Award-winning soprano Pumeza Matshikiza
The 30-year-old Matshikiza, who grew up in the sprawling townships of Khayelitsha, Langa and Nyanga outside Cape Town, has taken Europe by storm with her mellifluous, deep-throated voice.
After outshining vocalists from 21 countries – including the US, China, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland – Matshikiza took the top honour, while fellow South African Sarah-Jane Brandon walked off the with the second prize of €5 000 (R52 714).
“Winning the Veronica Competition is a motivation for me to work even harder in terms of polishing the technical aspects of singing, and it means I have some kind of potential,” Matshikiza said.
Performing classics such as Come Scoglio from Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte, Signore, ascolta! from Puccini’s Turandot, and Rusalka’s Song to the Moon, Matshikiza was able to capture the hearts of opera connoisseurs in Dublin. “… There was an audience that helped me to communicate the music,” she said.
“The competition wasn't easy. I sang 13 items for all rounds, the third was a killer. I didn't think of it as a competition, but as a concert or a recital.”
Matshikiza and five other hopefuls performed with Ireland’s RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra before some of the world’s most discerning opera experts on the final night.
The competition, held triennially, was founded in 1995 in honour of Veronica Dunne – Ireland’s “Grand Dame of Opera”. The 83-year-old Dunne was a soprano of international prominence in her heyday and is credited for discovering and nurturing some of Ireland’s best opera stars.
Previous winners of the competition, including the US’s most famous soprano Norah Ansellem, have gone on to become top performers in some of the world’s most distinguished opera houses. Ansellem won the competition in 1997 and has since appeared in companies such as San Francisco Opera, Paris Opera Bastille, Munich Staatsoper, Vienna Staatsoper, Berlin Staatsoper and many more.
Polishing her act
Though her voice impressed at the Veronica Dunne competition, Matshikiza plans to invest in improving it. Besides using the prize money to fly to auditions across Europe, she said she will also focus on polishing her voice with the assistance of a top-quality teacher.
“I have to find a proper singing teacher as I didn't have one for a year really,” she said. “Being an opera singer takes many years of training and dedication. You need patience and good people for advice.”
In 2007 Matshikiza was accepted into the Royal Opera House’s highly rated Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, which runs for two years. Fellow South African musician Vuyani Mlinde was also chosen for the course. Matshikiza received rave reviews after participating in the programme’s Summer Concert in 2009, performing Donna Elvira in the opera Don Giovanni.
Stephen Jay-Taylor, a critic for Opera Britannia, wrote at the time: “I was much taken with Pumeza Matshikiza’s Donna Elvira. She nailed both the character and the extremely demanding music pretty much flat.
“The voice is unusual, rich, dark, but with a glinting top and a fine middle … Coupled with what seems to be temperament to spare, on this showing I would predict a handsome career ahead of her."
Matshikiza featured as Tebaldo in the Royal Opera House’s production of Don Carlos at Covent Garden in September 2009, and has performed in other pieces for the company such as L’heure Espagnol and Les Contes d’Hoffman.
She was also lead soprano at the Nottingham Harmonic Society’s opera Mendelssohn Elijah in November 2009.
Matshikiza, who is represented by London’s IMG Artists, is scheduled to be the lead soprano in Zaide, a new production directed by Melly Still to be staged by the Classical Opera Company at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in inner London in June. She’s got a host of other concerts and recitals on her calendar too. “I will be singing a new repertoire in most of them, so I’m taking time to learn ...”
Her illustrious career has taken her to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Croatia and Belgium, and she’s impressed audiences and critics alike at every stop.
The UK’s Times listed Matshikiza as one of the “hot music acts of 2009”, while critic Ben Michel described her as “a shining star in the current line-up of the Royal Opera House's Jette Parker Young Artists Programme”, at the beginning of 2008.
Source: MediaClubSouthAfrica.com
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