Symposium and Workshop: South African Opera Productions after the Apartheid

Date: 18th and 19th October 2018
Venue: Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth

Thursday, 18th October
10.00 - 10.05 am
Welcome: Dr Lena van der Hoven (Junges Kolleg of Bavarian Academy of Sciences/ University of Bayreuth)

10.05 - 11.15 am
Chair: Dr Lena van der Hoven

Prof Naomi André (University Michigan, USA):
Engaging Opera with New Narratives, Winnie: The Opera

Dr Donato Somma (University of Witwatersrand, SA):
Walking on Thorns: The Operatic Princess Magogo

11.15 – 11.30 am
coffee break

11.30 – 12.45
Chair: Dr Donato Somma

William Fourie (University of Royal Holloway, University of London, UK):
Memory Rituals: On Modernism and Neo Muyanga’s Heart of Redness

Dr Lena van der Hoven (Junges Kolleg of Bavarian Academy of Sciences/ University of Bayreuth):
“In or Out?”: Creating a South African Narrative through creative collaborative work in Umculo’s Romeo’s Passion

12.45 - 2.15 pm
lunch break

2.15 – 3.25 pm
Chair: William Fourie

Dr Juliana M. Pistorius (University of Huddersfield, UK):
The Total Work of War: William Kentridge’s The Head and the Load as Post-Operatic Gesamtkunstwerk

Angelique Mouyis (Rutgers University, USA):
Isango Ensemble’s Unogumbe – An Adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde

3.25 - 3.50 pm
coffee break

3.50 – 5.00 pm
Chair: Shirley Apthorp

Wayne Muller (Stellenbosch University, South Africa):
Towards contemporary relevance and political significance: The reception of Beethoven's Fidelio in Cape Town

Lebona R. Sello (North West University, South Africa):
Exploring Nelson Mandela’s masculinity through the lens of Mandela trilogy the opera

7.00 pm
Prof Naomi André (University Michigan, USA):
Black Opera and Working Catfish Role: Engaging Black Experience in Opera

Friday, 19th October 2018

10 – 11.45 am
Chair: Dr Lena van der Hoven

Melissa Gerber (Odeion School of Music, South Africa):
“We have our own stories to tell”: Questioning hybridity and identity in post-apartheid South African opera

Allison R. Smith (Boston University, USA):
Difference for the Sake of Difference: The Marketization of Black Voices in Post-Apartheid South African Opera

Megan Quilliam (University of Colorado, USA):
#SaveGautengOpera: Strategies for the Preservation of South African Opera

11.45 – 12.00 am
coffee break

12.00 – 1.00 pm
Workshop I. with input-presentations

12.00 – 12.30 pm
Input Naomi André:
Subjects, and Structures: South African Opera post-apartheid in the millennium

12.30 – 1.00 pm
Input July Zuma (Opera Singer):
An Observation of a Situation for South African Opera Singers in and outside South Africa

1.00 – 2.30 pm
lunch break

2.30 – 4.30 pm
Workshop II. with input-presentations

2.30 – 3.00 pm
Input Shirley Apthorp (Founder & Director of Umculo):
Opera as Necessity – For Whom Do We Sing, and How?

3.00 – 3.30 pm
Financial situation and political influence?

3.30 – 4.45 pm
coffee break

4.45 – 5.00
Dr Donato Somma & Dr Lena van der Hoven: Final statement

7.00 pm
Screening:
A documentary portrait of a radical re-make of Verdi’s opera Macbeth.