An entertaining Mandela Trilogy as Cape Town Opera visits Dublin

The seldom-seen opera musical Lost in the Stars found prominence Friday night, enrapturing a full house at Glimmerglass Festival in New York, moving some of the actors themselves to tears, and stirring the audience to its feet for curtain call.

Whatever I was expecting from the European première of Mandela Trilogy, a musical tribute to the life of the iconic Nelson Mandela, it certainly wasn’t humour. Yet it is to writer and director Michael Williams’ credit that he has managed to convey what could have been extremely tense and serious subject matter with vibrancy and flair.

Kapstadt wagt den lohnenden Blick über den Tellerrand des Belcanto und zeigt eine Salome von begeisternder gesanglicher Leistung.

La Ópera de Ciudad de Cabo trae a Madrid una versión sin demasiadas sutilezas pero rebosante de movimiento, energía y pasión.  

Excellent performances cannot turn a conventional production of Massenet’s Werther into a dramatic experience for the 21st century.