Opera production in the Western Cape : strategies in search of indigenization

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the past few decades fascinating opera productions have been staged by SouthAfrican opera companies, using strong local casts and strikingly indigenous interpretationsof standard works from the canon. It appears that opera in South Africa has survived thetumultuous recent history of this country and is invigorated by the creative possibilitiesunleashed by its contexts. This dissertation explores whether and how opera production inthe Western Cape has reacted to societal influences specific to South Africa. It launches anexploration of if and how the genre has 'indigenized' to become what it is today. Thefollowing themes present themselves during the course of this dissertation: the processthrough which opera has rooted itself in the country historically, the forms in and throughwhich opera manifested itself in the Western Cape, how the art form has developed, towhat extent local culture has influenced the art form and if, how and why operaproduction in the Western Cape has diverged from original Western operatic ideals.This dissertation is comprised of two sections representing, broadly, the past and thepresent. Chapters 1 and 2 are historical studies, whilst Chapters 3 and 4 discusscontemporary perspectives. Chapter 1 is an attempt to construct a history of opera in SouthAfrica and serves as a background or frame for the ensuing chapters. This chapter willshow that indigenization in its most subtle form can be traced in local opera productionslong before the issue of the reflection of indigenous cultures in opera became relevant.Chapter 2 is a first attempt to account for the history of the Eoan Group, a so-calledColoured opera company who performed during South Africa's Apartheid years. Itinvestigates the far-reaching implications of the drive to 'Europeanize' indigenous culture,as exemplified in the opera productions of this group. Chapter 3 discusses a new operacomposition, Hans Huyssen's Masque (composed in 2005), focusing on the use of voice asit engages with the indigenization of the aesthetic model of voice production. Chapter 4 isan investigation into the functioning of Cape Town Opera. It investigates how a localopera company – an institution promoting opera as a Western form of art – negotiates itsway through the tumultuous changes of post-Apartheid South Africa.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University