……BILLY SUTER……
A CINEMA screening of Cape Town Opera’s sumptuous recent production of Bizet’s opera, Carmen – directed by Durban’s Steven Stead and designed by Durban’s Greg King, both of Durban’s KickstArt theatre company – is to have local screenings in August.
The production has been highly praised for its visual spectacle and powerful, dramatic story-telling.
Set in 1930s Spain, and featuring a cast of 95 singers, this production, filmed for cinema in HD, will have two screenings in Durban – at Watercrest Ster-Kinekor at 2.30pm on Sunday, August 23, and at noon on Tuesday, August 25.
A reviewer of the stage production has noted that King’s industrial, muted set design and Maritha Visagie’s period costumes add grit and political tension to the classic plot of an opera that is conducted by Tim Murray, choreographed by Naoline Quinzin and has a cast featuring Nonhlanhla Yende, Lukhanyo Moyake, Vuvu Mpofu, Conroy Scott, Graham Bourne, the Chorus and Children’s Chorus of Cape Town Opera and members of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
Beverley Brommert, writing for WeekendSpecial, noted “high octane performances from the trio of Nonhlanhla Yende (Carmen), Don Jose (Lukhanyo Moyake) and Conroy Scott (Escamillo) with the potential of secondary characters’ roles (Micaëla and Zuniga) optimally exploited by Vuvu Mpofu and Graham Bourne respectively”.
Brommert added in her review that “Nonhlanhla Yende is radiantly authoritative as the voluptuous, alluring, playful, self-willed Carmen. Her potent stage presence and effortless mezzo dominate from the moment she appears, anything but an anticlimax after all the build-up preceding her first entry. Here we have a multifaceted portrayal of a complex and fascinating persona”.
Lukhanyo Moyake’s Don Jose, wrote Brommert, “provides a worthy foil to Yende’s Carmen: his reliably heart-melting tenor is a thing of beauty whether heard in solo arias (a highlight being the yearning tenderness of La fleur que tu m’avais jetée) or in passionate duets with his leading lady, and even with his rival in love, Escamillo (Conroy Scott)”.
Book for the filmed Carmen via the Ster-Kinekor website: https://www.sterkinekor.com/f/cape-town-opera-presents-carmen/678?tab=coming-soon-advanced-tickets
.....SoSuterBill..... 