Well, I am a nervous visitor to the centre of Durban and having to find the Playhouse at dusk on a Saturday night made me a touch nervy…but found it I did. After marvelling at the architecture of the City Hall we made our way up an alleyway which my fourteen year old described as ‘dodge’. The stage door presented itself, and in went my boy.
My lovely companion, Cath Mundell, no mean singer herself, and a new pupil at Wickham, was charm personified, and showed me where the entrance to the Playhouse was. I bought some drinks, a flag, some streamers, had my face painted,and we made our way to our seats. The music and the conductor were a revelation.
I bobbed along to the Champagne Polka by Strauss, loves the Durban Girls College Choir singing and dancing to Adiemus, and the 1812 Overture had us all blowing up brown paper bags and popping them for the cannon piece at the end. I felt like I was at the Albert Hall. The place was packed, and the atmosphere convivial.
Richard Cock, a Bishops old boy, was the perfect blend of sardonic and entertaining, and the second half had me in a frenzy of delight as Auld Lang Syne had us linking arms and swaying, Jerusalem let me show off my perfect recall of the words from beginning to end, and the climax of Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory (also sung without the wordsheet) saw a tear or ten roll down my cheek.
I would have been sobbing if I hadn’t had a fourteen year old to my right and a fourteen year old on the stage. What a wonderful night. The stage was magnificent, the choir fabulous and the young bass-baritone, Godfrey Zunguza was honestly superb. The timbre of his voice, and his stage presence, particularly when singing Old Man River, was Paul Robeson for the 21st century. You will be hearing more of him. Add in the lovely young voice of Leah Mari who was there singing her own composition, aged eleven, and this was a world class evening.
The Clifton College Choir were there for the first time, and I have to say that I always be grateful that my son could sing on a stage of that size and with a group of that calibre. It was exciting and I will never feel like a lone Pom in Durban again. Can’t wait till the next one!!
