TOWNSHIP OPERA

16 mins 30 secs

eSikhawini township

Opera singing

01:00:13

Wilson:  The heart of Zululand may seem an unlikely place to find the high art of opera. But here in South Africa's rural sugar belt, another of apartheid's cultural barricades is crumbling.

01:00:21

Opera singing

Music

Map South Africa

Opera rehearsal

Wilson:  In the township of eSikhawini, a local choir is leading a drive that's taking opera into uncharted territory.

01:00:50

Faust opera poster

The vehicle is Faust, one of the most popular operas ever written. The story of an old man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for his lost youth and the woman of his dreams.

01:01:04

Wilson:  It's been a long road to get this far. The rehearsals have been painstaking. But there's a palpable sense of excitement that the long hours of practice are about to bear fruit.

01:01:23

Opera company

Considering it's the first opera ever performed in rural South Africa, the venue is ambitious. 

A six thousand seat arena at the local university.

01:01:43

01:01:51

Simphiwe rehearsing at piano

Singing

Wilson:  It's been a steep learning curve coming to terms with Faust.

Simphiwe Mhkize, like most in the chorus, has no classical music training.

01:02:00

01:02:04

She had to rely on her raw talent, and a good ear.

Singing

01:02:15

Wilson with Simphiwe at piano

Wilson:  It sounds like it's quite a complicated piece of music that has been quite significantly simplified. Is that the case?

Simphiwe: Yeah, it has been quite simplified, because I think it was the problem of the absence of pianos in black schools.

01:02:34

01:02:40

And so they had to find a simpler way of bringing the music, like you see in churches, the music is on tonic solfa.

01:02:48

Wilson:  What does it say about South Africa that you're putting on a performance of Faust today? Could you have envisaged doing that five years ago even?

01:02:55

Simphiwe:  No. Not a chance. Actually the only time you would see an opera was if you had a TV, or perhaps you know somebody who knew what opera was, and they'd just mimic what happens. So it would be a huge joke to us. Something that you just mimic, because you see whites doing it. It wasn't a black thing, actually.

01:03:04

Orchestra conductor with chorus

Singing

Wilson:  It's the first full rehearsal, and the operatic stage is an unfamiliar place. But it's only minutes before Simphiwe and the choir hit their straps.

01:03:44

Singing

School kids

Wilson: Faust and the opera are a thousand miles from the reality of the singers' lives.

01:04:18

Simphiwe in class

Simphiwe:  Good morning. Okay, sit.

01:04:26

Wilson:  Simphiwe is a teacher at a rural high school 20 kilometres out of the township. To many of these students, opera may well carry the tag of white cultural elitism. But Simphiwe's message to her students is that in the new South Africa, opera can be equally liberating.

01:04:30

Simphiwe with Wilson

Simphiwe:  It's basically saying it's up to you as an individual to do something. It's not up to the government any more to say you can do this, you cannot do this. It's up to the person, if you've got the talent, then you go for it. There are choices. Sometimes people are prevented by things such as social development, because certain things do not happen in the rural areas, they are only restricted to the cities. The opera has obviously brought it to the community, the rural community.

01:04:49

01:05:03

Griffiths playing Piano/leading chorus

Piano music

Singing

Wilson:  Griffiths Kanyile could have had it all. In the 1970s he was hailed as one of South Africa's most acclaimed black tenors. His voice brought him more prizes and awards than he could carry. But only as far as the apartheid state would allow.

01:05:42

Griffiths with Wilson

Griffiths:  Well it is that tradition of being closed, andbeing shut out and not being known that you

exist. You only live in a small circle. Like if you are somebody in Korumanda or lets say in Cape Town, You don't know Griffiths Kanyile, he would say no. We didn't have the opportunity to get exposed to the entire community of South Africa. Even to our own people except locally.

01:06:05

Griffiths in rehearsal

Griffiths:  Let's try and project a jovial mood, a happy mood. Okay, light and swift.

Singing

Wilson: Griffiths is now passing on his musical legacy to the eSikhiwini chorus.

01:06:55

Singing

Wilson:  For six painstaking months he's been teaching them the art of opera.

01:07:05

Singing

Wilson with Griffiths

Wilson:  How do you feel having been able to take a group of singers who are completely new to opera, and to meld them into what we're seeing now, into a chorus.

01:07:27

Griffiths:  Can I just say this is a major breakthrough. In fact I've been saying it's a historical event. When the news was broken that we were going to do this work with orchestra, it was just excitement. We're just mad about it.

01:07:37

I just looked up and said ‘Thank, God. At last the opportunity has come.' We've been waiting and waiting and waiting.

Sets being put in place

Wilson:  The sets are starting to take shape. Now all that needs to be done is to make sure who does what, and when.

01:08:07

Singing

Wilson:  And like most things, it's not as easy as it looks.

01:08:24

Singing

Wilson:  Director's note - make sure those props are weighed down.

01:08:49

Singing

Wilson:  As Griffiths Kanyile once did, Bongi Vilakazi also dreams of a life in music. But his dream is within reach.

01:09:07

Singing

Bongi in library

Wilson:  For the past two years the 29 year old has been studying music at the University of Zululand.

01:09:21

Singing

Wilson:  But before he could come here, he had to work for several years to save enough money for his university education. And overcome the widely held perception in the community that music isn't really a suitable career.

01:09:35

Bong interview

Bongi:  They asked sort of questions ‘What are you going to do with music? How are you going to work? Where are you going to work? Because there's no work. Those are the troubling questions, especially when you think of the funds that you pay at the university, which are very high. So you know when you are there you doubt where am I going to get a job. But I've proved them wrong always.

01:09:50

Bongi at singing lesson

Singing

Wilson:  Performing Faust isn't simply art for art's sake. Bongi believes there are real lessons here for contemporary South Africa.

Bongi:  It is relating to the events that were happening

01:10:20

01:10:33

Bongi interview

in South Africa. These wars, violence going on, and at the end of this opera, we are saying the war is over and people must come together. They must stop this killing which has been happening. So I found it relating a lot to the situation and the circumstances which are happening in our daily lives in South Africa.

De Villas in her office

Wilson:  The staging of opera in rural communities isn't entirely altruistic. Sandra De Villas is passionate about opera, and is the driving force behind the production. She readily admits that opera has a serious image problem.

01:11:00

De Villas interview

De Villas:  Elitist, Eurocentric, elitist, expensive. It's like it is all over the world, it's not just in South Africa. I mean what I like about what we are doing is not really that we're Africanising opera, that we are revolutionising opera - it's all of those things that we are doing...

01:11:20

Wilson:  There is also a political imperative for South Africa's opera buffs. Enlist support from the black community, or any hope of government support is gone.

01:11:37

De Villas:  You can't live without the politics, you can't live without money. I just say you've got to be very, very careful. You can use politics, but you must never lose your integrity.

01:11:47

Orchestra rehearsal

Orchestra

Audience arriving at venue

Wilson:  For a week now, there have been muted concerns about the size of the venue, and the chances of drawing a good audience.

01:12:26

Singing

Wilson:  Inside the chorus is working off its nervous energy with a vocal warm-up.

01:12:41

Griffiths addresses company

Griffiths:  Relax, sing, enjoy it. Good luck.

Wilson:  But outside at the box office ticket sales are disappointingly slow. The invited guests will make up the bulk of tonight's audience.

01:13:00

Simphiwe

Wilson:  Ah, Simphiwe. Are you ready?

Simphiwe:  Yes. Very much so.

Wilson:  Excited?

Simphiwe:  Absolutely excited.

Wilson:  You must be just also a tiny little bit nervous.

Simphiwe:  I haven't had time to rest actually. I'm a little fresher than two days before.

Cast in dressing room

Wilson:  In the dressing rooms it's pandemonium.

01:13:34

Wilson:  Bongi, hi. You ready?

01:13:39

Bongi:  Yes, I'm ready. I'm ready to give it a big shot.

01:13:41

Wilson:  How's everyone feeling, a bit nervous?

01:13:46

Bongi:  The mood is very okay. Everybody's confident to make it today.

01:13:48

Wilson:  A last minute touch-up in the ladies' dressing room, and panic and tears over a lost costume.

01:13:56

01:13:59

Stage Manger

Stage Manger:  Five minutes, okay. Stand by...I'm getting the ladies and then we're all going through to the backstage area.

01:14:05

Inside auditorium/Wilson to camera

Super:

BEN WILSON

Wilson:  After months of painstaking rehearsals it's performance night. And the township choir from eSikhawini is standing on the cusp of its operatic debut. But it's also a critical night for the future of the arts in South Africa. With subsidies under close scrutiny, the success or failure of tonight's performance, could determine the future of publicly funded opera in South Africa.

Director addresses cast

Director:  You've come a long road, eh. You've come a long road. Consider where you started. When, February. Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly. Now you are here on the night. And what is happening here tonight is history in the making. History in the making. And you are making it. Have a good time.

01:14:19

And you know what? You must tell those people out there - your friends, your uncles, your aunties and those snobs that are sitting in the front - you must tell them who's the boss of this house.

Laughter

Performance

Music

Singing

Wilson:  Although they may not have filled the auditorium, it took no shine off the performance.

01:15:18

Singing

Applause

Singing

Wilson:  A small step has been taken, opera now has a toehold in a new world, and the message sent out by the eSikhawini township choir is loud and clear.

01:16:10

Applause

Wilson:  That on South Africa's road to transformation, even the smallest victories are sweet ones.

01:16:26

Applause

CREDITS:

SOUTH AFRICA - OPERA

Reporter          BEN WILSON

Camera           TIM LAMBON

Sound              TIM LAMBON

                        HAMILTON WENDE

Editor               STUART MILLER

Producer         HAMILTON WENDE