University drama about King Shaka
ONE of Durban’s most distinguished musical “exports” in recent years is UK-based soprano Sarah-Jane Brandon, who will make two appearances in her home town next week.
Her first performance will be a lieder recital, accompanied by Durban pianist Andrew Warburton. The second event will be a soirée with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Brandon matriculated at Crawford College, La Lucia, in 2001, and took her Performer’s Diploma at the University of Cape Town in 2007, having studied with Sarita Stern.
She then studied in London, where she gained a post-graduate diploma from the Royal College of Music, followed by a Master’s with Distinction in Advanced Vocal Performance. In 2009 she won the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition which helped to launch her burgeoning career, becoming a member of the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival in 2011.
Brandon’s current concert engagements include a tour of the Netherlands with the BBCSO and Martyn Brabbins, performing Howell’s Hymnus Paradisi; as well as Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Omer Meir Wellber at the Dresden Music Festival.
In recital she will appear at the Wigmore Hall with James Baillieu; at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, with Christopher Glynn, and in London and throughout the UK with Gary Matthewman, in a complete performance of the Wolf Italienisches Liederbuch.
Brandon’s operatic commitments have included her role debut as Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in a new production; and her return to the Dresden Semperoper as Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann.
In the 2014/15 season she appeared as the Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in a new production for the Dresden Semperoper and for the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Finland, on tour for the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Bahrain, and at the English National Opera in London.
In concert she has appeared with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in Budapest and Abu Dhabi, with the Munich Radio Orchestra and for the Classical Opera Company.
She made her debut at the Teatro Real, Madrid, in performances of Handel’s L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato for the Mark Morris Dance Group, conducted by Jane Glover.
Brandon’s recent opera appearances have included Micäela in Carmen for the Deutsche Oper, Berlin; Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro for Glyndebourne, Opéra de Dijon and Opera-Theatre de SaintEtienne; Pamina in Die Zauberflöte for the Opéra de Nice; Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and Desdemona in Otello for Cape Town Opera.
Her recent concert engagements have included Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Yannick NézetSéguin; Viennese Gala Concerts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Thomas Rösner; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Sir Roger Norrington; and her debut at the Concertgebouw in Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony.
Further highlights have included an appearance at La Scala, Milan, with Placido Domingo, Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner; Mahler’s Symphony No 4 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sylvain Cambreling, and appearances at the Edinburgh Festival with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis, the Mozarteum Orchestra and Ivor Bolton.
She has also appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Kurt Masur, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Andris Nelsons, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko, and the London Symphony Orchestra with Bernard Haitink.
Brandon’s recital appearances have included Trinity College Cambridge and the Leeds Lieder Festival with Malcolm Martineau; the Musée d’Orsay and Birmingham’s Barber Institute with Simon Lepper; and the Wigmore Hall and the Buxton, Hay-on-Wye and Oxford Lieder Festivals with Gary Matthewman.
She features on the Complete Poulenc Edition, accompanied by Graham Johnson, recently released by Hyperion Records.
Brandon and Andrew Warburton will perform songs by Schubert, Brahms and Richard Strauss at a private home in Umhlanga at 6.30pm for 7pm on Tuesday, August 16. Tickets cost R100 and booking is through Jacqui Warren at 083 441 5105, or via e-mail: thefamily@ telkomsa.net. Venue details will be given on booking of tickets.
Brandon’s second appearance will be at a soiree with the KZN Philharmonic. She will be the guest artist in a mixed-bag programme conducted by Lykele Temmingh, featuring music students of Crawford College. This takes place at Crawford College, La Lucia, 79 Armstrong Avenue, at 6.30pm for 7pm on Friday, August 19. Tickets cost R120. To book, call Carryn King at 031 562 0050. FORTY-three cast members have been assembled for Lindinkosi Mbatha’s Nawe Mbopha KaSithayi, a drama to be performed by second-year drama students at the Durban University of Technology’s Courtyard Theatre, on the Berea campus, nightly at 7pm from Saturday to Tuesday.
This reworked version of a popular 2012 production is co-directed by Siza KaMnisi Mthembu and Sboniso Msimango. The production features choreography by Sbonelo Ndlovu and music composition by Aphiwe Namba.
The play centres on the life of King Shaka, and deals with his death at the hands of his assassins, his half-brother Dingane, and another halfbrother, Mhlangana, assisted by a servant, Mbopha.
Tickets for the show cost R40 each (R20 each for students and senior citizens) and more information is available by calling 031 373 2194/2801.