It is always exciting to receive an invitation to what is one of the best musical events each year, the RMB Starlight Classics concert, held in Cape Town at Vergelegen in March and in September at the Johannesburg Country Club; especially as both performances had to be cancelled during Covid lockdown. Sadly, it was not open to the public this year; just to invited guests who were mainly clients of the Bank, media and its senior employees. We were instructed to be there by 4.30 on a Saturday evening and the weather was perfect. After collecting our entry badges, we were welcomed with a glass of Vergelegen's MMV Cap Classique
The Vergelegen MMV is a Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay)
The wine is named for 2005, when Vergelegen first made bottle fermented sparkling wine - MMV in Roman numerals
It is clean, dry and crisp with lovely flavours of toast, green apple and lime,
with a good mousse and lots of elegance and enjoyment
It spent 49 months on the lees, which gives it good complexity. We knew we were in for an evening of excellence
Lady Phillips’ famous garden was in full bloom as we walked towards the Manor House
Very different plantings from previous years; very abundant
Drifts of cosmos and a huge bright pink bougainvillea cover the back wall
Different chairs this year, much more comfortable, and set out in two and fours to give us space between our neighbours
and the rows were also widely spaced apart
There were several bars where one could get wine and other drinks;
people began to gather on the lawns in front of the house
One of the very friendly and helpful members of staff circulating to serve us - with a very special hairdo
Everyone had to collect a picnic hamper of food for dinner, which you could eat before the show
seated at the new table area behind the seating or in the seating area itself before the concert or during interval
We were also given a blanket, in case it became a bit chilly
Packed full of wine, very good plastic glasses, the obligatory candles for lighting during the show, and salads, cold chicken, cheeses, biscuits, olives and canapés sourced from Woolworths, Pick 'n Pay and Checkers. They thought of everything
You could even get a cup of ice to keep the wine cool on the warm late summer evening
We found a table, chatted to other guests and then enjoyed some supper before it was time to find our seats
We enjoyed the Vergelegen Chardonnay very much, we were served an older one from the bar and it really shone
Seated next to us were Muzi Nkosi and his wife
He is in charge of Rand Merchant Bank's corporate business in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa
John managed to get us aisle seats again so that he could have an uninterrupted view of the stage
and not bother anyone behind him when taking photographs
and it was time for the concert to begin
Warmly welcomed back by Conductor maestro Richard Cock who had missed all of us as much as we missed him!
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra played the overture from the film Back to the Future,
which was rather appropriate
and by the CEO of Rand Merchant Bank, James Formby
We then all stood to sing the National Anthem
The opening act was the Mzansi 10 Tenors, a group of men from the townships, many of whom are training to be opera singers at Cape Town University, who have banded together to find work singing, which was very sparse during Covid. They are managed by Sipho Fabesi. Thanks to Richard Cock, Rand Merchant Bank has agreed to support the Mzansi Ten Tenors and they’ve commissioned Ralf Schmitt, who is a conductor and co-founder of the popular Ndlovu Youth Choir, to write and produce a signature piece for the group called Go Forth Young Man. The song will be available in all the digital music platforms
They sang rousing choruses of Neapolitan songs, including O Sole Mio
It brought joy to our hearts to see what amazing talent we have in this country
and then a rousing version of Granada
Next Diva Thembeka Mguni returned to Starlight with a lovely song Brave by Sara Bareilles,
which brought the first tears of the evening to Lynne's eyes
Joined by the dancers from Jazzart
Talented Baritone William Berger from Stellenbosch has a stellar career in Europe and now lives in London
He was stuck here during the Covid lockdown and so was available to appear at this year's Starlight concert
He told us that appearing at Starlight was one of his top Bucket List items and he was so happy to be here
He has a wonderful, rich voice and entertained us with the well-known aria Votre Toast from Carmen,
better known as The Toreador Song
Charl Petrus du Plessis is a South African classical and jazz pianist
who has written a rather different version of the famous hit by Meatloaf (RIP) I Would do Anything for Love
in the style of both Tchaikovsky and Mozart
Performed by the UCT Jazz Choir and the orchestra
It was both entertaining and hilarious and got a terrific response from the audience
Maestro Richard Cock then introduced his co-conductor for the evening, Brandon Philips,
who is the resident conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra
He would conduct Coenie de Villiers performing his popular song Namaqualand
Coenie de Villiers is a South African singer-songwriter, pianist, and pop artist who sings in his mother tongue, Afrikaans
They accompanied the song with a wonderful film backdrop of the spring flowers in Namaqualand
Very talented Mezzo-Soprano Monica Mhangwana, singer and musician, born and raised in Pretoria,
wowed us next with a faultless performance of the beautiful aria from Saint-Saëns Samson and Delilah,
“Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix”. When Richard Cock introduced her, he said "This is a talent to watch"
We so agree, she has a superb voice, one that gives one cold shivers, it is so good
Singer, songwriter and performer, Zoë Modiga’s sang "Isegazini" (It's in the Blood) in Zulu next
Very popular South African singer, songwriter and performer Matthew Mole
He energised the crowd with his performance of I'm With You,
which had us thinking of our long periods of lock down in Covid and how many friends and family we missed
and he followed it up with his song Take Yours, I'll Take Mine which had the audience singing along,
stomping and clapping to the music
To raise funds for the Mzansi 10 Tenors, this large engraving was put up for raffle at R500 a ticket
and then to highlight the end of the first half, the entire cast was on stage to perform the song written by P!nk,
Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac, which could be the anthem for most of South Africa at the moment, "What about us?"
One by one, performers joined the others on the stage and it finished in a huge response from the audience. If you don't know the song, here is a link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKOEJs602uk
Interval, which gives everyone a break to get some coffee, eat some more food from the hamper,
find friends, chat and have a comfort break, as coy Americans put it
and just stand around and talk, reconnect after a long hiatus of two years and enjoy each others’ company at last
Pick 'n Pay supermarkets founder Raymond Ackerman, seated in the front row, was celebrating his 90th birthday
Time to start the second half with the orchestra playing the Champagne Polka by Johann Strauss II
and the audience supplying the appropriate POP! sounds when signalled by Maestro Cock!
and so we all joined in!
Two famous people in the audience were celebrating their birthdays
so we sang Happy Birthday lustily to them and anyone else who was having a birthday
Next a clink of Champagne glasses and William Berger performed Fin Ch'han Dal Vino from Mozart's Don Giovanni
The aria is supposed to be sung in 60 seconds, so it is very rapido, and his diction was perfect
Zoë Modiga sang Miriam Makeba's I Langa We Son Ewe and Matthew Mole sang the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun
and then they sang both together, a lovely fusion of culture, voices and songs
The 10 Tenors performed Ralf Schmitt’s specially commissioned Go Forth Young Man
The raffle for the engraving had closed at half time
and it was now time to draw the winning ticket
The raffle raised R121 500, a sizeable sum, which will support the Ten Tenors
and the winner was a surprised and delighted Kurt Wiley
Thembeka Mguni and Coenie de Villiers and the UCT Jazz Choir sang a rousing version of Another Country,
the Mango Groove hit and we all joined in, raising our cell phone torches
at full voice, audience included!
Zoë Modiga is extremely versatile and her next performance singing jazz was superb and impressive; she rocked the audience
Coenie de Villiers at the piano, singing his famous song Katedraal (Cathedral) in Afrikaans,
all about the wide open spaces and high dark skies of the Karoo where he grew up
He described it: "It is like someone you know who is not totally attractive, but has a great personality"
It was then time to light our candles when the mood changed and we knew we were going to be able to sing along soon
Next came a song we all know well, a song that uplifts. William Berger and Thembeka Mguni and the UCT Jazz choir
gave us a lovely sentimental version of Edelweiss from The Sound of Music
Pop and Jazz were in fusion with Zoë Modiga and Matthew Mole
singing Gershwin's You Can’t Take That Away From Me! together
Matthew might have looked a bit tentative at the beginning, but he was really good at it
Another side to a talented musician
And the audience loved the fun interaction they had on stage
Mezzo Soprano Monica Mhangwana, joined by William Berger,
sang a beautiful and moving rendition of The Prayer
They sang in both English and Italian and their voices together harmonised so beautifully
It made us think of what is going on in the Ukraine
and the Ten Tenors joined in at the end
To get us all up and dancing Thembeka Mguni, the UCT Jazz Choir and JazzArt dancers
did some well known Tina Turner numbers
Thembeka singing Proud Mary
The audience dancing enthusiastically, everyone on their feet and really enjoying the evening
Mezzo Soprano Monica Mhangwana singing Libiamo Ne' Lieti Calici (the drinking song) from La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi
The Ten Tenors as the chorus
joined by William Berger
The orchestra rocking it!
The finale - the entire cast and audience singing We Are Family
The audience asked for, nay demanded, MORE and then The 10 Tenors performed an encore of Nessun Dorma by Giacomo Puccini. There was another song called Don't Stop Believing, which not many of the audience knew and the concert came to an end. One of the best, and lots of praise to the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, who held it all together with their wonderful versatile performance. Thank you all at RMB for the invitation
You never rush for the exits after Starlight;
there are so many people who do and the queue of traffic to get out can last an hour
So the bar stays open and we fancied some of that marvellous Vergelegen MMV bubbly
Sadly, the bar we went to didn't have glasses, so it came in 500ml plastic beakers!
What is the correct glass to drink bubbly from? Not this one
Yes, these ones are the right ones (we prefer them to the ubiquitous flutes which kill the wine’s nose)
We went to the next bar and enquired and they generously supplied us with these
A lovely end to a superb evening
Then we left to go to the overnight accommodation in the area that we had booked on line with Booking.com
Midnight is far too late to drive back to Cape Town
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