TITLE : EOAN Our Story
EDITORS: Wayne Muller and Hilde Roos
PUBLISHER: Fourthwall Books
REVIEWER: Dr Dawn Gould
Before anything else is written, congratulations must be given to each and every individual involved in the compilation of this work. One is aware of the careful thought and care that has gone into the book so that the mean, grudging and petty posturing of the government of the day, did not override the recording of the operatic performances of the Eoan Group: La Traviata, Rigoletto, Il Travatore, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme etc. The ugliness of the details needed to be made public to a different generation of South Africans but without distracting from the voices of the artists involved. There are Capetonians who will remember going to the Cape Town City Hall to listen, with pleasure, to the music and the voices of the singers.
This is an oral history (47 interviews were made) – the recounting of events by people who were personally involved. It is that involvement that is the making of the book. The two editors Dr Roos and Mr Muller carefully insert explanations, when needed, between the stories. Nevertheless the reader is conscious of the dissension between individuals and those involved in the actual running of the Eoan Group. A casual mention of the EOAN Group will automatically refer to the two people who were closely connected with the organization: Mrs Helen Southern-Holt who in 1933 established in District Six, a centre for cultural events, originally physical education, elocution and later adding ballet training; Joseph Manca who, in 1943, began the disciplining of the EOAN choir. This does not preclude all the other men and women who contributed time, knowledge and sheer hard work to the group.
EOAN Our Story is not a book to convey a heightened feeling of well being! It is interesting and informative on one level, there was obviously hard work, sweat and tears as the art of singing and different languages had to be learnt but on a different level the reading leaves a feeling of sadness and one of “what could have been.”