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Peace Nzirawa as Mandela with (far right) Adrian Galley as The Most Reverend Trevor Huddlestone. Picture: Victor-Frankowski. Mandela
Birmingham Hippodrome
**** NELSON Mandela
is one of the towering, iconic figures of the 20th
century, a firebrand activist against the evil of apartheid who was to
grow into a world statesman and peacemaker. It would have been easy to sanitise his story,
turn him into a squeaky clean hero, but the excellent Cape Town Opera
have avoided that pitfall in their 2010 trilogy which is part opera,
part musical, part storytelling – a biopera of Mandela’s life. Mandela himself openly admitted that he was no
saint and this is a warts and all production. He was a womaniser, dallied with communism and
where the black Africa National Congress party wanted to follow the
Gandhi policy of non-violent passive resistance, which had worked in
India, Mandela, like Gandhi, a lawyer, co-founded the armed wing of the
ANC – living up to the old adage that one man’s terrorist is another
man’s freedom fighter. A charismatic black leader calling for armed
rebellion put the fear of God into the deeply racist, hardline, right
wing, all white mainly Boer Government. It culminat Mandela opens on Robben Island 14 years into his sentence, where Mandela, sung with authority by baritone Aubrey Lodewyk, is offered freedom, with strings, if he will return to his home village, renounce violence, be a good boy and live a quiet life in Cape Province. Aubrey Lodewyk as Mandela who spent 27 years in jail Picture: John Snelling Mandela refuses and we
are taken back in time to Transkei where the young Mandela, sung by
Thato Machona, is initiated into manhood, and takes part in tribal
rituals in a section with music by Péter Louise van Dijk, who also
scores the third act, and words by writer and director Michael Williams. Tribal dances and chants give way to jazz as the
young Mandela heads to Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage and
here he is sung by Peace Nzirawa, a big man who fills the stage with a
big smile and a big booming baritone voice. This second act is set in Sophiatown, dirt poor
but the cultural centre of Black South Africa’s jazz, blues, music,
writing and . . . politics. As white suburbs expanded in Jo’berg
Sophiatown and its black and non-white population was becoming too close
to white sensibilities so laws were passed to raise it to the ground and
relocate the 60,000 or so inhabitants. Mandela, married to Evelyn, sung by Pumza Mxinwa,
with children, is also having an affair with jazz singer Dolly, sung by
Zolina Ngejane, who belts out the lively Miriam Makeba 1957 hit Pata
Pata along with Mandela and Evelyn. This is a section which
is closer to musical than opera with music by Mike Campbell and songs of
hope such as Freedom in our time,
Hearts and Minds
and Let us Speak of Freedom. Mandela, a regular in the clubs and nightlife, is
still a political activist though and still on police radar, befriended
and championed by English priest and lifelong anti-apartheid campaigner
the Most Reverend Trevor Huddlestone, played by Adrian Galley. It is a
time when he also marries Winnie, sung by Philisia Sibek. From the demolished Sophiatown we move to
Mandela’s trial and incarceration and gradual softening of Government
attitude. Here Lodewyk returns as the older Mandela, whose
influence on the ANC and the freedom movement still remains. But we see
his change in direction and dismay at the increasing violence being
organised and encouraged by the ever more militant Winnie. His relationship with warders, particularly the
everyman Whiteman, sung by Arthur Swan, grows into friendship and
eventually, amid growing international pressure, the Government, under
F. W. de Klerk, who gets no mention in the opera, lifted the ban on the
ANC and released Mandela unconditionally in 1990.
We leave the opera in
1991, with a rousing finale of Time has
Come, three years before Nelson Mandela
becomes the first black president in the first elections with universal
suffrage. The finale gives full flow to the full Cape Town
chorus which creates a full, deep, rich and magnificent sound. Songs are in English, with a traditional protest
song in Zulu and some songs in isiXhosa, a Bantu language native to
Mandela’s homeland. Cape Town Opera have a fine chorus and the few
moments of a capella singing are just magical. African music, rhythm and
harmony are distinctive and it is a pity more could not have been
incorporated. This is the story of Mandela’s journey, he might be the
main man, but that’s no reason not to show off the magnificent singing
of this fine company a bit more. The setting, from Michael Mitchell, is simple,
utilising a wide, thin video screen to set mood and tone from the green
countryside to the black and white bleakness of prison. It is minimal
but effective and ideal for a tour with short runs – only two nights at
the Hippodrome fir example. Music comes from the excellent Cape Town
Philharmonic conducted by Alexander Fokkens. The result is an interesting and informative
narrative with widely contrasting music from tribal to jazz, operatic to
anthems. It’s a difficult subject to portray in a couple
of hours and Michael Williams has done well to keep the essence of both
man and story in what is a fine and honest tribute. To 21-09-16 Roger Clarke 20-09-16
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ed
in 1964 in Mandela being accused of ‘sabotage and conspiracy to
violently overthrow the government’ – anything to take him out of the
picture. The judge, who had thrown out a case against Mandela the
previous year, refused a call for the death penalty sentencing Mandela
instead to life. 