Hilde Roos
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520299887
- eISBN:
- 9780520971516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520299887.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
Chapter 1 deals with the twenty-five years that preceded Eoan’s first performance of Verdi’s La Traviata, in 1956, a period during which the group consolidated its existence as a cultural and welfare ...
More
Chapter 1 deals with the twenty-five years that preceded Eoan’s first performance of Verdi’s La Traviata, in 1956, a period during which the group consolidated its existence as a cultural and welfare organization in District Six and other colored residential areas in the Cape Peninsula. This period saw the drafting of the group’s constitution, which set the tone for how management, operational policy, and the group’s stance on politics were to influence opera production and human resources within the group in later years. Special attention is given to the trajectory along which the Eoan Group choir developed into an amateur opera company.Less
Chapter 1 deals with the twenty-five years that preceded Eoan’s first performance of Verdi’s La Traviata, in 1956, a period during which the group consolidated its existence as a cultural and welfare organization in District Six and other colored residential areas in the Cape Peninsula. This period saw the drafting of the group’s constitution, which set the tone for how management, operational policy, and the group’s stance on politics were to influence opera production and human resources within the group in later years. Special attention is given to the trajectory along which the Eoan Group choir developed into an amateur opera company.
Hilde Roos
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520299887
- eISBN:
- 9780520971516
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520299887.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
Opera, race, and politics during apartheid South Africa form the foundation of this historiographic work on the Eoan Group, a so-called colored cultural organization that performed opera in the Cape. ...
More
Opera, race, and politics during apartheid South Africa form the foundation of this historiographic work on the Eoan Group, a so-called colored cultural organization that performed opera in the Cape. The La Traviata Affair: Opera in the Time of Apartheid charts Eoan’s opera activities from its inception in 1933 until the cessation of its work by 1980. By accepting funding from the apartheid government and adhering to apartheid conditions, the group, in time, became politically compromised, resulting in the rejection of the group by their own community and the cessation of opera production. However, their unquestioned acceptance of and commitment to the art of opera lead to the most extraordinary of performance trajectories. During apartheid, the Eoan Group provided a space for colored people to perform Western classical art forms in an environment that potentially transgressed racial boundaries and challenged perceptions of racial exclusivity in the genre of opera. This highly significant endeavor and the way it was thwarted at the hands of the apartheid regime is the story that unfolds in this book.Less
Opera, race, and politics during apartheid South Africa form the foundation of this historiographic work on the Eoan Group, a so-called colored cultural organization that performed opera in the Cape. The La Traviata Affair: Opera in the Time of Apartheid charts Eoan’s opera activities from its inception in 1933 until the cessation of its work by 1980. By accepting funding from the apartheid government and adhering to apartheid conditions, the group, in time, became politically compromised, resulting in the rejection of the group by their own community and the cessation of opera production. However, their unquestioned acceptance of and commitment to the art of opera lead to the most extraordinary of performance trajectories. During apartheid, the Eoan Group provided a space for colored people to perform Western classical art forms in an environment that potentially transgressed racial boundaries and challenged perceptions of racial exclusivity in the genre of opera. This highly significant endeavor and the way it was thwarted at the hands of the apartheid regime is the story that unfolds in this book.
