Adam Spiegel
presents
The Wilton's Music Hall production of
Yiimimangaliso
"The Mysteries"
REVIEWS and CUTTINGS
Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston, South Carolina)
and
Festival of Arts & Ideas (New Haven, Connecticut)
The Hartford Courant - Sunday, June 16, 2002
Connecticut
'Mysteries' Proves To Be Remarkable Event
STAGE REVIEW
By MALCOLM JOHNSON
COURANT THEATER CRITIC
"The Mysteries," the British / South African retelling of the Bible, adds up to nothing short of miraculous as it fuses languages, images from great religious art, modern theatrical styles, traditional dance, and pounding, spiritual, powerful music on the stage of the Shubert Theater.
This production by the London-based Broomhill Opera and Wilton's Music Hall, an opening offering in New Haven's always impressive and imaginative International Festival of Arts and Ideas, draws upon the medieval Mystery Plays once performed throughout Europe, which have come down to us in English versions from Chester and York. The racially diverse, 34-member company of the South African Academy of Performing Arts infuses the familiar stories with an infectious and compelling blend of primitivism and sophistication under the direction of Mark Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood, the Londoners who created the piece.
The evening begins with a Miltonic account of the fall of Lucifer, complete with a fiery pit, and ends with the Resurrection. It briefly dramatizes the stories of Adam. and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark, and Abraham, before moving on to its main subject, the Annunciation and the birth and life of Jesus. Most of the actor-singer-musicians take on several roles over the two acts, but Vumile Nomanyama and Andries Mbali are constant presences, the first as a commanding Deus / Jesus, the second as a slippery Lucifer.
Their costumes define them and also indicate the style of the production, which unfolds within an angled construction of metal scaffolding, recalling a production of the Living Theater, also once a guest in New Haven. As Deus, or Jehovah, the muscular Nomanyama, head shaven and sporting a small mustache and beard, looks splendid and regal in a brightly patterned woven fabric wrapped around his waist. As the working-class Jesus of Nazareth, he wears worn dungarees torn and frayed at the knees. Mbali's Lucifer slithers about in slick red leather, doing his dirty work.
The costumes by Leigh Bishop are thus eclectic. Especially striking are the angels, whose resplendent headgear in yellow, red and blue, adorned by white shells, lights up the stage like a fresco by Giotto. Other seraphs look more hip, with feathered bowlers and blue jackets adorned with ANGEL. Ruby Mthethwa's voluptuous Mary Magdalene wears an especially provocative patterned jump suit that emphasizes her occupation. Adam and Eve are nude, or semi-nude, with their bodies dappled in swirls of color.
The scenery, designed by Dornford-May and Dan Watkins, employs a raked wooden floor, with a trap for Adam's creation and for Lazarus. To the sides, on ground level, drummers beat plastic garbage cans, evoking street theater. Above them, another set of percussionists slams on red metal cans.
Elements of "Stomp" can be felt in the use of dowels to hammer the stage floor, and Dornford-May also borrows wedgelike groupings from the famed English director Trevor Nunn. Under the incandescent lighting of Mannie Manim, the stage glows with vibrancy.
Dornford-May also produces some simple but stunning effects. A white sheet with a long row of actors behind it becomes the Last Supper. The Crucifixion employs a ladderlike cross on which Christ is laid and lifted, as the light beats down on him until his thorn-crowned head pitches forward.
Only in paintings is the sacrifice as penetrating and wrenching. But "The Mysteries" is funny as well as transcendent and moving - the Noah played by Sibusiso "Otto" Ziqubu is something of a clown, mocked by his wife, and Andre Strijdom's Joseph casts a strange glance at Pauline Malefane's regal Mary on hearing she is expecting.
The script employs four main languages of South Africa: the Dutch-derived Afrikaans, English, and Xhosa and Zulu with their clicks and pops. Because the stories are so well known, there is no language barrier, only a rich sense of a polyglot culture.
Hazelwood, the music director, draws an uplifting, often joyous sound from his ensemble. Modern township flights of song coexist happily with hymns and carols. The dancing, typically energetic and upbeat, also fuels this remarkable theater event, which even spreads into the aisles of the Shubert Theater, most memorably when Christ reenters the house, after his death, shining in a white surplice.
"The Mysteries" continues today at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. Tickets: $10 to $48. Box office: 203-562-5666.
THE MYSTERIES, created by Mark Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood; directed by Dornford-May; music director, Hazlewood; set designed by Dornford-May and Dan Watkins; costume design by Leigh Bishop; lighting designed by Mannie Manim; choreography by Joel Mthethwa; produced by Wilton's Music Hall. The Broomhill Opera and Wilton's Music Hall production, presented at the Shubert Theater by New Haven's 7th International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Mary Miller, festival director.
Abel/King, etc. Bongani Bubu
Eve, etc. Portia Dladla
Cain/Pilate Herman Hardick
Adam, etc. Kurt Haupt
Abraham/Judas Steven Hicks
Herod/Peter Sandile Kamle
The Virgin Mary Pauline Malefane
Lucifer Andries Mbali
Noah's Wife/Mary Magdalene Ruby Mthethwa
Deus/Jesus Vumile Nomanyama
Joseph/Thomas Andre Strijdom
Noah/Annas Sibusiso "Otto" Ziqubu
New Haven Register - Sunday, June 16, 2002 www.nhregister.com
'Mysteries' a triumphant, lyrical telling of Bible tales
By Dale Robinson
NEW HAVEN - There is a gesture in the dances in Broomhill Opera's "The Mysteries," the music-theater production rocking the Shubert Theater this weekend as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas: arms extended, palms up, an open expression of both giving and receiving.
There is music in the words spoken and sung by this South African troupe in Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English - beautiful lyricism. infectious rhythm.
There is physical, organic power in the magnificence of the timpani, its cadence elemental and bold.
And when the performance is over, you feel as though you've stood under a spiritual waterfall.
Telling a story that works on many levels, the players enact scenes from the Chester Mystery Plays: medieval street theater chronicling Bible tales. Director Mark Dornford-May's basic set is a canvas for splashes of color; a bouquet of yellow daisies is iridescent on the bare wood. The scaffolding, and the chorus and musicians on it, are one giant, well-modulated speaker.
Vumile Nomanyama as God/Jesus wears a rainbow wrap, only slightly less brilliant than his commanding portrayal of God in the first act, which is followed by his more sensitive and loving Jesus. His death on a makeshift cross is one of the most touching moments you will ever see on stage. Because Nomanyama's portrayal of suffering is so real, because his Jesus is so human, because the tragedy resounds with apartheid vehemence, and because of what we know about the crucifixion historically, we weep.
The ensemble is eminently likeable, especially the hilarious Sibusiso "Otto" Ziqubu as a beleaguered Noah ("The chickens are giving me problems!") and Pauline Malefane as a radiant Virgin Mary. Most members of the company play multiple roles, and they dance, sing and wail on percussion with absolute commitment.
Props are simple but clever. Real fire burns in bell; a house-plant and green lighting evoke paradise; the ark and the table at the Last Supper, at once modest and witty, delight the audience as they are revealed.
Music director Charles Hazlewood uses the props of discarded civilization as instruments: Oil drums, tires, plastic trash cans. bottles and cowbells each have their own sonority.
Woven in and out of the familiar stories is melody - poignant folk tunes from delicate choral voices, songs of joy, songs of war, all derived from the cultural panoply of what was apartheid South Africa.
There is music, too, in the pentameter of the spoken English, the "click" sounds in the Zulu and Xhosa, and the brogue of the Afrikaans. Other sounds that add a psychedelic aura come from Andries Mbali's mercurial Lucifer and the ensemble, who imitate birds, mammals, the wind and even the masses.
All of this is triumphant stuff, and glorious. But a didactic streams burbles throughout: It means something. It may mean we must beware our animal instincts, and our human ones, for they are the cause of so much angst and bloodshed. And it may mean we should pay attention to the spiritual mysteries, reach for something higher and then, like the arms-extended gesture throughout the play, we can both give and receive love.
Whatever the message, its delivery was ardently embraced at Friday's opening-night performance. After the jubilant Ascension finale, the audience leapt to its feet and thundered, applause raining down.
Event: "The Mysteries"
Time: Today 2 and 7 p.m.
Place: Shubert Theater, 247 College Street, New Haven
Tickets: $10-$48
Info: (203)562-5666
New Haven Register - Saturday, June 15, 2002 www.nhregister.com
'Carmen' great start to festival
Opera's cast adds realism
By Dale Robinson
NEW HAVEN - Danger: daggers, derringers, fate, flamenco gypsy girls and powerful soldiers.
At the Shubert Theater, all of these ingredients join timeless music and a company of South African performers laying it all on the line in ""Carmen"," making a great start to the music-theater schedule of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
Broomhill Opera's rendition of the Georges Bizet classic, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, has an incidental, casual beginning that sets the tone for this production. Long before the house lights go down, nondescript people wander onstage, smoke, talk, gather and separate. The overture, presented ably by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, gathers volume. Its curiosity piqued first, the audience's disbelief goes up in smoke.
The mixed-race cast adds realism to this Gypsy society: The cigarette girls smoke cigarettes; the soldiers, crooning bawdily, have only the cigarette girls on their minds; and the opera, sung in an English translation by Rory Bremner with crackling Xhosa dialogue, enhances this picture of a barrio society and its everyday dynamic.
The chorus has one rhythmic, driving voice, and a choreographed rough elegance that is a tapas for the eyes.
As Carmen, Pauline Malefane is robust and spell-binding, her comic acting and expressions full of fire. Her singing, especially the well-loved "Habanera" and "Seguidilla," fugues from Broadway-musical casual to European operatic formality and back. Her tone brings pathos, while Pauline du Plessis' Micaela has a willowy soprano that is formal opera - her contribution stellar and pure.
Sandile Kamle's Don José turns out to be multidimensional; his singing voice, sweet early on, becomes tragically strident later as jealousy infests his sense of honor and anger takes over.
No single player steals the show, but Andre Strijdorn, as Escamillo, borrows it for a while. He has a Yul Brynner electricity and stage presence.
Bizet's "Carmen" is an impression of Gypsy pathos. Director Mark Dornford-May and music director Charles Hazlewood's version strips away the pretense and makes it easy for an audience to enter there.
Go there, but be forewarned: It is dangerous fun.
Event: "Carmen"
Time: Today at 8 p.m.
Place: Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven
Tickets: $10-$48
Info: (203) 562-5666
CHARLESTON CITY PAPER May 29, 2002
What's The Buzz - Sampling the Big Festival
The Power of South Africa
"The first time you bear a bunch of South Africans singing together, you'll never forget it," is what Broomhill Opera music director Charles Hazlewood told me when I interviewed him on the morning before they opened their much ballyhooed Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries at the Sottile Theatre on May 24. I'd previewed in these pages both of the shows the Broomhill gang had slated for this year's festival, and I'd read the London reviews, so I had a pretty good idea what lay in store for me that evening.
Even so, I wasn't prepared for the overwhelming experience of seeing The Mysteries in person, and Vumile Nomanyama's remarkable performance as God and Jesus. Everything you've read or heard about this show is true - it is flat-out one of the most exuberant, emotionally charged, brilliant pieces of theatre (and I use that word in the largest possible sense) I've ever seen. I will do anything I can to see it again, and if that means I get your seat because you were too slow to buy a ticket, so be it. I'm not a religious person (although I was raised Catholic, so naturally I've retained the guilt), and I was slightly skeptical - despite the raves - about a show based on stories from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. I'm an idiot. Because this show isn't about religion, or even spirituality; it's about storytelling, and even I can admit that some of the world's best stories are in the Bible.
When the lights finally went down on the last scene of The Mysteries, the Sottile still rang with the echo of what Hazlewood had described to me. The moment the lights went up - and I mean the moment - every audience member in the house was on his or her feet. That is what standing ovations should be about - the complete inability to remain in one's seat. It's also worth noting that in the lobby prior to the performance, there was a sign that read: "WARNING: The first of scene of Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries contains full frontal nudity." According to Hazlewood, only in Charleston have the producers been "encouraged" to post such a sign. A friend suggested a far better alternative posting: "WARNING. every scene but the first of Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries contains no nudity whatsoever. Sorry."
I thought Broomhill's other production, of Bizet's Carmen, was quite good in its own right. It made no excuses about being nontraditional, and it used the same set and rough theatrical idiom as The Mysteries. And Pauline Malefane was a fitting Carmen, able to fix her incredible eyes on a male character, think "puree," and watch as that person wilted into a quivering, lacerated mound of post-manhood. But the formalized structure of an opera, for all the indigenous expression this South African group brought to it, seemed to drop a wet blanket over what was most appealing about the Broomhill company. For sheer vitality and life-loving energy, Carmen couldn't come close to The Mysteries in my opinion.
PATRICK SHARBAUGH
CHARLESTON CITY PAPER May 29, 2002
Miraculous Mysteries
Astounding and aching in its beauty
BY PATRICK SHARBAUGH
REVIEW
Not to he missed at any cost.
Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries
Presented by the Broomhill Opera Company. Plays thru June 2 at the Sottile
Spoleto Festival USA
Bizet himself would be proud.
Carmen
Presented by the Broomhill Opera Company. Plays thru June 1 at the Sottile
Spoleto Festival USA
In Medieval England, life's bright spots were few and far between. Between outbreaks of plague, regular sackings by marauding mercenaries, an oppressive feudal system, what passed (and still passes) for English "cuisine," and the backbreaking toil and drudgery of daily life, the concept of leisure activity was about as foreign to your average peasant as thong bikinis or double lattes.
It wasn't called the Dark Ages for nothing.
Little wonder the citizenry looked forward to annual feast days like Midsummer's Eve, Christmas, and Corpus Christi with such zest. Often on such civic holidays, entertainment took the form of plays dramatizing stories drawn from the Bible. Originally, these "mystery" plays (from the Latin mysterium, or "act") were performed by the clergy themselves, until the Catholic Church decided that public drama wasn't in its best interest (some things never change) and the city's merchant guilds took over the annual affairs.
Performed on carts and wagons throughout a city's open spaces, the plays could be regarded as the first organized street theatre; the city of Chester's annual production was one of the best known. From Creation to the Last Judgment, the series covered 25 tales in all, sometimes running as long as eight hours.
The production of these same Chester Mystery Plays appearing at Spoleto Festival USA under the name Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries is a wonder. Produced by London's Broomhill Opera, it has much in common with the way the plays were originally performed: by relative amateurs using found objects and only the most basic technical artifices. Beyond that, this production is completely unique, an extraordinary testament to the creativity and vision of its actors and directors. Broomhill Opera artistic director Mark Dornford-May and music director Charles Hazlewood auditioned some 2,000 South African natives to fill the 40 roles of The Mysteries. Coming mostly from choirs in rural townships, the vast majority of the company has no formal training, and few had ever set foot in a theatre before being cast early last year. Even so,the passion, the thrilling musicality, and the extraordinary energy the cast brings to The Mysteries is anything but the work of amateurs.
While clocking in at far less than eight hours (closer to two), the production is still dense, covering most of the best-known stories from the Old and New Testaments - from Lucifer's fall to the Creation, from the Nativity to the Ascension, with Cain and Abel, Abraham, Noah, Herod, Lazarus, the Disciples, and many others in between. Using native South African dance and song, a slew of languages including Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, and Zulu, wildly colorful costumes and straightforward staging and story-telling, The Mysteries is often as moving as it is side-splittingly funny.
As God, Vumile Nomanyama is dignified, austere and appropriately authoritative; when he strips off a colorful sarong-like robe to reveal a pair of blue jeans beneath them, his transformation into Jesus is achieved simply and beautifully. Andries Mbali is an hilarious and hateful Lucifer outfitted in red leather and horns. Sibusiso Ziqubu's rotund Noah is alone worth the price of admission.
The politics of Apartheid are never too far from the biblical surface, seen in a white Cain killing a black Abel, a white Pontius Pilate declaiming to a black population, Jesus arrested by black baton-wielding security guards. It is a miracle of a play, achingly acted and sung, a transforming experience for all who see it.
The Broomhill Opera's other production during this festival, Bizet's Carmen is performed in repertory with the same cast as The Mysteries. Premiering in 1875 at the Paris Opera-Comique (where it initially bombed), Carmen is the tragedy of a gypsy girl and her two suitors, the military man Don Jose and the bullfighter Escamillo. Don Jose is studying for the priesthood when he kills a man after a game of Pelotta, and flees south to join the army. His mother and Micaela, an orphan whom his mother wishes Jose to marry, follow him and set up house in a village outside the town where Jose's regiment is posted. Jose is seduced by a gypsy, Carmen, whom he allows to escape from military escort, after which he is imprisoned and demoted. On his release, Jose finds Carmen, only to discover that his senior officer, Zuniga, is now a rival for Carmen's affections. He ends his military career by aiding an attack on Zuniga and is left with little option but to join the gypsies and their smuggling activities. Carmen and Jose's relationship soon flounders. When Jose briefly leaves her to go to his mother's deathbed, Carmen takes up with the toreador Escamillo, after which the wounded and enraged Jose returns and kills her.
With the crackling Pauline Malefane as Carmen, the Broomhill production is sung in English with the dialogue in Xhosa. Malefane's Carmen is a blistering dynamo of attitude and sex appeal, a carnivore in a camisole who sings the role with passion and fierceness. Likewise, both Sandile Kamle and Thembela James are powerful as Don Jose and Escamillo, respectively. While the only classically trained voices in the opera seem to be those of James and of Pauline du Plessis (Micaela), the production doesn't suffer from the lack but instead wraps itself around the unconventional singing styles and ethereal voices of its cast, reimagining Bizet's classic as a far more accessible story than it might otherwise have been.
But as good as this Carmen is, and as talented as its performers are, it seemed somehow less alive on the stage than the company's Mysteries, as if in placing the story in the dreary traditional operatic format, something is lost. It's a stellar production; its only shortcoming lies in a comparison to the achievement of Yiimimangaliso.
CHARLESTON CITY PAPER May 29, 2002
Amazing Grace
The Broomhill Opera takes South African talent to the world's stages
BY PATRICK SHARBAUGH
The Mysteries
Opera
May 31. June 2 at 8 p.m.
Carmen
Opera
May 30, June 1 at 8 p.m.
Sottile Theatre, 40 George Street - 579-3100
Almost exactly a year ago, Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries opened in London's Wilton's Music Hall in the city's East Side, well removed from the tony West End theatre district. The production received such acclaim that its limited eight-week, 20-performance run sold out within 24 hours of the first reviews, which were uniformly ecstatic. The Mysteries began another run, this time in the West End's Queen's Theatre, last February, where critical and popular reception was, if anything, even more enthusiastic than before.
Featuring a cast of 40 young South African actors of all races, hardly any of whom have had any formal stage training, Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries has similarly set Charlestonians buzzing since its American premiere on die opening day of Spoleto Festival USA last Friday, May 25, at the Sottile.
Produced by the U.K.'s Broomhill Opera, with artistic director Mark Dornford-May and music director Charles Hazlewood, the production (performed in repertory during the festival with Carmen) creates an extraordinary blend of the medieval words of the Chester Mystery Plays (performed in Xhosa, Zulu and Afrikaans as well as English) with music - ancient and modem, African and European. It draws on the rich choral traditions of the South African townships and on Modern rhythms created with plastic trash bins and penny whistles, pieces of sheet metal and soda bottles filled with sand. The Mysteries takes its audience on a passionate and visually stunning journey through the Bible, from Lucifer's fall and the Creation to Judas's betrayal and the Crucifixion.
"When we first took the company to London," ,says Dornford-May "we had no idea what to expect. Our worst case scenario was that people would patronize us, that they would just pat us on the head and say, 'Wasn't it very nice what those South Africans did' Wasn't that rather nice?"
"In fact, the reaction was anything but that. The two shows became, I think, one of the most extraordinary events in London last summer. Which is obviously very satisfying, because we're not doing this as a feel-good thing. We're very, very hard on the performers. There's no sense of 'well, they've never been on stage before so we'll allow them a bit of an excuse'. When you're on our stage you've got to be as good as anything else in the world."
It's been a long journey from London's East Side to Charleston, though, much of it through some nasty political terrain. "It all started when Charles and I went to Umlaze and did some workshops there with a choir," Dornford-May recalls. "And we were knocked out by the talent in that particular choir. And then out of the blue a gentleman named Dick Enthoven called and said he wanted to establish a South African company, an international company. And he invited Charles and me to go to South Africa to set that up."
"At first I said no because I didn't know who was and what was behind it all. And he said, write down a list of things that would make you say yes. So I did, thinking he would look at it and say 'This is impossible.' I said I wanted a large company of about 40 people, I wanted it to be South African in terms of its performers, and he said, 'Yeah, OK we'll do all that.'"
Enthoven was in fact the owner of the Spier Wine Estate in South Africa, a wealthy businessman who'd been in exile for most of the Apartheid period because of his political views. 'Within three hours of Nelson Mandela's release," notes Dornford-May, "he phoned Dick to ask him back to South Africa. In fact, Mandela edited Long Walk to Freedom in Dick's house, so there's a very close personal relationship between those two men.
"Dick believes firmly that there are a few successful ways for South Africa to go forward. One is tourism, because it's a beautiful country. Another is wine, because it's got some fantastic wines. And the third one is through performing talent. Dick thinks it's possible to change the world's view of South Africa - which is still quite mixed - through exporting cultural programs and projects. He's a man with a mission, and we're part of that mission."
Part of the company's - and that mission's - success, according to Dornford-May and Hazlewood, lies in the innate musicality of most South African natives. Hazlewood says, "The first time you hear a crowd of South Africans singing together you'll never forget it. These people are singing almost from the day they're born. It is as natural a bodily function as eating or breathing." The fact that virtually all of the company's performing members come from rural townships without theatres or formal training facilities makes theirs a particularly democratic company.
"One rule Charlie and I established before auditions was that we wouldn't look at anyone's CV," explains Dornford-May. "We decided to judge them just on talent alone. And everyone joined to become part of the company, not to play a specific role. Because what was important to us in the company is that we have a sense of ensemble. Everyone gets paid the same, everyone gets treated the same. Although Vumza (Vumile Nomanyama, who plays God and Jesus in The Mysteries) is playing a huge role, he doesn't have a dressing room by himself. Pauline, who plays Carmen - the same thing. Vumza is a fantastically talented actor, but part of his impact is that he knows he's got everyone supporting him when he's onstage."
Nomanyama elaborates: "There's a kind of love that Mark and Charlie bring to this work. They believe in what you, as an actor and a person, have, more than what they want. We are one big family in this company; everybody feels at home, even off the stage. You never feel alone on the stage, even though you may be standing alone. You know there are 39 other members who are backing you up with all their hearts."
So far, that sense of ensemble has translated exceedingly well into the American idiom here in Charleston and will likely continue to do so when the company travels to New Haven after the Spoleto Festival for the Festival of Arts and Ideas, and then gears up for a likely Broadway run next Spring.
"One thing we're particularly proud of with the company is that there isn't really any other company on the planet that can service all demands between straight theatre, through musical theatre, through high opera," says Hazlewood. "It's a tradition that used to exist, called 'lyric theatre,' a hundred years ago. But can you imagine a company at the Met doing, say, a Shakespeare play? Equally, can you imagine the RSC doing La Traviata? But our company can genuinely do all of those, those two extremes and everything that lies in between."
The Post and Courier (Charleston) Monday, May 27, 2002
'Carmen' performance richly rewarding
REVIEW
BY WILLIAM FURTWANGLER
Post and Courier reviewer
Spoleto Festival USA's presentation of Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen" was a knockout on Sunday night. Playing to a full house, this American premiere of a South African Carmen, as it was billed, sizzled with excitement and drama.
Its cast, recruited from South Africa, sang, danced and acted fully up to the demands of the opera and, in many instances, exceeded what you would expect from a star-studded production in a big city international opera house.
Charles Hazlewood, conductor and music director, delivered as direct and believable an operatic experience as you could want. It was hair-raising at times.
Hazlewood adapted Bizet's work, shortening it and tightening it so the musical and dramatic flow moved along at a fast clip. Hazlewood, leading members of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, chose brisk tempos that his onstage singers followed with perfect ensemble.
The choral sections were amazing. The chorus delivered ringing sounds with utmost precision. At times, they were almost deafening when they sang full voice. Their rich and, at times, raw quality is generally not heard in opera. But it worked well here. Hazlewood, from the orchestra pit in the Sottile Theatre, led his mass of singers with exceptional inspiration.
The setting was modern (not 19th century Spain through French eyes), with very basic metal poles and wooden platforms on three sides of a raked wooden stage. Instead of detracting from the realism, it simply focused the action on the characters. Lighting was subtle. Costumes were colorful and imaginative.
The opera was sung in English and, while not always understandable (What opera really is?) the basic plot action was easy to follow, especially with the gifted singers/actors on stage. There was a willing suspension of disbelief.
The spoken dialogue, thankfully limited, was delivered in Xhosa or Afrikaans, depending on the speaker's native language. This strange-sounding dialogue led to some confusion as to what was being said, but had no ill effect and added to the charm of the production.
You are unlikely to find a better production at Spoleto USA this year. Some of the audience members seemed extremely enthusiastic at the end, giving a standing ovation, while others merely offered applause. Purists were probably unhappy with the stag-ing, but part of the genius of Bizet's creation is its resiliency no matter what artistic and creative freedoms are taken.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN CARMEN, music by Georges Bizet, conducted by Charles Hazlewood, directed by Mark Dornford-May, choreographed by Joel Mthethwa, lighting by Mannie Manim, costumes by Leigh Bishop, set design by Mark Dornford-May and Dan Watkins, at the Sottile Theatre, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
THE CAST
Don Jose - Sandile Kamle
Carmen - Pauline Malefane
Micaela - Pauline du Plessis
Escamillo - Andre Strijdom
The Post and Courier (Charleston) Monday, May 27, 2002
A new take on an old tragedy
Broomhill Opera presents 'South African Carmen'
BY DOTTIE ASHLEY
Of The Post and Courier Staff
The words come hot and heavy on the balcony of the Sottile Theatre as Capetown mezzo-soprano Pauline Malefane yells at an interviewer, "I can't believe you could be on HIS side!" She then gestures toward Sandile Kamle, whose face quickly turns into a mock grimace.
The two opera singers identify so strongly with their characters that they feel they must defend their personalities and flaws. No doubt, Georges Bizet would get a chuckle from this.
Malefane stars in "The South African Carmen," an abridged version of Bizet's devastating tale of a soldier's doomed passion for a beautiful, strong-willed cigarette factory girl. The music theater piece is being performed four times during Spoleto Festival USA by the Broomhill Opera of South Africa and London.
Carmen, known as a gypsy only one step above a slut, capriciously runs off with a dashing bullfighter, thereby ruining the life of the man who adores her, the soldier Don Jose.
Although the two opera singers have only 20 minutes between eating their early supper and starting rehearsals at Sottile, they make the most of it, each promoting his or her own character.
Wearing a pale yellow shirt, blue jeans and new red leather loafers, 25-year-old Malefane says, "I think that before Carmen gets into that fight that caused the trouble, she had been done wrong by some men. And so she is bitter. Wouldn't you be? And it's not her fault. Also, she likes to be the center of attention and will do anything to gain this. It's something she just can't help."
But Kamle believes Carmen could have been a nicer person, and then perhaps wouldn't have met such a tragic fate.
"I feel that Don Jose was a very naive person, and knew absolutely nothing about women until he met Carmen," says 26-year-old Kamle, who wears a ready grin. "He's from a nice, middle-class family and he has a perfectly good fiancee, Micaela, whom his mother wants him to marry because she is a nice country girl.
"Also, she stands by Don Jose no matter what he does," Kamle adds.
"But she's horribly, horribly boring," interjects Malefane as she gives Kamle a playful punch in the shoulder. "Why should Don Jose want Micaela after seeing the passionate, glorious Carmen?"
In this version of "Carmen," based on Prosper Merimee's novel and originally written in four acts and presented in 1875 at the Opera-Comique in Paris, the songs will be sung in English but the dialogue will be in spoken in Xhosa.
"It is OUR language," says Malefane with a smile. Xhosa is the mother tongue of people in the former Transkei, Ciskei and Eastern Cape regions and is now spoken by about 17 percent of the population in these areas. Also, this version of "Carmen" runs about two hours, which is considerably shorter than the original version.
When "The South African Carmen" was presented in London, Malefane received a rave review from The Times of London, which called her performance "incendiary, seductive and visceral ... somewhere between Leontyne Price and Aretha Franklin" and the entire production "unmissable."
For two months Malefane was the toast of London, performing opposite singer Luzuko Mahlaba (replaced in this production by Kamle), but she feels she is always learning and perfecting her style.
"This is my first big production," says the graduate of the University of Capetown, who has sung the role of Despina in "Cosi fan tutte," and was Susanne in "La Nozze di Figaro."
"I first started singing in the choir in high school and then when I went to college I studied municipal administration because I just didn't know how my singing would work out. But then, after a year, I decided to take a break from college. Instead of just sitting around the house doing absolutely nothing, I joined a choral training program," she says.
"Then, someone who heard me said I should go audition for the Capetown Opera but I decided I wanted to actually study music. I hadn't realized I had to learn music theory, which is very difficult, as well as Italian and German. But I stuck with it, although it was terribly difficult, and graduated with my degree in music and voice."
Malefane met Broomhill Opera artistic director Mark Dornford-May at the Spier Arts Festival held in Capetown and he asked her to audition for "Carmen."
Malefane and Kamle are both from Capetown but because they are from different townships, they didn't know each other before meeting at the Spier festival in 1997, where they both auditioned for the Broomhill Opera.
Kamle is still studying toward his diploma in voice from the University of Capetown and manages to squeeze in classes between tours. In London at the Wilton's Music Hall, he performed in "The Beggar's Opera" as Mr. Peachum and was in the highly praised "Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries." He performed in "Porgy and Bess" at the State Theatre Pretoria and was Gherardo in "Gianni Schicchi," among other roles.
In addition to London's Wilton Hall, "The South African Carmen" has been performed at Queen's Theatre in London, the Perth Festival in Australia and the Johannesburg Civic Theatre.
As Malefane and Kamle leave to start rehearsals, Kamle leaves his interviewer with one final thought: "Why did Don Jose have to kill her and ruin his life? Given his background and his morals, it was such a shame. Maybe if he had been more mature he would have realized this would pass, and he could have a life. But then we wouldn't have a tragedy, would we?"
WANT TO GO?
WHAT: "South African Carmen" by the Broomhill Opera at Spoleto Festival USA.
WHEN: at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 30 and June 1.
WHERE: SottileTheatre. HOW MUCH: $30,$45.
CHARLESTON CITY PAPER May 22, 2002
History's Mysteries
A South African production comes alive
BY PATRICK SHARBAUGH
Maybe you're wondering what exactly "Yiimimangaliso" means - to say nothing of how it's pronounced. Reasonable questions both, especially if you're considering dropping a hundred bucks on good seats to something in the big festival, and you're looking for roughly equivalent bang. And of course, you would, at the very least, like to be able to pronounce for your date the name of the show you're going to see. Fortunately, you're in luck: it sounds exactly the way it looks (go on,it's not that hard). Matter of fact, the meaning is pretty much a gimme, too: Yiimimangaliso is a Zulu word meaning - surprise - "the mysteries."
But it's also a fair description of the distinctly unconventional journey this unique production from London's Broomhill Opera has taken, from the germ of an idea in the working-class London district of Tower Hamlets to auditions in the most impoverished townships of post-Apartheid South Africa and back again to London - this time to nearly unheard-of critical and popular acclaim in the West End. And now, of course, to an American premiere in Charleston.
Performed in repertory with Bizet's classic opera, Carmen, The Mysteries will see four productions at Sottile Theatre during the festival (Carmen will also be presented four times at the same location). It comes here still flush from a crushingly successful run in March at the West End's Queen's Theatre. Prior to that was a gig at the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia, a much earlier (but equally lauded) presentation at Wilton's Music Hall in East London this time a year ago, and back in the early months of 2001, its debut at the Spier Festival in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Despite the name of the producing company, Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries is not really an opera. In fact, the form itself predates the genre of opera altogether, and the material it's based upon is older still. The Mysteries is über street theatre, a cyclical series of narratives based on stories from the Bible (with which even the lowliest early British audience member was familiar) that originated in the medieval town of Chester, England. Originally performed upon carts in public squares, the Chester Mystery Plays dramatized 25 distinct Biblical tales - from Creation to Crucifixion - for a population that not only couldn't read but had precious few forms of entertainment outside of office pools predicting, who'd survive the latest plague. Most significantly, the cycle was performed by and for a community that believed earnestly, desperately, in Heaven and Hell.
As best anyone can figure, the last time the Chester Mystery Plays had a public performance was 1575 (would that Hollywood might allow as much time to pass before greenlighting a remake). In transposing the stories from medieval Chester to modern South Africa (sung in English, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Sothe, Zulu, and even Latin) the result is a genuinely rousing piece of raw theatre that creates a real sense of community just as the original did but across remarkably diverse boundaries this time. The music is predominantly vocal, sung in roof-raising a cappella, with ebullient accompaniment on objects one might ordinarily expect to find only in dumpsters and in shopping carts that double as mobile homes: empty beer bottles, oil drums, sheet metal, cans of sand and soil.
On a nearly bare stage, the cast of 40 shifts easily from words to song, drawing on several of South Africa's 11 languages, including the distinctive clicking of Xhosa (it's likely a good thing the stories are familiar). The players invite the audience to use its imagination: the building of Noah's Ark is conjured with a piece of folding latticed fencing, the flood from a cascading water sprinkler; Bethlehem arises from a bale of hay, and an imposing God (Vumile Nomanyama) transforms himself from the Alpha and the Omega to the more sandal-friendly Jesus by the simple device of stripping off a colored robe and revealing a pair of blue jeans.
The men and women onstage for The Mysteries though, are about as far as you can get from conservatory-trained singers and actors. In fact, until being selected for this production, few of the cast had ever set foot in a theatre, and fewer still had any formal training, All but a handful were until recently residents of poverty-stricken townships in rural South Africa - a nation that has ostensibly moved past the racial inequities of Apartheid but within which pro-found social and economic stratification still exists, with whites far more likely than blacks to live in urban centers, drive cars, and attend cultural events.
About two, years ago, Broomhill Opera artistic director Mark Dornford-May was approached by Dick Enthoven, the owner of Spier wine estate in the Stellenbosch mountains near Cape Town, where he had earlier founded a successful performing arts festival. Initially, Dornford-May declined what turned out to be an offer by Enthoven to become artistic director of the festival. But he was intrigued by Enthoven's offer to fund theatre and music workshops in the region. In the ensuing search for talent, Dornford-May and Broomhill music director Charles Hazlewood ultimately decided to hold auditions in South Africa's remote townships, far from urban cultural and commerce centers. Auditions took place in community halls, schools, and churches; the pair heard some 2,000 men and women perform everything from Zulu folk songs to Barry White, Christian hymns to opera librettos snatched from the radio.
Dornford-May and Hazlewood were astonished at the level of talent they saw, much of it nurtured in the popular township choirs, which offer temporary escape from what is often an otherwise bleak existence. They winnowed the hopefuls down to 50, and proceeded directly to rehearsals for Yiimimangaliso, which they described to the cast as a new Zulu version of the Chester Mystery Plays. When the production premiered at the annual Spier Arts Festival later that year (2001), audiences were mostly receptive - though some white members felt obliged to head for the exits upon the entrance of a black man (Nomanyama) who proclaims, 'I am God'.
In London, however, raves from typically prickly critics were instantaneous and unanimous. The five most influential theatre critics in London's newspapers - those of The Guardian, The Observer The Times, The Telegraph, and The Independent - all gave the show a five-star rating. In an extraordinary move, The Times heaped accolades upon the play in its editorial column. The unorthodox production was "one of the most moving, beautiful, humane and courageous shows you will ever see in the West End," gushed Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph. "I will be astonished if the West End sees a finer production this year." John Peter, theatre critic for The Sunday Times, wrote. "Nothing quite prepared me for the sheer, generous, magnificent exuberance of this show."
The energy that so enthralled audiences and critics in London is just as evident in the other production the Broomhill Opera brings to this year's festival. After opening The Mysteries, Dornford-May and Hazlewood decided the company had become seasoned enough to tackle a more traditional opera. They chose one of the world's most popular. For their Carmen, they drew upon the formidable talents of Pauline Malefane, a mezzo soprano who plays the Virgin Mary in The Mysteries. Sandile Kamle, The Mysteries' Peter and Herod, fills the role of Don Jose, while Andre Strijdom, Joseph and Thomas in the first show, became the toreador Escamillo in Bizet's classic, if perhaps somewhat overproduced, opera.
Sung in English from a new translation by Rory Bremner, Broomhill's Carmen is slightly cut (with no children's choruses, for example) and the remaining spoken dialogue is in Xhosa, one of South Africa's predominant languages. Broomhill's music director Hazlewood will con-duct the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in the four presentations at the Sottile - a pleasant contrast to previous festivals, which have generally given short shrift to the local fellas.
Although ticket sales to both offerings have been less than spanking hot to date, that will almost certainly change once the shows open (on May 24 and 26, respectively). In fact, we wouldn't be even a little bit surprised if Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries becomes the official sleeper hit of this year's festival. You heard it here first, folks.
SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA
Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries, and Carmen
Music theatre
$30, $45
The Mysteries: May 24, 31, June 2 at 8 p. m. May 27 at 2 p. m.
Carmen: May 26, 28, 30, June 1 at 8 p.m.
Sottile Theatre, 44 George St. 579-3100
The Post and Courier (Charleston) Saturday, May 25, 2002
Sottile audience sees flawless performance
REVIEW
BY DIANE SPRUNG
Post and Courier Reviewer
Wow! This review of "Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries" can be summed up in six words: Get thee to the Sottile Theatre. Mark Dornford-May's and Charles Hazlewood's version of the Bible from the Creation to the Crucifixion and Resurrection is a joy. It's gospel; it's comedy; it's drama; it's bel canto. In fact, it's just plain glorious. Most of the dialogue is in four of the 11 languages of South Africa. It's like watching an opera with no subtitles. It doesn't matter. Translation is completely unnecessary.
How can you describe a flawlessly mesmerizing performance? Vumile Nomanyama provides a powerful portrayal as God as well as Jesus. He is magnificent to hear and watch. As the Virgin Mary, Pauline Malefane delivers in a wonderful fashion as well. Andries Mbali's Lucifer is a hoot as is Sibusiso "Otto" Ziqubu's Noah. There's not a bad apple in the bunch. The entire cast attacks the work with such passion that it spills right over the footlights. They are in danger of getting a speeding ticket as the pace is so delightfully brisk thanks to director Dornford-May.
Dan Watkins and Dornford-May have created a set that is so simple in form, yet commanding. As soon as you enter the theater the sharply raked stage with its sky-high platforms built onto scaffolds grabs your attention. The set is dressed with sand-filled soda bottles, automobile wheel rims, 55-gallon steel drums, wooden ladders and more.
The orchestra is the gorgeous voices. The percussion section is derived from the cast using the props, and special effects are again the voices. For example, at one point an Ohm chant drones in the background while the action continues with singing and dancing. Later, an actor circles the rim of a glass for an ominous effect.
Leigh Bishop's costumes are simple but effective. The angels wear shirts emblazoned with the word Angel in sequins and black derby hats with white feathers on two sides. It gives the feeling of Viking helmets.
As for the action, it makes you laugh until you cry yet is never irreverent. However, even atheists can't help but be disturbed by the Crucifixion. The scene is extremely moving. There are so many marvelous scenes that the best thing to do is brush up your Bible and hurry on down to get your tickets.
YIIMIMANGALISO: THE MYSTERIES: written by Mark Dornford-May and Charles Hazelwood; directed by Mark Dornford-May; musical direction by Charles Hazelwood; choreography by Joel Mthethwa; lighting design by Mannie Manim; set design by Mark Dornford-May and Dan Watkins; costumes by Leigh Bishop; at the Sottile Theatre at 2 p.m. Monday, 8 p.m. Friday and June 2.
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Saturday 22nd June 2002
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