AWARDS:

 

Fleur du Cap Award for Best Performance in an Opera - Female: Johanni van Oostrum

Fleur du Cap Nomination for Best Performance in an Opera - Male: Jaco Venter

Fleur du Cap Nomination for Best Performance in an Opera - Male: Lukhanyo Moyake

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PRESS:

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★★★★★  "Faced with the option of traditional versus contemporary treatment of Wagner's early masterpiece, Matthew Wild has artfully combined both possibilities to offer a production that is grounded in the old myth but has the freshness and relevance of a modern interpretation ... The three-way collaboration between Michael Mitchell (set) Kobus Rossouw (lighting) and Kirsti Cumming (video) results in inspired stage designs that suggest raging seas, stormy skies, and the solidity of a vast container ship amid the turbulence. The interplay of contrasts is particularly apparent when a full-sailed Dutch East Indiaman is cheek by jowl with a modern vessel ...This Holländer may have a distinctive South African character, but its resonance  remains universal." OPERA NOW

 

★★★★  "Artfully constructed upon a series of antitheses, Cape Town Opera's new production of Wagner's early masterpiece has complexity and a resonance beyond that of an operatic version of an old myth. It is earthy and eerie, grounded and cosmic, grounded and tender, historic and contemporary, universal yet firmly situated in a South African context. In this, one senses the sharp mind and adventurous spirit of director Matthew Wild, never one to shy away from innovation. The staging is a triumph." CAPE ARGUS

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"In the printed programme for his production of Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer at the Artscape Opera House, the director Matthew Wild explained his rationale for adding a large dose of mid-17th-century South African history to the story: 'As Capetonians we are all too aware of the dreadful crimes committed by Jan Van Riebeeck, the VOC and its lieutenants, and of the enduring legacy of these misdeeds'. The Holländer here was identified with van Riebeeck, 'once hailed as a heroic pioneer, now increasingly reviled, unable to find rest, redemption or homeland in either the country of his birth, or that which he colonized.' On the whole the concept worked well, and I am sure that most of us in the audience felt uncomfortable at the images of slavery and slaughter, the cosy posters of Boer War women and children held in British concentration camps and the iconic Voortrekker Monument by the celebrated artist Pierneef." OPERA MAGAZINE

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"Te midde van Suid-Afrikaners se worsteling om sin te maak van dekolonisasie en die trajek en manifestasies van kolonialisme vandag, is Kaapstad Opera (KO) se nuwe produksie van Wagner se Der Fliegende Holländer aktueel.

Geskiedenis het eintlik meer te make met die eietydse as met dít wat gebeur het – geskiedenis gaan oor hoe ons vandag oor die verlede dink en in die verlede oor die verlede gedink het. Wanneer die gordyn opgetrek word, bevind ons ons tussen vraghouers op ’n skip (en nie die voorspelbare boeg van ’n skip nie). Met videoprojeksies (puik ontwerp deur Kirsti Cumming) slaan blitse en onstuimige waters die skip. Die Hollander (Jaco Venter) in sy 1652-gewaad bars deur ’n skerm waarop sy skip geprojekteer word. Intussen is Senta (Johanni van Oostrum) verlief op beelde van die historiese Hollander, Jan van Riebeeck, soos ’n beeld van ’n destydse banknoot suggereer. Die vrouekoor wat gewoonlik spin, kap hier vis op in ’n fabriek terwyl Mary (Violina Anguelov) hulle op koers hou. Dan is daar Senta se pa, Daland (Gregory Frank), wat haar vir rykdom aan die Hollander wil afsmeer, asook Erik (Samuel Sakker), wat Senta se liefde verbete probeer wen. Hierdie produksie konfronteer ons ook met beelde van slawerny, en Wild skryf in sy programnotas dat hy nie oplossings bied nie, maar ons eerder wil prikkel om te dink oor “ons huidige angst” rakende die nalatenskappe van kolonialisme. Sy slotbeeld is dalk ’n utopiese uitkoms van ons worsteling met daardie geskiedenis, maar wat die produksie wel doen is om deel te word van ’n breër “verhooggesprek” (deur vertolking) in die uitvoerende kunste tans oor ons verstaan van ’n 1652-tipe geskiedenis wat aan ons opgedis was." DIE BURGER

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