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/9780520299887.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
The introduction opens with the watershed moment in Eoan’s history, when Verdi’s La Traviata is performed for the first time by an all-colored cast, in 1956. Despite being described as “an ...
More
The introduction opens with the watershed moment in Eoan’s history, when Verdi’s La Traviata is performed for the first time by an all-colored cast, in 1956. Despite being described as “an unqualified artistic success,” this event laid bare the controversy that surrounded their engagement with Western art music and one that led to the demise of their opera productions twenty years later. The event presents the full spectrum of perspectives on Eoan, which included the many conflicted meanings that opera held for participants and audiences. The notion of “colored identity” as a uniquely South African experience that is different from how American readers understand the concept is discussed.Less
The introduction opens with the watershed moment in Eoan’s history, when Verdi’s La Traviata is performed for the first time by an all-colored cast, in 1956. Despite being described as “an unqualified artistic success,” this event laid bare the controversy that surrounded their engagement with Western art music and one that led to the demise of their opera productions twenty years later. The event presents the full spectrum of perspectives on Eoan, which included the many conflicted meanings that opera held for participants and audiences. The notion of “colored identity” as a uniquely South African experience that is different from how American readers understand the concept is discussed.
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.
