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Praise
for Ndodana opera
Maurice Podbrey, Cape Times July 1998 Uhambo the Pilgrimage has had its much heralded performance at the Grahamstown Festival. An opera-oratorio by South Africa's foremost young black composer and conductor Bongani Ndodana, the work is based on the epic narrative poem Pilgrimage to Dias Cross by Guy Butler. It is also billed as a tribute to Butler's 80th anniversary and his work as founder of the Grahamstown Festival. Like Butler, Ndodana is a product of the Eastern Cape, having been born in Queenstown and having studied at Rhodes and Stellenbosch. Ndodana, 22, has produced two symphonies, string quartets and commissioned works for local and international performers and dance troupes. He admits to having been drawn to this work by Butler's affection and evocation of this part of South Africa. Butler's poem is certainly ambitious. It summons up stories of the Khoi-Khoi, the Dutch trekkers, Nongqause, the Xhosa prophetess, James Butler, the poet's grandfather and Bartholomeu Dias . The expectation is for something both dramatic and epic, an opera with emotional magnitude equal to Butler's historical imagination. The praise-singer (no programme credit) who leads the young girls' choir (Diocesan Girls' School) raises these hopes. We have the powerful solo voices of tenor Ntombizobumo Mboniswa, contralto Miranda Tini and soprano Makhazonke Mkanazi to represent the historical protagonists. And the ubiquitous presence of American dancer Germaul Barnes, a marvellously expressive, if narcissistic, dancer. It becomes clear, however, that despite some very fine musical composition, Ndodana's musical taste has drawn him to something less theatrical, something more classical, and the audience is left in some confusion. We have a subtly rendered version of Shosholoza while the orchestra lacks any African musical instruments. There is a moment towards the end of the performance that was illuminating. The praise-singer stomps off the stage, muttering darkly about leaving the proceedings to the zombies, and then makes his way to the upper gallery of the theatre where, now as an actor, he gives a marvellous, though brief, rendition of Butler's poetry. This boldness gives us a sudden expressive indication of what a strong directorial hand might have achieved overall. One hopes that the opera, so fine in many of its elements, might be revisited by Ndodana in a few years' time. |
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