One of the high points of our
year is an invitation to the RMB Starlight Concert which took place last Friday and Saturday
night at Vergelegen. This was the 21st year of this spectacular concert;
the invited performers never cease to amaze and delight
Guests enter through the 18th Century Vergelegen Manor House
and are greeted by the view between the ancient camphor trees across the lawn to the amphitheatre
Before the main concert
begins, RMB has to seat 750 invited couples so, while that was taking place,
we were entertained by The Bruckner University Big Band from Linz in Austria
who are on tour in South Africa
Christian Radovan is the Director and the singer
is Christina Kerschner
They really had the place jumping with their Swing jazz
The concert began at 7.30 and
was opened by James Formby, the CEO of Rand Merchant Bank
The concert was once
again an Afro-symphonic tribute to our country and its diverse musical talents
and also a celebration of 20 years of the Cape Town Opera Chorus
The orchestra is the Cape
Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by maestro Richard Cock
who led us all in a rousing
version of the South African National Anthem
This was followed by the Hebrew Slaves chorus
from the opera Nabucco
performed by the Cape Town Opera chorus and the
Drakensberg Boys Choir, very moving indeed
And then came a rousing
version of "Votre Toast" from the opera Carmen (you may know it
better as The Toreador song)
by prize winning young star Bongani Kubheka
He has a powerful and
exceptional baritone voice and a great stage presence
We hope to see and hear much more
of him and his talent
Then Libertango played by
Professor Karendra Devroop on the Saxophone
He is also known for his work on
the South African Music Outreach Project
He was accompanied by a couple
dancing a feverish tango
And then a song familiar to
everyone and a compulsion to sing along. Tenor Sipho Fubesi gave us Funiculi
Funiculá,
a Neapolitan song composed in 1880 by Luigi Denza to lyrics by
Peppino Turco
In its first year the sheet music sold over a million copies,
astounding for those times
Next a few songs from the
musical Chicago by members of its local cast Craig Urbani and Samantha Peo
First we had All That Jazz
He sang Razzle Dazzle
accompanied by dancers from the Cape Town Ballet Company
and she sang The Cell Block
Tango
What is a murmuration? Conductor
Richard Cock asked the audience
It is the wondrous flocking behaviour of
starlings at sunset
Canadian composer Jordan Pal has written a piece of music
and we watched entranced
as it was played by the Cape Town Philharmonic
Orchestra
and we watched a video of starlings in their fantastic flights of
fancy
Popular Afrikaans singing
phenomenon Refentse Morake was next
He sang three popular songs,
two in Afrikaans ... One was Sonvanger (Suncatcher) from his album,
which went Gold almost
immediately it was released
... and, accompanied by the
Drakensberg Boys Choir, Ha La La. We all wanted to jump up and dance along with
them
It's a magical song and it was
a magical performance
And then it went up another
notch. Singer Zoe Modiga gave us one of the most powerful performances of Ravel's
Bolero with Xhosa lyrics, known as Lonlon. Her voice is superb and it was a
captivating performance and the best arrangement we have ever heard
supported by the Chorus of
the Cape Town Opera
Another entrancing
performance by the Drakensberg Boys Choir
The Conquest of Paradise from The
Mission by Greek composer Vangelis
and then the headlining group
Micasa took the stage and performed some of their songs
and were then joined by other
members of the cast
and choirs ...
... in a rousing send off to
Interval. We felt like we had seen the whole concert
but there was more to come after half an hour
Friends Mike and Renée Bampfield
Duggan in the audience
After a rousing start with
Suppé’s Light Cavalry Overture played by the Orchestra,
three young singers
from The Drakensberg Boys Choir took centre stage
for an achingly beautiful
rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu
Three superb soprano voices, but the lad in the middle
gave us goose bumps, he was so special
And then some fun. The
serving staff came down the central aisles, all clutching bottles of
Vergelegen's MMV Brut [Reserve] 2014
and with the Champagne Song from The
Merry Widow playing,
they were instructed to pop the corks at the same time
Many did, but some of the corks held tight for a little while
Then
joy of joys, glasses of this beautiful new bubbly were passed down the rows
so
we could indeed raise them to the music
Whoever had this great idea is a
genius. What an amazing MCC
We hope the singers had some in
their glasses too
The bottle
Great graphics made us all
feel we were in that palace
and then it was time for us
to light our candles and raise them to Bongani Khubeka singing Stars, a new
song
Oh look what the camera caught! Romance by starlight
Always a beautiful sight
Samantha Peo sang Imagine by
John Lennon
and we had What a Wonderful
World
More performers joined the
stage and the singing
Three Divas singing songs
from Aretha Franklin
Respect!
and they nearly brought the
house down with songs from Bob Marley
A lovely version of You Look
Perfect by J'Something of Mi Casa
and from Andiswa Makana a
haunting version of the Song to the Moon from Rusalka by Dvořák
The final
numbers were Mi Casa with the whole ensemble and of course we had some encores.
What a night, what a concert
