The Cape Town Opera (CTO) and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) will join forces to present an Easter performance of Handel’s “Messiah” at the Toringkerk in Paarl on Saturday 16 April at 16:00.
The performance will feature Ané Pretorius (soprano), Nonhlanhla Yende (alto), Siphesihle Mdena (tenor) and Lwazi Dlamini (bass) as soloists, with the CTO Chorus and CPO conducted by Brandon Phillips.
Said CTO artistic director Magdalene Minnaar: “Collaborating for an Easter concert and performing in the historic Toringkerk was an opportunity too good to miss. We were able to engage the wonderful organist Mario Nell to play the extraordinary Norman and Beards organ, manufactured in 1906 in Norwich, England.
“By combining the award-winning CTO Chorus under chorus master Marvin Kernelle, CTO in-house soloists and young artists with the internationally renowned CPO, we knew we were on the path to success. As an opera company, we are incredibly proud of being able to cross genres and give our audiences an oratorio for Easter and we are also very excited to reach our audiences in Paarl.”
For Louis Heyneman, CEO and artistic director of the CPO, performing to a cultured and music-loving audience will enable them to take the orchestra and its partners to a wider community. “This underscores our mandate as an orchestra of the people. We are delighted to co-present a work of such magnificence to an audience traditionally underserved by major arts companies,” he pointed out.
“Messiah” is arguably the best-loved oratorio and has been performed by the CPO many times in the last 20 years with partners such as the Philharmonia Choir and the New Apostolic Church.
Traditionally, it’s performed at Christmas and Easter, as the story covers the birth, the passion and the ascension of Jesus Christ. While it took the German-born composer George Frideric Handel only a few weeks to write in 1741, “Messiah” has some of the most well-loved music in the classical repertoire, including “Every valley shall be exalted”, the “Hallelujah Chorus”, “The trumpet shall sound”, and the soul-stirring final chorus “Worthy is the lamb”.
Tickets cost R240 and are available online at Quicket.
