(Sandile
Mabaso)
The Highway area’s principal tenor, Sandile
Mabaso, will be presenting a recital of 19
Italian Songs & Arias of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century on March
3, 2019, at the Holy Trinity Church in Hillcrest. Mabaso will be accompanied by
the accomplished Highway Area based pianist, Bonita Ziegelmeyer.
The audience will hear Mabaso’s smooth
lyric tenor sing beautiful songs and arias, accompanied by the piano, composed
by early masters of opera and members of the Florentine Camerata. This group
came together to innovate the ‘musical theatre’ of their time. Their
innovations led to the development of opera. Some of their innovations are
still used and heard in opera today. The songs and arias capture the joys of
new love and the pain when that love ends. Some of the songs mention names of
the lovers. This heightens the intensity of the emotions in the music. The
audience will be transported back in time and experience the full emotions of
the songs, only to realise that they have also felt these emotions.
The idea to present these songs and arias
came to Mabaso after a music lesson when a student had sung one of the pieces. “It
became clear that this repertoire has to be performed regularly for young
singing students to understand the requirements of the piece. They must be also
performed pleasure because the music is just magnificent,” he explains.
Mabaso is a tenor from KwaZulu-Natal who began
his musical training at the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School, under the direction
of Christian Ashley-Botha. In 2005 he obtained his Bachelor of Music from the
University of Pretoria. While a student he sang the roles of Tamino in The Magic Flute (Mozart) and Alfredo in Die Fledermaus (Strauss). He had his
first professional engagement in 2006 singing the role of Inkos’ Mathole in
Opera Africa’s touring production of Princess
Magogo (Khumalo). He toured South Africa and The Netherlands with this
production.
From 2006-2007, he was a member of the Cape
Town Opera Vocal Ensemble where he toured to Germany, France and Sweden in the
productions of Showboat (Kern) and Porgy and Bess (Gershwin).
In 2009 he began studying with Prof. Werner
Nel and was selected to participate in The International Baroque Symposium,
held at the North West University, under the leadership of Kobie van Rensburg.
In 2010 he sung the role of Acis in Acis
and Galatea (Handel) also under the direction of Kobie van Rensburg. In
2012 he has sung the role of Puck in The
Fairy Queen (Purcell) for Umculo Cape Festival.
In 2013 he was a finalist in the Mimi
Coertse Singing Competition. In 2014 he made his solo debut with the
KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The German art-song has been his main focus
along with his operatic endeavours. In 2012 he was invited to perform
Dichterliebe (Schumann) at UNISA's annual An die Musik recital. He has also
presented this work at the Wakkerstroom Arts Festival, Tatham Art Gallery. In
2013 he presented Brahms’ LiebesliederWalzer, opus 52 & 65 at the Odeion, Bloemfontein.
In 2014, he sang On Wenlock Edge (Vaughan-Williams)
in Pretoria. In 2015 He sung Die schone
Mullerin in Stellenbosch.
In 2015, he toured a programme of Baroque
music with harpsichordist, Andrew Cruickshank along South Africa’s garden
route. In 2016, he moved to KwaZulu-Natal and opened his own teaching studio.
The recital will take place at 15h00 on
March 3, 2019, at the Holy Trinity Church in Hillcrest. Tickets R75 at the
door. For more information contact Sandile Mabaso on 084 598 8125 or email mabaso.sandile@gmail.com
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