Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Botswana opening of the No 1 Ladies` Opera House

source: Times Online

The baritone paused as a train rattled by on the first night of Botswana’s new opera house

It was by far Botswana’s biggest musical event of the year – in fact, ever. Attending the official opening of the No 1 Ladies’ Opera House was Precious Ramotswe, Africa’s most famous detective – in the shape of Sheila Tlou, a former Minister of Health, who claims to be the person on whom the character in the book is based – and her creator, the Rhodesian-born Alexander McCall Smith.

The tiny “opera house”, a converted garage which served as the inspiration for J. L. B. Maketoni’s Speedy Motors in the detective stories, seats a mere 60 people. It may be no Covent Garden or La Scala, but in the capital, Gaborone, which has no other classical music venue, its arrival has been welcomed with enthusiasm.

The best of the country’s small, but growing band of classical music singers was on display. Gape Motswaledi, at 33 Botswana’s only professional (semi-professional actually) baritone, had been practising for months. He had to wait for a train to rumble past before launching into his first solo, Di Provenza il mar, from La traviata. For a maths teacher who taught himself to [continue reading]

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