Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Get your passport blessed 
  • Yes, it changed us
  • The Enyobeni Tavern tragedy: lessons for our own municipality
  • The spirit of Africa in indigenous African instruments
  • A laugh a day keeps the end of fest blues away
  • The hole left by absent fathers
  • Festival Of Circles: a festival within a festival
  • The stunning story of an autistic, self-taught pianist
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
Cue Media
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»Botha, Hyland marry beauty with understanding
Uncategorized

Botha, Hyland marry beauty with understanding

Kayla RouxBy Kayla RouxJuly 4, 2013No Comments2 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

A soprano who has a magnificent facility in her voice, as well as to be able to embody a piece of music, is extremely rare.  

A soprano who has a magnificent facility in her voice, as well as to be able to embody a piece of music, is extremely rare.  


But Runette Botha, the 2013 Standard Bank Young Artist for Music, did both on Monday night in the Rhodes Chapel.  

Botha’s diverse programme truly tested her technique, as well as her musicality, and she met the challenge beautifully with a maturity and vibrancy that engaged the audience in the very heart of the music.  

Each of the works, from Handel to Leonard Bernstein, risked a different vocal quality to match the mood, composer, style, region – and even the texts themselves.

While she had superb technique, intonation and diction, her voice was not just one sound, but many – and this is what made this performance infinitely compelling.  

Her acting ability also matched her singing, but even when this reviewer closed his eyes at times, her voice had not diverged or dulled from being immediately present to the music itself.   

Her confident presence, combined with an unassuming charm, was delightfully disarming, and she was always aware of bringing the audience into the character of each song by explanations and translations by her and accompanist Audrey Hyland.

Hyland laid an excellent foundation for Botha’s performance and helped to provide some of the drama of the performance. 

Her playing on Richard Strauss’s Morgen was particularly sensitive to a mood of still and even suspenseful peace, drawing out each phrase and expression.

It was unfortunate that the Rhodes Chapel was around half-full for this recital. It means many festival-goers missed two outstanding artists at work: artists who care about their audiences and, more important, about the music.

 It was a privilege to witness not only a great virtuoso talent, but to be engaged also in a great drama unfolding of which the audience seemed to be part.

Previous ArticleLiving monument a gift to the arts
Next Article G’town gets a taste of Fame
Kayla Roux

Related Posts

Johan Carinus tree planting

Learn music fit for a king

First place for Malawian journalist- Need to upload Pix

Comments are closed.

Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Latest video

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2022 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.