By MAEDER OSLER
We are continually reminded of the astounding richness of music and voices, in our various communities, both urban and rural. We share this strongly around our Toverview base in the Umsobomvu Colesberg area in the Northern Cape, as well as a recent and contrasting opportunity at Diemersfontein wine farm and estate near Wellington in the Western Cape. A young singer, Yoliswa Ngwexana, accompanied by a young pianist, José Dias, delivered a thrilling performance, as is evident from our videos below.
Space and time
One of the best things about rural life is that you often have more space and time to really see what you look at, hear what you listen to, and taste what you swallow – to absorb sensual feasts of arts, often poised starkly in their rural settings, which provide more opportunities for reflection, consideration – even compassion – about the massive challenges on the road to a better life for all. Singing is a lasting, and readily accessible, gift from before the cradle to beyond the grave, in countrysides all over, and notably in South Africa too.
Toverview rovers Maeder and Les Osler recently attended an early spring concert on Diemersfontein Wine and Country Estate outside the historic town of Wellington, where we experienced some of our astonishing wealth of talent from far-flung parts of our country.
Here – at a concert after one of the farm’s regular market days – we heard the Portuguese-born pianist José Dias introducing classical music and opera, and accompanying the emerging soprano Yolisa Ngwexana – born in Khayelitsha, partly raised in a village near Queenstown, back to Khayelitsha, and now a singer on the international stage. Our video captures three arias from various operas, including the famous song ‘Summertime’ from the American jazz opera Porgy and Bess’.
A pool of budding stars
These budding stars, nurtured in part by entrepreneurs with a passion for opera and the arts, notably David and Sue Sonnenberg of Diemersfontein, and their team of workers, supporters and co-sponsors, follow in the footsteps of numerous others, including the international opera sensation Pretty Yende, the baritone Njabulo Madlala, and the lyric soprano Pumeza Matshikiza.
They form part of a huge and growing pool of talent from our rural areas which we aim to follow, making full use of our partly rural mobility, and enjoying them to the full in rural time and space …