Coming up in the Mondays @ Six programme at St Clements in Musgrave Road on
August 31 will be From La Boheme To
Bayreuth – A Magical Operatic Journey
presented by Judge Chris Nicholson
Judge Nicholson explains the inspiration for this
presentation:
“On a chilly morning in June 1970, a beautiful fellow
advocate Karen Blum, showed me a music shop in Windhoek, where a sale was in
progress. Knowing my love of classical music she invited me to buy a two-record
set of La Boheme by Puccini, sung by
Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Tebaldi. I told her that I could not stand all that
screaming and politely declined. She insisted and I relented. It was modestly
priced at R4 and I took it home, with great scepticism. I played the records a
few times and then one evening, a miracle occurred. I was lying in the bath
after an exhausting game of squash, wallowing in the warmth of the soap suds.
The orchestra was hushed and Carlo Bergonzi began to sing…
Che gelida manu – your
tiny hand is frozen - the great aria in act 1 of that wonderful work,
entered my soul and changed my life.
Oh, those glorious melodies! That follow you around all day
like the taste of kippers, but so much greater! I became an avid listener, a devotee
and finally a worshipping disciple of the magical world of opera. After La Boheme, I moved on to the awesome Madam Butterfly and the rest of Puccini.
Verdi, Mozart and the other masters of the craft joined my pantheon of gods on
Mount Olympus. Bizet’s Carmen can
never be forgotten and the marvellous world of Richard Strauss and his
predecessors on the continent. I was always told that one day I would be mature
enough to listen to Richard Wagner. So with long hours and hard work, I found
the pinnacle of all opera in the master of Bayreuth, the town where he
established his music festival. His towering masterpieces, culminating in the Ring of the Nibelung, are said to equal
the Sistine Chapel ceiling as the finest artistic achievements in the Western
world.”
Judge Nicholson offers to take opera lovers on a short
journey to the magical kingdom of opera, with musical illustrations. For table bookings
phone St Clements on 031 202 2511.
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