Rossini’s “La Scala di Seta”: meet the players
June 8, 2009
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I have been a repetiteur for many productions, from Operas to Musicals to Cabarets. But I have enjoyed few of them as much as this production conducted by Alex Fokkens and directed by Lara Bye. The story is delightfully funny and charming. A young couple are in love and already secretly married, and this becomes the engine that drives the farce. I think it is a real “Closet-Opera”: there is always at least one closet on the stage, with always at least one person hiding in it, about to hide in it, or who has just come out from hiding in it. It is a lovely excuse for some comic bussiness and delightful Bel Canto music with exhilirating runs, high notes, cadenzas and furious finales. The work itself is a pleasure, Rossini’s 5th opera, the work of a twenty year old. Musch of the mature Rossinian genius is already to be found. Team leaders Alexander Fokkens and Lara Bye created a production bubbling with life, humour and energy.
Conductor Alexander Fokkens
Alex Fokkens uses a light touch on the score. The orchestration had to be reduced for this production and the Cape Town Camerata certainly has their work cut out for them. Alex understands voices well and it is evident that he has studied singing himself. The skill he brings to conducting Rossini is the ability to keep things “light and frothy” but not “frothy and frivolous”. He has a way of insisitng on what he wants, musically, while keeping the mood positive and creative. His experience as an opera conducor certainly pays off in the devellish ensembles as much as in the slow arias, where a misjudgment of tempo could be fatal. I appreciated all his discussions with the cast about expressive detail. The atmosphere of exploration and discovery was one to treasure.
Director Lara Bye
Lara Bye is so refreshing to work with. Willing to think “outside the box”, she rethinks operatic conventions and came up with a classic comedy that has a very contemporary feel to it. Her eye for comic timing is excellent and she has the ability to keep everybody focussed on what she is trying to communcate to an audience, while keeping the mood light enough for all the cast members to feel relaxed enough to make their own contributions. I felt asif I was watching a growth process in which the joy and fun of Rossini’s opera revealed itself in stages, a series of discoveries. Multimedia elements, animations and projections by Jon Keevy adds to the comedy and freshness of the production. The off-beat production had audiences of all ages laughing and giggling at its first public outing in February. Packed houses enjoying an afternoon of Opera? How delightful!
I very much enjoyed working with the cast. The two Baritones Aubrey Lodewyk and Conroy Scott both have very striking stage-personalities and the voices to match.
Baritone Aubrey Lodewyk
Conroy Scott – who also plays the Double Bass professionally – is given the role of Blanzac, whose overconfidence and fall from grace, is plotted and portrayed with excellent comic timing. I enjoyed his awareness of what the basses would be playing at any given moment in the opera. Even in this early Rossini opera, the trademark harmonic drive is evident, and Conroy’s orchestral experience creates a sense of being very aware of and in tune with whatever is happening in the orchestra pit. There’s a sense of youth, energy and enjoyment about being in rehearsal with Conroy that I enjoyed.
Conroy Scott and Zanne Stapelberg: Die Burger Gala Concert Feb. 2009
Magdalene Minnaar "La Scala di Seta" 2009
Magdalene Minnaar has a wonderfully expressive colloratura. Working with her on runs and cadenzas is truly fun. She has an excellent ear and faultless intonation – from many years of music lessons and performing also as a violinist, no doubt. And if one suggests just one more high note, or one more tricky little hairpin bend on some ridiculously high note, she is not only willing to try it, but can actually pull it off! I really enjoy her willingness to find a dramtic reason for a cadenza, and to let the music guide the movements to go with the notes. She will be fitting in this production on her way to New York for Masterclasses.
Elizabeth Frandsen
Elizabeth Frandzen sings the role of Lucilla with the perfect mixture of comedy, irony, and a touch of the “Adams Family”. Her popping in and out of the closet is one of the highlights of the evening, and her seduction of Blanzac is delightfully funny. Her powerful mezzo can be brandished like a sword to subdue a cocky baritone, or like a ticklish little feather to seduce the man of her dreams. Her aria is one of the highlights of the show and it is very hard to leave the reharsal room without whistling her perky little tune.
Sunnyboy Dladla in Verona, Italy 2009
Jacques Louw
Jacques Louw sings the tutor Dormont. A character role, he tends to pop up at inconvenient times and in even more inconvenient places.
The project is presented under the auspices of the South African Wagner Society and coordinated by Music Maestro’s
“La Scala di Seta” – Synopsis
June 7, 2009
January 2009: Artscape Theatre
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Catch “La Scala di Seta” 12 and 13 June 2009 at Atrscape Theatre
Synopsis
Dormont is the teacher and guardian of the beautiful Giulia, and he is determined that she will marry Blansac despite her continual rejection of his advances. The fact is that Giulia is already married to Blansac’s friend Dorvil, who every night is able to exercise his conjugal rights because Giulia lowers a ladder made of silk down to him from her bedroom window.
The opera opens in the morning. Owing to the attentions of Giulia’s cousin Lucilla, and the family servant, Germano, Dorvil has great difficulty making his escape by his usual method. Blansac is due to arrive at any minute in his quest for win Giulia’s love, but she has devised a scheme to divert his amorous attentions towards her cousin, who would make an excellent wife for him.
Giulia intends to bring Lucilla and Blansac together, and persuades Germano to spy on them from a secret hiding place to see how the relationship develops. Blansac arrives with his good friend Dorvil, who desperately tries to persuade him that Giulia is not looking for a husband. Unfortunately this only has the effect of making Blansac more determined, and more confident of success. He suggests that Dorvil might care to hide and see how successfully he is able to woo Giulia. Consequently, when Giulia enters, her meeting with Blansac is being overhead by both Germano and by her husband.
Giulia decides to probe Blansac to see if he would make a good and faithful husband for her cousin. Her questioning deceives all of the men listening into thinking that she is genuinely interested in Blansac. Dorvil emerges from hiding and storms off in fury, much to Germano’s surprise, who also shows himself. In the midst of all the confusion and noise Lucilla enters and Blansac suddenly notices what a fine looking young woman she is. Decidedly prettier than her cousin Giulia.
It is now late evening. Giulia is desperate for Dorvil to arrive so that she can explain the reason why she was questioning Blansac so closely about marriage. Once again the servant Germano is on hand and realizes that his mistress has an assignation. He can only assume that it is with Blansac, and decides to hide once more and see what happens. Unfortunately he is unable to keep his secret to himself and he lets Lucilla in on it. She is distressed to learn that Blansac, who she now loves dearly, is meeting Giulia and she also determines to find a hiding place in Giulia’s bedroom to observe proceedings.
There is general surprise and joyful amazement when it is Dorvil who climbs into the bedroom, followed closely by his friend who is intent on using the silken ladder to further his wooing, not of Giulia, but Lucilla. Everyone scatters when Dormont, who has been woken by all the noise, enters in his nightshirt. Seeing the way that everything has turned out for the best, he quickly forgives the couples for their underhand behavior and all ends in general rejoicing.
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The tenor who was almost a nurse
Sunnyboy Dladla at 20 Tenors
DANGEROUS LIAISONS: Bel Canto Arias and Duets of Love & Intrigue
Beau Soleil Music School
12 Salisbury Rd, Kenilworth
Adults R50, Children R20
SUNDAY 31 MAY 5pm
I love listening to Sunnyboy’s voice. It is a clear and bright sound that goes up and down the scale without sounding tight, tense or pinched. He can reach those stratospheric high notes that are so thrilling in operatic music. Sunnyboy sounds young and fresh, no wobble in sight, without any of the suicidal gasps and chest-beating one expects from the stereotypical straining tenor. Our upcoming programme “Dangerous Liaisons” features music written for tenor and soprano (sung by Magdalene Minnaar), with the bulk of it featuring Italian opera in a style known as Bel Canto. This music is florid, with abundant runs and much ornamentation. In order to sing these, one needs a lighter voice capable of executing dazzling displays of virtuosity, flexibility and easy high notes.
Ask what a tenor is and many people may answer Pavarotti or Domingo. Yes indeed, tenors they are. But that’s only one type of tenor, the kind who sings more dramatic music. Domingo always had a very powerful voice, and started his career not as a tenor at all but the more dark sounding Baritone. Pavarotti was a lyric tenor in his youth, but eventually made the transition to more dramatic roles, superstardom and wealth. Many serious musicians and opera-lovers regret the fact that he did not stay in that lyric repertoire for longer.
Sunnyboy Dladla is such a lyric tenor. He has had notable successes in Mozart operas (Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro) in Cape Town. He was winner of the Schock Singing Competition in 2008 and he has performed in Youth Concerto Festivals with orchestras around the country. In 2009 he has made a name for himself in Oratorio with performances of Handel’s Messiah around the country. I wanted to work with Sunnyboy because I like him as a person, I respect his work-ethic and he simply sings up a storm!
Sunnyboy Dladla, a lyric tenor , very nearly didn’t become an opera singer. He studied to be a nurse, but struggled financially, and couldn’t afford to complete his studies. While working as a volunteer nurse he was brought to Cape Town by his former Mpumalanga classmates Pretty Yende and Given Nkosi. Pretty and Given had been admitted to UCT partly because of their repeated wins in the opera category of the Tirisano Schools Music Competition. Sunnyboy had been a provincial winner in this very same competition, and so his hopes were high.
Unbelievably, given his subsequent successes, Sonnyboy’s first audition for the UCT College of Music was unsuccessful. The audition panel felt he lacked musical and operatic experience and that he would not cope with the demands of the Opera Diploma. They referred him to the now defunct Choral Training Programme, a Development Programme run by Cape Town Opera: a very worthwhile apprenticeship and bridging programme. Yet that wasn’t why he had made the long trip to Cape Town. It seemed to Sunnyboy that his best option was to take the train back to Mpumalanga. Thankfully, Pretty Yende’s persistence ensured that Sunnyboy was able to sing another audition for Prof. Angelo Gobbato, then head of UCT Opera School. Angelo saw potential and arranged financial assistance and went to extraordinary lengths to give Sunnyboy the chance to study. Angelo often moved heaven and earth for singers when he saw the spark of potential.
A few years later, and Sunnyboy has already sung in Verona, Italy, one of the greatest opera centres in the world. His career has taken off and he is in demand as one of the most promising South African lyric tenors in recent years. Most recently he has been chosen as one of the Twenty Tenors. Sunnyboy’s humility is striking, as are his openheartedness and his capacity for hard work. He works as a waiter and a librarian to earn money to pay for extra coaching when he is preparing for a performance – something that immediately makes him stand out from the crowd. I first encountered Sunnyboy in the roles of Basilio and Curzio in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” (The Wedding of Figaro), where his comic gifts were recognised and encouraged by American director Chuck Hudson and critics called him “a real comedic talent… responsible for a whirlpool of comedic goings on.”
Sunnyboy is the antithesis of the temperamental tenor, and very quick to acknowledge the guidance he has received from teachers and mentors in his profession, no matter their social standing, and he attributes his success to the fact that he has been able to put his trust in their guidance. He still humbly acknowledges what he gained from messrs Mbamba and S’thole from Ndlela High School who encouraged him (he admits a little against his will) to take part in choir competitions. Likewise, he recognises the other teachers who have shaped his career. Currently his teacher is Associate Prof. Sidwell Hartman of the South African College of Music, and he has also learnt from one of the greatest Turandots in the world – Hungarian Dramatic Soprano Eva Marton.
Sunnyboy speaks candidly but fondly about the difficulties he had early in his studies. He received a lot of negative feedback, his teacher was a hard and persistent taskmaster and Sunnyboy battled with the adjustment to being a full-time opera student far from home. It didn’t help that his family was anything but supportive. How a young black man from Mpumalanga without the resources to finish a Nursing Diploma thought he could become an opera singer, was something many of his peers could not understand. Yet Sidwell encouraged him to learn from others and most of all, to be careful about his choice of repertoire. Having started his studies as a lower voiced baritone, by his third year his technique started settling and he had made the transition to tenor, where his voice felt more natural, well-placed and he produced his best quality sound.
Vocal chords are tiny little muscles, that can be trained and developed much like any other muscle in the body. But they are easy to damage. Therefore a teacher has enormous responsibility. The teacher has to identify exactly what a student’s voice will be able to do – before they can actually do it – and then has to take that voice on the road to that potential. And they often get it wrong. Singers themselves misunderstand their voices. Often there is great impatience with a young voice. The danger is that some want to push voices to sing louder, bigger, faster. Voices can be “used up” that way. Even great conductors like Karajan have marred legacies, having chosen lighter voices for heavier roles, which then left those voices permanently scarred. (Katia Ricciarelli’s Aida and Turandot come to mind, or Gundula Janowitz’s Empress in “Die Frau ohne Schatten” ).
Wobbles develop, high notes become hard and shrill under pressure, or certain notes just stop ringing properly as the vibrations of the chords are forced out of their natural synch. So far Sunnyboy has avoided these pitfalls. Prof Hartman steered him away from any heavy repertoire and big roles. He was not allowed to sing with any force or pressure, designed to camouflage the real size of the voice. While he always had an agile voice, his teacher taught him how to sing runs without force, and by lightening up the voice he can sing some impressive florid passages. His voice revealed itself to be a true lyric tenor.
From smaller roles in Massenet’s “Manon” and Puccini’s “La Rondine”, he developed steadily until his biggest role to date, as the leading tenor in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” , directed by Marcus Desando, himself a tenor of note in performances of operatic roles and musicals.
Singing in the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Italy, is one of the highlights of his career so far. He was invited to take part in an international competition for young artists, with finance provided by MIAGI. Nothing less than a “Turandot Idols”, singers from around the globe compete in a gruelling set of elimination rounds to win three performances in a staging of Puccini’s “Turandot” in Verona – the Lion’s Den of Italian opera, where tickets cost up to 200 EUROS, (just to keep things in perspective). Along with fellow UCT students Musa Ngqungwana and Mlamli Lalapantsi, Sunnyboy outsang formidable international competition to win. And no, none of them sang Pavarotti’s “Nessun Dorma” – the World Cup 2007 theme song. They took the roles of Ping, Pong and Pang, three Imperial functionaries whose “cynical, comical and nostalgical” stage business suited the three South Africans to a tee.
When I ask Sunnyboy what advice he has for young singers, he is quite clear about his answer “Know your voice, know your “Fach” (the type of music you should be singing to show your voice to its best advantage). Don’t try to sing everything. Say no to things that do not suit your voice. Go for every opportunity you can. And learn Italian! You will be performing in countries where everyone speaks it, and your language has to be perfect if you are going to be singing in Italian”.
And sing in Italian he will. Our programme “Dangerous Liaisons” will feature arias by Bel Canto composers. Sunnyboy will sing arias from Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” (Barber of Seville), and “La Scala di Seta” (The Silken Ladder). Sunnyboy will also be seen at Artscape on 12 and 13 June in a revival of La Scala Di Seta, a comic farce, in a production conducted by popular South African Alex Fokkens and directed by Lara Bye, with funding from the South African Wagner Society.
Future productions for Sunnyboy include the delightful Donizetti opera “L’elisir d’amore” where he will sing the romantic young lover Nemorino’s arias in “Dangerous Liaisons”.
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