Royal Heroines in Opera and Song
Tue May 23, 18:30 - Tue May 23, 21:00
NWU School of Music & Conservatory
ABOUT
Royal heroines in opera and song pays homage to female royalty. Songs by Princess Magogo, arranged and adapted by Prof Khumalo and Prof Klatzow, as well as arias and duets from Verdi's Don Carlos and Aida, will be performed by Bongiwe Nakani (mezzo) and Khayakazi Madlala (soprano) and accompanied by Lisa Engelbrecht.
In 2013 Bongiwe Nakani debuted as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia in a coproduction of the UCT Opera School and Cape Town Opera, followed by Marchesa Melibea in the African premier of Il Viaggio a Reims. In 2016 she joined the Vienna State Opera ensemble and has since performed Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Filipyevna in Eugene Onegin, Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera, Annina in La Traviata, Third Lady in Die Zauberfloete, the Mother in Les Contes d'Hoffman, Marthe in Faust, Scwherlite in Die Walkure, Flosshilde in Rheingold and Die Gotterdammerung and Emilien in Alma Deutscher's Cinderella as well as covering such roles as Dame Quickly in Falstaff and Azucena in Il Trovatore.
During 2015, Khayakazi was part of the Gauteng Opera ad hoc chorus, performed in specially chosen smaller ensembles for the Company, and participated in chorus works such as La Traviata and l'Elisir d'Amore. She performed the role of Evelyn in Madiba, the Opera composed by Mr Sibusiso Njeza. Khayakazi is one of the artists that performed at the Johannesburg Opera Inaugural Concert and has participated in the Online Voices of South Africa International Singing competition, where she won 2 prizes, namely, an Audience Prize and the Andrea Catzel Prize. She is currently studying at North-West University with Prof. Conroy Cupido.
Dr Lisa Engelbrecht is a collaborative pianist, soprano and operatic vocal coach at the University of Cape Town Opera School under the directorship of Prof Jeremy Silver. Lisa, apart from coaching singing students and lecturing in Lyric Diction (German) at UCT, performs regularly as a vocal accompanist in South Africa and abroad.She is a member of the teaching faculty at the International Lyric Academy summerprogram in Vicenza, Italy and is a guest teacher at the both the Royal Academy and Royal Colleges of Music, London. Lisa has also worked as coach/répétiteur for the Grange Festival in Hampshire.
Her educational background includes post graduate study at the Royal College of Music, London (P.G Dip in Advanced Performance Répétiteur), University of Illinois (M.Mus in Vocal Accompaniment) and UCT (D.Mus in Collaborative Performance and Thesis) with apprenticeships at San Francisco Opera (Merola program) and Glimmerglass Opera (New York). She has also coached for Opera National du Rhin(Strasbourg), British Youth Opera (London).