Sempre Opera and the Sempre Opera Instrumental Ensemble kick off 2016 on Sunday 28 February at 15:00 with a performance of excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos and Die Fledermaus by Strauss.
The first half of the programme is dedicated to well-known arias and ensembles from Don Carlos performed by Laetitia du Plessis (soprano), Aukse Trinkunas (mezzo soprano), Chris Mostert (tenor), Danie Verster (baritone) and Rex Nigrini (bass baritone). Don Carlos, based on a drama by the German, Friedrich Schiller, on the conflict between love, friendship, idealism and responsibility, is regarded is as one of Verdi’s darkest works. Well-known arias like Tu che la vanita (soprano), Nel giardin del bello (mezzo soprano), Per me guinto (baritone) and the quartet Ah, si maledetto, sospetto fatale will be heard.
In the second half of the programme the dark and sombre tone of the first half is replaced with the lightness and nimbleness of Die Fledermaus (Strauss). In the early 1870s, when Johann Strauss started composing Die Fledermaus he was already famous as the waltz king. This operetta’s première in 1874 was in the midst of the operetta’s Golden Era in Vienna. By 1900, more than 300 performances were presented just at the Theater an der Wien. The sopranos Deirdré Blignaut-Rautenbach and Marina Botha-Spies join the other singers for ever popular arias like the Czardas, Adele se audition aria, Prince Orlofski, the duet Trinke liebchen, trinke schnell and ensemble Brüderlein, und Schwesterlein.
The singers will be accompanied by the Sempre Opera Instrumental Ensemble and pianist Paul Ferreira under the baton of Schalk van der Merwe. Tickets for the concert are R120 per person and can be booked by making an electronic transfer to the Sempre Opera’s bank account. Tickets will also be available at the door. For further information please direct enquiries to or visit the website at www.sempreopera.co.za.