Levy Sekgapane In Concert at the Cape Town Concert Series

For our next concert in the Cape Town Concert Series calendar – we move to a Friday evening in order to feature the world acclaimed tenor Levy Sekgapane alongside pianist, conductor and opera coach Jeremy Silver for a special recital of songs and arias.

Levy is in Cape Town for a very short period to sing in Cape Town Opera’s production of the Pearl Fishers, but very much wanted to connect further with Cape Town audiences and present a song recital.  His style of singing and repertoire chosen is both popular but rarely heard in Cape Town and this really is a ‘One Night Only’ special event.

The concert takes place at 7pm in the Baxter Concert Hall on Friday 5th May. Tickets available from Webtickets.

For full details on the programme check out Inside the Concert With Albert Combrink 5 May 2023

From Arie Antiche: ad una voce per canto e pianoforte:
Già il sole del Gange (Alessandro Scarlatti)
Per la gloria (Giovanni Bononcini)
Intorno all’idol mio (Antonio Cesti)
O del mio dolce ardor (Christoph W. Gluck)

Gioacchino Rossini (1792 – 1868)
Le Sylvain (Romance from Péchés de Vieillesse, Vol. 3, No. 9)
Addio ai viennesi

Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835)
La Ricordanza

Gioacchino Rossini (1792 – 1868)
La Speranza più soave from Semiramide

Interval

Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846 – 1920)
Aprile
Sogno

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)
Il tramonto
Lo spazzacamin

Amadeu Vives (1871 – 1932)
Romanza Por el humo se sabe dónde está el fuego
from Doña Francisquita

Léo Delibes (1836 – 1891)
Fantaisie aux divins mensonges
from the opera Lakmé

Gaetano Donizetti (1797 – 1848)
Partir deggio… T’amo qual s’ama un angelo
from Act 2 of Lucrezia Borgia

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Bel canto tenor Levy Sekgapane who is based overseas, studied under Kamal Khan and Hanna van Schalkwyk at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town and is one of South Africa’s great opera success stories. Together with Pretty Yende, he is the only other South African opera singer to have won Plácido Domingo’s prestigious Operalia competition (2017) and his homecoming is hugely anticipated by opera buffs and classical music lovers alike.

So far this year he has performed at the Zurich Opera House and further engagements in 2023 include stints in Paris, Vienna and Dresden. After winning first prize at various international singing competitions such as Belvedere, Montserrat Caballé and the above mentioned Operalia, he became very well known on the international opera circuit and he has performed on some of the greatest stages in Europe.

To date career highlights include debuts at the Glyndebourne Festival as Conte d’Almavivain Il Barbiere di Siviglia , as Arbace in Idomeneo at Salzburg Festival in 2019 and in Los Angeles as Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola. Together with Cecilia Bartoli, Plácido Domingo, Rolando Villazón, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo and Edgardo Rocha he sang in a Rossini Gala concert as part of Cecilia Bartoli’s debut at the Wiener Staatsoper.

In 2019, his first solo CD with Rossini arias was released by Prima Classic, recorded with the Munich Radio Orchestra and conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti.

British conductor and pianist, Jeremy Silver, is Director of Opera UCT. In addition, he works extensively in South Africa with all the country’s major symphony orchestras, as well as having conducted La bohème, Le nozze di Figaro, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Così fan tutte, Curlew River Amagokra, Sara Baartman, Alcina and L’inganno felice in Cape Town; Lucia di Lammermoor, La traviata, Rigoletto and I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the State Theatre, Pretoria, as well the South African opera Princess Magogo at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam.
A selection of other past productions includes Carmen, Anna Bolena, Orfeo ed Euridice, L’incoronazione di Poppea and a selection of Mozart and Handel operas (Longborough Festival Opera); Pelléas et Mélisande (Glyndebourne Touring Opera); Madama Butterfly (ENO); Ariadne auf Naxos (ETO); Aida, Carmen (Royal Albert Hall); La Rondine, Lucia di Lammermoor, Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park); Les Huguenots, Tosca (Opéra-Théâtre de Metz), Turandot (National Theatre, Malaysia) and Die Fledermaus (Yale Opera).
For English Touring Opera he also conducted two exciting Donizetti rediscoveries, L’assedio di Calais and Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo in performing editions resulting from his considerable editorial work on both scores.

Jeremy Silver studied languages and music at Clare College, Cambridge and conducting at the Royal College of Music in London. He furthered his operatic studies at the UK’s National Opera Studio where, fifteen years later, he formed part of the artistic leadership team.
Before his long freelance career, he served on the resident music staffs of English National Opera and Scottish Opera, and worked in addition as assistant conductor with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opera North. He is an Associate Artist at Longborough Festival Opera.