opera Archives - Cape Town Opera

SA’s No 1 Baroque Ensemble for The Fairy Queen

CTO Admin — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 13:49:34 +0000

South Africa’s number one Baroque ensemble is the orchestra for the Fairy Queen | Die Feëkoningin.

Camerata Tinta Barocca, founded by violinist Quentin Crida in July 2004, is a Cape Town-based baroque ensemble consisting of a core of string players with harpsichord. Its name is derived from the musicians’ passion for baroque music and red wine. The members include some of Cape Town’s finest musicians who embrace a historically informed performance practice approach.

Erik Dippenaar and Members of Camerata Tinta Barocca

CTB’s concerts have been broadcast on Fine Music Radio and have received critical acclaim in the Cape Times and Die Burger. Mostly playing music from the 18 th century, CTB has worked with leaders in their fields, such as baroque violinists Antoinette Lohmann and Pauline Nobes; violinists David Juritz, Darragh Morgan and Zoe Beyers; countertenor Christopher Ainslie; male soprano Philipp Mathmann; recorder player Stefan Temmingh; mandolin player Alon Sariel and conductor Arjan Tien.

Apart from CTB’s annual concert series in their home, St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Cape Town, the ensemble regularly accompanies opera and oratorio performances, and performs in festivals throughout South Africa. CTB also has an active outreach component, which includes an annual educational tour to the West Coast, the Sunshine Tour (an outreach programme for people unable to attend concerts because they are elderly, indigent or disabled in some way), as well as a regular collaboration with the Keiskamma Music Academy in the Eastern Cape.

Since 2011 CTB has gradually moved towards playing on period instruments. Currently it is the only period ensemble in South Africa that regularly plays in orchestral format, performing most of its annual concerts on period instruments. In 2013 CTB, in collaboration with the Cape Consort, gave the first South African period performance of Handel’s Messiah. During November 2016 CTB played for the first Cape Town Opera production with a period instrument orchestra, in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, directed by Jaco Bouwer and conducted by Erik Dippenaar. In December 2016 CTB was nominated for a KYKNET Fiesta award for a programme titled Handel in the drawing room presented during the 2016 Klein Karoo Klassique festival.

In 2015 CTB set up a collaboration with the early music ensemble Collegium Musicum at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town, through which two student cadets annually receive hands-on training in period performance in CTB projects. The cadet scheme is generously supported by the Claude Leon Foundation. In July 2015 Erik Dippenaar was appointed Artistic Director of CTB, Michael Maas (former CEO of the Artscape Theatre Centre) as Administrative Coordinator, and Cheryl de Havilland as Outreach Coordinator.

At Spier Amphiteatre for three performances only on Sat 3, Sun 4 and Mon 5 March at 8.30pm. Booking is through Computicket.

From Computicket in advance:
R300.00 / R200.00 / R100.00
At venue on day of event:
R350.00 / R230.00 / R120.00

12 (L). Two hours, no interval

Cape Town Opera has arranged a shuttle service, offering return transport from Artscape to Spier, at R100pp. To secure a ride to see The Fairy Queen, email info@capetownopera.co.za. Rides must be confirmed by 1 March 2018.

The post SA’s No 1 Baroque Ensemble for The Fairy Queen appeared first on Cape Town Opera.

“Oh, and mosquitoes! We can’t have the performers swallowing an insect or swatting something away…”

CTO Admin — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 15:03:34 +0000

Director ALAN SWERDLOW talked to Whats on In Cape Town about presenting The Fairy Queen | Die Feëkoningin ‘al fresco’:

Focus on: The Fairy Queen

A warm summer’s evening … a much-loved classic story … opera under the stars, surrounded by vineyard and the distant silhouettes of mountains against the night sky. It sounds achingly romantic for the viewer, but how easy is it to produce an opera ‘al fresco’?

We asked director Alan Swerdlow what he and his team have had to take into consideration in mounting The Fairy Queen at Spier Amphitheatre in Stellenbosch.

Spier Amphitheatre

”There is a long tradition of outdoor opera performances,” Swerdlow explained, “for which the biggest challenge is an appropriate acoustic environment: both orchestra and singers must be heard to maximum advantage.

Performers’ voices are susceptible to sudden temperature changes and humidity. And for The Fairy Queen, our orchestra is the Camerata Tinta Barocca, which cannot risk exposing its period instruments to moisture and heat, yet Spier Amphitheatre is built on the banks of a river and exposed to the afternoon sun. Also, since the lighting design is an important part of the visual presentation, we have to wait until the sun has set.

The Spier stage is very wide, a CinemaScope kind of view, and we have to be very careful about sight lines, and it is also very simple, which means the creative team needs to find other ways of providing some of the spectacle that is associated with Grand Opera. Then, of course, we need to have a protocol in place for rain, and how quickly we can cover and protect the instruments, set and costumes.

Oh, and mosquitoes! We can’t have the performers swallowing an insect or swatting something away…”

Alen Swerdlow directing a Fairy Queen rehearsal

Cape Town Opera is collaborating with Stellenbosch University’s Music and Drama Departments for the first time on this production for US Woordfees, and award-winning writer Wessel Pretorius has reflected this in the script. Wittily echoing the plot of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, it is set in the music and drama departments of the University, meaning – perhaps for the first time in this opera – many of the characters are Afrikaans.

So yes, says Swerdlow “we have a bit to say about university politics and the new colonialism”, but essentially it is about “personal relationships … a good-natured comic romp.”

Pretorius agrees. He describes Swerdlow’s concept as “very modern and tongue-in-cheek, so no one needs to feel intimidated by the preciousness of classicists when they consider buying a ticket.”

With striking designs by Michael Mitchell, Maritha Visagie and Kobus Rossouw created especially for the Spier Amphitheatre, and choreography by Sibonakaliso Ndaba, Cape Town Opera’s The Fairy Queen is an evening of Baroque opera at its most entertaining, for old hands and opera virgins alike.

Performances are scheduled for 3, 4 and 5 March only.

The post “Oh, and mosquitoes! We can’t have the performers swallowing an insect or swatting something away…” appeared first on Cape Town Opera.