans.com, accessed 24 June 2009.
140
Mary Rorich in conversation with Carl van Wyk about his new opera 'Fiela se kind', SABC
Sound Archives, Catalogue no. TM 8707.
141
www.kevinvolans.com, accessed 24 June 2009.
142
Alexander Johnson, http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Temmingh,_Roelof.html,
accessed 24 June 2009.
239
127

Hofmeyr, Hendrik
Ndodana-Breen, Bongani
Temmingh, Roelof (jnr.)
Temmingh, Roelof (jnr.)

Lumukanda143
Themba and Seliba144
Sacred Bones145
Buchuland146

Opera
Chamber opera
Chamber opera
Opera

Ndodana-Breen, Bongani
Rajna, Thomas
Volans, Kevin

Uhambo – The Pilgrimage147
Amarantha148
Zeno at 4am149

Opera-oratorio
Opera
Opera

2001

Hofmeyr, Hendrik

Chamber opera

2001

Ndodana-Breen, Bongani

Die laaste aand150
Umuntu: ‘Threnody and
Dances’151

Monodrama

2001

Love and Green Onions152

Jazz opera

2001
No date

Weale, Denzil
Van Dijk, Peter Louis;
Verdi, Guiseppe
Williams, Michael

Macbeth153
The Milkbird154

Opera
Children’s opera

No date
No date

Williams, Michael
Williams, Michael

Children’s opera
Children’s opera

2002
2003

Khumalo, Mzilikazi
Phipps, Martin;

The Seven Headed Snake155
Child of the Moon156
Princess Magogo
kaDinuzulu157
Earthdiving158

1996
1996
1997
1998
1998
2000
2001

143

Opera
Opera

Hilde Roos, Hendrik Hofmeyr: lewe en werk 1957-1998. p. 91.
Alexander Johnson, http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Ndodana,_Bongani.html,
accessed 24 June 2009.
145
Alexander Johnson,http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Temmingh,_Roelof.html,
accessed 24 June 2009.
146
Ibid.
147
Alexander Johnson, http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Ndodana,_Bongani.html,
accessed 24 June 2009.
148
Thys Odendaal, ‘Fugard se 'Valley Song' word opera’, Die Burger, 14 December 2002.
149
www.kevinvolans.com, accessed 24 June 2009.
150
Alexander Johnson, http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Hofmeyr,_Hendrik.html,
accessed 24 June 2009.
151
Alexander Johnson, http://www.africancomposers.co.za/Aficomp/Ndodana,_Bongani.html,
accessed 24 June 2009.
152
No author, Programme notes: Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April
2009. No page numbers.
153
No Author, Cape Town Opera, the Voice of the Nation, 2004 Annual report, p. 5. The decision
to add Van Dijk’s adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth to the list is based on the fact that the work was
substantially ‘reinvented’. Van Dijk also lists the opera as a new work on his list of works. See
http://www.plvandijk.co.za/list_of_works, accessed 17 August 2009.
154
Ibid.
155
Ibid.
156
Ibid.
157
Diane de Beer, http://africlassical.blogspot.com/2009/03/mzilikazi-khumalos-operaprincess.html, accessed 7 October 2009.
158
No author, Programme notes: Cape Town Opera, 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, 19 April
2009. No page numbers.
240
144

Koapeng, Mokale;
Van Dijk, Peter Louis
2005
2005

Rajna, Thomas
Huyssen, Hans

2007

Ndodana-Breen, Bongani
Williams, Michael;
Stephenson, Allen
Gothe, Mats Larsson
Stephenson, Allan
Michael Blake
Martin Watt; Peter Louis
van Dijk; Peter Klatzow;
Bongani Ndodana-Breen;
Hendrik Hofmeyr

2007
2008
2009
2004-9

2010

159

Valley Song159
Masque160
The Passion of Winnie (Part
I)161

Opera
Opera

The Orphans of Qumbu162
The Poet & Prophetess163
Miracle Boy164
Searching for Salome165

Children’s opera
Opera
Children’s opera
Opera

Five:20166

Opera

Opera

Gotfried Maas, 'Valley Song' klink met Karoo-ritmes’, Die Burger, 5 Maart 2005.
Martina Viljoen,‘“An aesthetic of redemption”: Reading Masque as public culture’. Muziki 3(1),
2006, pp. 114-133.
161
John Terauds, ‘A life tailor-made for an opera’, The Star, 3 June 2007.
http://www.thestar.com/article/220867, accessed 24 June 2009.
162
Kobus van der Merwe, ‘Suid-Afrikaanse kinderopera verrykend’, Die Burger, 12 July 2009. See
also: No Author. Cape Town Opera, the Voice of the Nation, 2004 Annual report, p. 5.
163
Wayne Muller, ‘Fees van operas wag op Kapenaars in 2008’, Die Burger, 2 February 2009.
164
No Author. Cape Town Opera, 2008-2009 Annual Review, p 10.
165
http://www.michaelblake.co.za/works.html#Stage, accessed 8 November 2010.
166
Ibid. This work comprises five operas of 20 minutes each by five different South African
composers. Each opera will address a specifically South African social phenomenon, e.g.
Xenophobia, HIV/Aids, etc. Interview with Michael Williams, 25 August 2009.
241
160

Bibliography

Manuscript Sources (Music)
Huyssen, Hans. 2005. Unpublished score of Masque provided by the composer, October
2005.
Verdi, Giuseppe. Rigoletto, Vocal Score, Boosey & Co., Ltd.
Primary Sources (Fieldwork Excursions)
11 October 2005. Sectional rehearsal of the opera Masque at the College of Music at the
University of Cape Town.
13, 15, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25 & 26 October 2005. Rehearsals of the opera Masque on stage at
the Artscape Theatre Complex in Cape Town.
27 October 2005. Dress rehearsal of the opera Masque at the Artscape Theatre Complex in
Cape Town.
28 October 2005. Première of the opera Masque.
1, 3 and 5 November 2005. Performances of the opera Masque in the theatre of the
Artscape Theatre Complex in Cape Town.
Primary Sources (Interviews)
Abrahamse, May. 2008. Conversation at the Joseph Stone Theatre in Athlone, 1October
2008.
Crouse, Christine. 2009. Interview held at Cape Town Opera’s offices at the Artscape
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242

Gobbato, Angelo. 2009. Interview held at Gobbato’s home in Oranjezicht, 12 August
2009.
Huyssen, Hans. 2005. Telephonic interview on 7 October 2005.
_____. 2006. Interview at Huyssen’s home in Mostertsdrif, Stellenbosch, 1 March 2006.
Huyssen, Hans & Louw, Ilka. 2005. Interview at Huyssen’s home on a farm just outside
Stellenbosch on 15 July 2005.
Lüdemann, Winfried. 2009. Interview at the Department of Music, University of
Stellenbosch, 14 January 2009.
Rajab, Sjafiek. 2008. Conversation at the Joseph Stone Theatre in Athlone, 9 June 2008.
Samaai, Gerald. 2008. Interview at Samaai’s home in Paarl, 19 November 2008.
Ulster, Tillie. 2008. Conversation at the District Six Museum in Cape Town, 22 October
2008.
Van Graan, Patricia. 2008. Interview at Van Graan’s holiday home in Gordon’s Bay, 19
November 2008.
Williams, Michael. 2009. Interview held at Cape Town Opera’s offices at the Artscape
Theatre Complex. 25 August 2009.
Primary Sources (Archival material)
The Eoan Archive. 2008.
This archive was transferred to the Documentation Centre for Music (Domus) at the
University of Stellenbosch in February 2008. Access to the material was gained after a
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243

preliminary sorting. All information regarding the Eoan Group which has not been sourced
from the archive directly, are referenced under ‘Secondary Sources’.
Author unknown. 1956. Seating plan. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 4.
_____. 1956. ‘The La Traviata Affair’, dated 31 March 1956, Eoan Archive, box 29, folder
200.
_____. 1960. Letter from the Port Elizabeth Council for Coloured Women to Manca, dated
21 March 1960. Eoan Archive, box 31, folder 209.
_____. 1960. ‘Coloured boycott decision’, no date, no newspaper. Eoan Archive, box 31,
folder 209.
_____. 1960. Press statement during Eoan’s tour in Johannesburg. No author, no date.
Eoan Archive, box 31, folder 211.
_____. 1960. ‘Eoan Group’s “La Boheme” takes Durban by storm’, The Natal Mercury, 30
July 1960. Eoan Archive, box 30, folder 208.
_____. 1960. ‘Eoan Cast’s “Rigoletto” Delights Audience’, The Natal Mercury, 2 August
1960. Eoan Archive, box 30, folder 208.
_____. 1961. Letter from the Provincial Accountant Natal, dated 11 January 1961. Eoan
Archive, box 40, folder 321.
_____. 1961. ‘Actors and Apartheid’ Cape Times, 2 March 1961. Eoan Archive, box 32,
folder 219.
_____. 1961. ‘Conflict on Theatre Apartheid’ Cape Times, 9 March 1961. Eoan Archive,
box 32, folder 219.
_____. 1961. Permit issued by the Department of the Interior, dated 24 April 1961. Eoan
Archive, box 32, folder 219.
_____. 1965. Cape Town Municipal Orchestra Call Sheet, March 1965. Eoan Archive, box
33, folder 228.
_____. Press Release: ‘The 1965 Eoan Opera Season’. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 9.
_____. 1965. Letter from the Department of Community Development, dated 1 June 1965.
Eoan Archive, box 83, folder 646a.
_____. 1965. Letter from the Department of Home Affairs, dated 22 July 1965. Eoan
Archive, box 83, folder 646b.
_____. 1965. ‘Thank you for coming: and for Traviata’, newspaper and date of publication
unknown. Eoan Archive, box 93, folder 765.
244

_____. 1965. Letter from the Eoan Group Trust to the Department of Coloured Affairs, 10
December 1965. Eoan Archive, box 33, folder 231.
_____. 1965. Conditions on which grants are awarded to voluntary organizations. Eoan
Archive, box 33, folder 231.
_____. 1969. Letter from The Eoan Group Trust to Ismail Sydow, the chairman of the
Eoan Board, 7 January 1969. Eoan Archive, box53, folder 437.
_____. 1969. Letter from the Eoan Group Trust to Manca, 20 October 1969, page 2. Eoan
Archive, box 53, folder 439.
_____. 1969. ‘Mayor to hear top soprano’, Newspaper unknown, June 1969. Eoan
Archive, box 36, folder 270.
_____. 1970. Letter from the Administration of Coloured Affairs, 8 September 1970. Eoan
Archive, box 53, folder 436.
_____. 1971. ‘Commission of Inquiry into Matters relating to the Coloured Population
Group: Group 5: Culture. Questionnaire to Organizations practising the Performing Arts.’
Eoan Archive, box 9, folder 59.
_____. 1973. Permit issued to the Eoan Group by the Department of XXX, 25 April 1973.
Eoan Archive, box 16, folder 114.
_____. 1974. Seating plans for the Green Point Civic Centre. Eoan Archive, box 10, folder
65.
_____. 1998 (presumed). Eoan Group Funding Proposal. Eoan Archive, box 60, folder
494c.
Abrahamse, May. 1978. Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 29 March
1978. Eoan Archive, box 37, folder 300.
_____. 1978. Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 3 May 1978. Eoan
Archive, box 37, folder 300.
_____. 1979. Minutes of the AGM held on 25 October 1979. Eoan Archive, box 4, folder
29.
_____. 1979. Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 29 November 1979.
Eoan Archive, box 23, folder 167.
_____. 1980. Minutes of the AGM held on 1 June 1980. Eoan Archive, box 4, folder 29.
_____. 1980. Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting held on 30 October 1980. Eoan
Archive, box 45, folder 352.
245

_____. 1980. Minutes of the Artistic Committee meeting held on 5 November 1980. Eoan
Archive, box 45, folder 352.
Bloomberg, David. 1966. Letter to Joseph Manca, 25 November 1966. Eoan Archive, box
85, folder 684.
Bryer, Joy. 1974. Letter from the Secretary General too Ismail Sydow, 11 February 1974.
Eoan Archive, box 24, folder 172.
Chisholm, Erik. 1965. Letter to Joseph Manca, 19 May 1965. Eoan Archive, box 3, folder
23.
Epstein, Bertha. 1962. Letter to the Eoan Chairman, Mr H.G. Ashworth, 24 October 1962.
Eoan Archive, box 32, folder 221.
Gaum, F.L. 1972. Letter from the Administration of Coloured Affairs to the Eoan Group
Trust, 23 March 1972. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 436.
Jephtas, Gordon. 1979. Letter to Dulcie Howes, 23 May 1979. Eoan Archive, box 4, folder
28.
_____. 1985. Letter to Ismail and Carmen Sydow, 20 May 1985. Eoan Archive, box 37,
folder 300.
Kramer, Hans. 1967. ‘Soprano rose to great heights in her tragic role’, The Cape Times, 18
September 1967. Eoan Archive, box 86, folder 685.
La Guma, Alex. No date (presumed 1956). Letter to the Eoan Group. Eoan Archive, box
29, folder 200.
Mackrill, Andrew. 1955. Letter to Joseph Manca, 13 July 1955. Eoan Archive, box 1,
folder 4.
Manca, Joseph. 1955. Advance Publicity Material for the 1956 Arts Festival. Eoan
Archive, box 30, folder 203.
246

_____. 1955. Overview of Eoan’s music productions 1944 – 1951. Eoan Archive, box 1,
folder 4.
_____. 1955. Letter to Andrew Mackrill, 12 July 1955. Eoan Archive, box 29, folder 201.
_____. 1956. Letter to Mr. J.L Hughes, secretary of N.O.D.A. in London, 27 February
1956. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 4.
_____. 1956. Letter to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, 23 February 1956. Eoan
Archive, box 1, folder 4.
_____. 1956. Letter to the editor of Opera, Mr. H Rosenthal, 2 April 1956. Eoan Archive,
box 29, folder 200.
_____. 1960. Programme schedule for Eoan’s Johannesburg season. Eoan Archive, box
31, folder 211.
_____. 1961 (presumed). Eoan Group, 1962 Arts Festival and future Activities. Eoan
Archive, box 53, folder 436.
_____. 1961. Letter to Dr. I.D. du Plessis, 3 May 1961. Eoan Archive, box 32, folder 219.
_____. 1962. Advance Publicity Information Fourth Opera and Ballet Season, Eoan
Archive, box 2, folder 10.
_____. 1962. Rehearsal and performance schedule for the 1962 Arts Festival. Eoan
Archive, box 33, folder 223.
_____. 1963. Letter to David Tidboald, 24 January 1963. Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 23.
_____. 1964. Letter to Mr. Te Wiata, February 1964. Eoan Archive, box 3, folder 23.
_____. 1965. Opera Chorus Rehearsal list, February 1965, EOAN Archive, box 3, folder
14.
_____. 1965. Rehearsal schedules for the 1965 Opera Season. Eoan Archive, box 3, folder
17.
_____. 1965. Advance Publicity 1965 Opera Tour, Johannesburg Season. Eoan Archive,
box 83, folder 646a.
_____. 1965. Letter to Mr. W.M. Bisset, 8 July 1965. Eoan Archive, box 83, folder 646a.
_____. 1967. South Pacific rehearsal schedule. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 433.
_____. No date. Historical overview of Eoan’s activities from 1933 – 1968. Eoan Archive,
box 60, folder 494c.
_____. 1970. Carmen Jones, Advance publicity material. Eoan Archive, box 10, folder 68.
_____. 1970. Invitation letter to newspaper critics, 10 July 1970. Eoan Archive, box 10,
folder 68.
247

_____. 1970. Letter to the Town Clerk, 26 November 1970. Eoan Archive, box 12, folder
84.
_____. 1971. Financial estimation for musical presentations during the 1971 Republic
Festival. Eoan Archive, box 7, folder 51.
_____. 1971. List of performances for the 1971 Opera Season. Eoan Archive, box 11,
folder 79.
_____. 1971. Budget application to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, 1 July 1971.
Eoan Archive, box 10, folder 70.
_____. 1973. Financial report, 6 November 1973. Eoan Archive, box 21, folder 144.
_____. 1974. 1974 Opera Season Schedule. Eoan Archive, box 6, folder 46.
_____. 1974. Letter to Professor J.B. du Toit of the Commission of Inquiry into Matters
relating to the Coloured Population Group, 7 March 1974. Eoan Archive, box 9, folder 59.
_____. 1974. Rehearsal and performance schedules 1974. Eoan Archive, box 9, folder 64.
_____. 1975. List of participants for the 1975 International Festival of Youth Orchestras
and Performing Arts. Eoan Archive, box 24, folder 174.
_____. 1975. Outline Itinerary U.K. visit Eoan Group 1975. Eoan Archive, box 24, folder
174.
Serfontein, Pieter. 1965. ‘Eoan-groep se La Traviata ‘n belewenis’, newspaper and date of
publication unknown. Eoan Archive, box 93, folder 765.
Smith, R. 1965. Letter to Joseph Manca, 20 March 1965. Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 9.
Southern-Holt, Helen. 1947. Speech held at the National Council of Women in South
Africa in 1947, page 1. Eoan Archive, box 37, folder 300.
Sowden, Dora. 1961. ‘Dora Sowden at the opera’, Sunday Times, 30 April 1961. Eoan
Archive, box 33, folder 224.
Stoffels, Roy. 1980 (presumed). Reasons why the Eoan Group is no longer a viable arts
project, no date. Eoan Archive, box 4, folder 30.
Sydow, Ismail. 1966. Minutes of the 32nd Annual General Meeting held on 29 September
1966. Eoan Archive, box 1, folder 3.
_____. 1964. Letter to Mrs. Bertha Epstein 31 October 1962. Eoan Archive, box 32, folder
221.
_____. 1964. Statement by the Chairman: Mr I. Sydow on establishment and acceptance of
Eoan Group Trust. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 439.
248

_____. 1965. Letter to the Secretary of the Interior Department, 23 July 1965. Eoan
Archive, box 83, folder 646b.
_____. 1968. Letter to Mr. Jan Luyt, the Town Clerk, 25 September 1968. Eoan Archive,
box 34, folder 233.
_____. 1970. Minutes of the 33rd Annual General Meeting held on 08 December 1970.
Eoan Archive, box 2, folder 8.
_____. 1967. Letters to Joseph Manca, 5 and 19 June 1967. Eoan Archive, box 86, folder
686.
_____. 1969. Minutes of the Special General Meeting held on 26 August 1969. Eoan
Archive, box 25, folder 178.
_____. 1969. Foreword to the 1969 Opera Season programme. Eoan Archive, box 36,
folder 279.
_____. 1970. Letter to the Administration of Coloured Affairs, 11 September 1970. Eoan
Archive, box 53, folder 436.
_____. 1971. Letter to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, 19 April 1971. Eoan
Archive, box 71, folder 548.
_____. 1971. Letter to the Commissioner for Coloured Affairs, 16 November 1971. Eoan
Archive, box 39, folder 314.
_____. 1973. Chairman’s report to Eoan’s Executive Committee on 31 January 1973. Eoan
Archive, box 25, folder 179.
_____. 1974. Minutes of the 37th AGM held on 4 February 1975. Eoan Archive, box 72,
folder 553.
_____. 1974. Letter to Mrs. Joyce Bryer, Secretary General of the International Festival,
20 March 1974. Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 436.
_____. 1974. Letter to South African Airways, 7 October 1974. Eoan Archive, box 24,
folder 172.
_____. 1974. Letter to Mr. L.C.V. Walker, 28 April 1974. Eoan Archive, box 24, folder
174.
_____. 1975. Letter to the Municipality of the City of Cape Town, 9 June 1975, page 1.
Eoan Archive, box 24, folder 174.
_____. 1976. Letter to the Commissioner of Coloured Affairs, 8 July 1976, page 1. Eoan
Archive, box 7, folder 55.
249

Van der Vyver, B.A. 1973. Letter from Department of Community Development, 15
October 1973. Eoan Archive, box 37, folder 300.
Verdal, Garth. 1989. ‘Eoan Group will no longer accept aid from the State’, Tonight,
supplement to The Argus, 17 March 1989. Eoan Archive, box folder 494c.
Voges, Peter. 1980. Artistic Report, November 1980. Eoan Archive, box 45, folder 352.
Walker, L.C.V. 1972. Letter to the Administration of Coloured Affairs, 10 April 1972.
Eoan Archive, box 53, folder 436.
Walker, Oliver. 1965. ‘Triumph for Cape Town Violetta’, newspaper and date of
publication unknown. Eoan Archive, box 93, folder 765.
Williams, Owen. 1967. ‘Eoan Group’s natural charm in pleasant “Oklahoma”’, The Cape
Argus, 20 January 1967. Eoan Archive, box 85, folder 682.
Winckley, Elsa. 1969. ‘Eoan group shines brightly as ever’, Sunday Express, 30 March
1969. Eoan Archive, box 36, folder 270.
The Hanlie van Niekerk Collection. 2009.
This collection was transferred to the Documentation Centre for Music (Domus) at the
University of Stellenbosch in February 2009. At the time of the completion of this
dissertation the transfer of the collection was not completed and the material had not been
sorted in any way yet.
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250

_____. 1985. Barry Jones in conversation with Neels Hansen. ‘The cultural boycott and its
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