Hello All, our next performance will be together with the Sempre Opera Instrumental Ensemble, featuring highlights from “die Fledermaus” and “Don Carlos”. Please go to the bookings tab to make a booking, or call Centurion Theatre at +27 (0)12 664 8710 or +27 (0)72 245 4390 (Click on the image to see the complete poster)   Excerpts from Die Fledermaus (Strauss) and Don Carlos (Verdi) in Centurion Theatre Sempre Opera and the Sempre Opera Instrumental Ensemble kick off 2016 on Sunday 28 February at 15:00 with a performance of excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos and Die Fledermaus by Strauss. The first half of the programme is dedicated to well-known arias and ensembles from Don Carlos performed by Laetitia du Plessis (soprano), Aukse Trinkunas (mezzo soprano), Chris Mostert (tenor), Danie Verster (baritone) and Rex Nigrini (bass baritone). Don Carlos, based on a drama by the German, Friedrich Schiller, on the conflict between love, friendship, idealism and responsibility, is regarded is as one of Verdi’s darkest works. Well-known arias like Tu che la vanita (soprano), Nel giardin del bello (mezzo soprano), Per me guinto (baritone) and the quartet Ah, si  aledetto, sospetto fatale will be heard. In the second half of the programme the dark and sombre tone of the first half is replaced with the lightness and nimbleness of Die Fledermaus (Strauss). In the early 1870s, when Johann Strauss started composing Die Fledermaus he was already famous as the waltz king. This operetta’s première in 1874 was in the midst of the operetta’s Golden Era in Vienna. By 1900, more than 300 performances were presented just at the Theater an der Wien. The sopranos Deirdré Blignaut- Rautenbach and Marina Botha- Spies join the other singers for ever popular arias like the Czardas, Adele se audition aria, Prince Orlofski, the duet Trinke liebchen, trinke schnell and ensemble Brüderlein, und Schwesterlein. The singers will be accompanied by the Sempre Opera Instrumental Ensemble and pianist Paul Ferreira under the baton of Schalk van der Merwe. Tickets for the concert will be at R120 per person and can be booked by making an electronic transfer to the Sempre Opera’s bank account. Tickets will also be available at the door. For further information please direct enquiries to info@sempreopera.co.za

Hello All, our next Concert will be Amahl And The Visitors! Please also have a look at our Facebook Event and come and join us on the day!

Hello All, please join us for our next production, details are in the pamphlet below, click on the photo to get all details. Concerts are on the 9th and 10th October 2015.  

After the successful concert of the Requiem in Polokwane, it has been decided to repeat the concert in Pretoria on 15 November 2015. Ticket sales from 5 October at www.citysoiree.co.za  

Sempre Opera will perform in Polokwane on the 5th of September 2015! Not to be missed!

Hello All, herewith our next performance at the Wakkerstroom Music Festival, the same program will be performed at the Auto and General Theatre on the Square, Sandton on the 12th April 2015.

Sempre Opera’s first full-scale opera Since 2011, Sempre Opera has presented opera concerts, fulfilling its mission to create a platform to, once again, revive opera in South Africa. Sempre Opera’s vision is to present a full-length opera and this year, it is realised with the staging of Amahl and the Night Visitors. On 17 October this year, opera lovers may enjoy the full production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. In 1951 Menotti wrote this opera commissioned by Peter Herman Adler, chief executive of the National Broadcasting Company of the USA, to be screened on television. Both the libretto and composition were written by Menotti. This one act opera tells the story of Amahl, a disabled little boy, who is miraculously healed. The three magi, on their journey to the Holy Child, stay over at the impoverished household of Amahl and his mother. These three kings bear many precious gifts and Amahl’s mother is caught stealing gold in order to help her disabled son. The three kings forgive her for her misdeed and insists that she keeps the gold. Nevertheless, she tries to return it and Amahl offers his shepherd’s rod, doubling as a crutch when he realises that he can walk without it. Amahl then joins the magi on their journey to pay homage to the Holy Child. Amahl and the Night Visitors was inspired by Hieronymous Bosch’s painting ‘Adoration of the Magi’ where the three wise men pay homage to the Christ Child. Menotti comments the following in the programme of the first performance: “This is an opera for children because it tries to recapture my own childhood. You see, when I was a child I lived in Italy, and in Italy we have no Santa Claus. I suppose that Santa Claus is much too busy with American children to be able to handle Italian children as well. Our gifts were brought to us by the Three Kings, instead.” This production is directed by the well-known baritone, Danie Verster, and the role of Amahl is sung by one of his student, Marli Albertse, from the music centre at Hoërskool Wonderboom. Linette van der Merwe (mezzo soprano) sings the role of Amahl’s mother and Chris Mostert (tenor), Coert Grobbelaar (tenor) and Rex Nigrini (bass-baritone) may be seen in the roles of the three magi; Kings Kaspar, Melchior en Balthasar. Lené Venter (soprano) sings the role of the servant. The choir of villagers and shepherds consists of students from Hoërskool Wonderboom. The singers are accompanied on piano by Rudolf Geldenhuis and flute by Laurian Verster. The performance on 17 October will be in Pretoria at 19:00 at the Eduplex Auditorium (Cowgill Street, Queenswood). Tickets for Amahl and the Night Visitors are available at R100 and R80 (for pensioners and school students). Tickets are available on-line at www.concertmaster.co.za and also at the doors. Those interested may further make inquiries by phoning Linette van der Merwe at 082 923 1540 or by sending an email to info@sempreopera.co.za.

Spring is in the air with Songs of Love!

Sempre Opera musically celebrates spring with Canzoni d’amore (Songs of Love) in Witrivier on Sunday, 14 September 2014, 15:00 at the Casterbridge Music Academy Theatre. Based in Pretoria, Sempre Opera was established in 2011 by a group of opera singers who identified the need for a new company. In 2012, the Sempre Opera Instrumental Ensemble (SOIE) came into being and has accompanied the singers ever since. Members of this company are all classically trained musicians with various careers: From electrical engineers, lawyers, Afrikaans lecturers, art gallery owners, architects and those fortunate enough to earn a living by making and teaching music. All musicians share the dream to bring opera as an art form to the public, also as a travelling company hoping that the Mpumalanga performance will be the first of many. Members of the Sempre Opera Company, performing in this concert, include the sopranos Deirdré Blignaut-Rautenbach and Jo-Nette LeKay, mezzo-sopranos Aukse Trinkunas and Linette van der Merwe, tenors Johan Coertzen, Coert Grobbelaar and Chris Mostert, as well as the bass-baritone Rex Nigrini, who will combine their talents with the well-known Nelspruit tenor Walter Fourie and the American soprano, Erin Heisel, to treat opera lovers to a wide variety of arias, duets and ensembles by composers such as Puccini, Donizetti, Verdi, Mozart and Bizet. Theatre goers may look forward to the evergreen “Una furtiva lagrima” (Donizetti), “Madamina, il catalogo è questo” (the catalogue aria, by Mozart), “Casta Diva” (Bellini), “O mio babbino caro” (Puccini), “Celeste Aida” (Verdi) and the Rigoletto quartet (Verdi). As guest artists of Sempre Opera, Walter Fourie (Nelspruit tenor) may be heard with “Il mio tesoro” and Erin Heisel (American soprano) with the Queen of the Night aria, both well-loved works by Mozart. Tickets for the Sempre Opera concert Canzoni d’amore are available at R100 and R80 (for pensioners and learners), at Die Stoep in Nelspruit – 013 741 2551, on line at www.concertmaster.co.za or may be obtained at the theatre. Please download the Singers Bio’s Here. For more information, Linette van der Merwe may be contacted at 082 923 1540 or via email at info@sempreopera.co.za

With National Women’s day and Women’s month around the corner, Sempre Opera, in co-operation with Auto and General Theatre on the Square (Sandton), is delighted to pay homage with their concert Bellissima—‘very beautiful’ in Italian—to the invaluable role women have played in society. Breath-taking arias and ensembles by Verdi, Puccini and Donizetti about, for and by women are bound to enchant all present at this concert on 17 August 2014 at 15:00. Sopranos Alexandra Wald and Deirdrè Blignaut-Rautenbach; mezzo soprano Aukse Trinkunas; tenors Johan Coertzen and Coert Grobbelaar; baritone Danie Verster and bass-baritone Thabang Senekal will be weaving the magic. From Pucinni’s La Boheme, concert goers can look forward to Musetta’s highly popular aria “Quando me vo”; Coline’s coat-aria “Vecchia zimara senti”; and the duet between Marcello and Rudolfo, “O Mimi, tu pio non torni”. Two bel canto arias and a duet from Donizetti’s La Favorita (“Quando le soglie patterne”) and Don Pasquale (“Bella si comme un angelo”), as well as several popular and lesser known segments from Verdi’s Ernani, Rigoletto, Aida, La forza del destino and La Traviata offer enough variety to please even the most discerning connoisseur. The singers will be accompanied by the Sempre Opera Intrumentale Ensemble and pianists Salomè Coertzen en Rudolf Geldenhuis. Tickets for the concert will be available for R 100 and R80 (students and pensioners). Tickets can be obtained from the Auto and General Theatre on the square between 10:30 and 16:00 at 011 883 8606 or after hours at 083 377 4969.