Cape Town Opera plays role in student development

Real-world experiences

Cape Town Opera is a key training ground for many students studying music and singing through its Voice of the Nation tuition programme and long-time association with UCT, now the Cape Town Opera's design team has collaborated with final year Surface Design students from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to create a bright and visually appealing production of The Barber of Seville, on stage at Artscape from 20- 24 November 2013.

This gives students real-world design experience and brings new ideas and fresh concepts for Cape Town Opera to implement or expand upon. This project gives students real-world design experience, but at the same time facilitation and input from the Surface Design staff at CPUT and partners such as Cape Town Opera allows students to graduate and enter an industry where they have had first-hand real-world design experience, readying them for employment or entrepreneurship.

Collaborating with Cape Town Opera, in a real-world project has many positive outcomes for the students, Cape Town Opera and the Institution. Firstly, the students are learning to design for staging and this presents an opportunity for direction into a new field and possible job opportunities.

Secondly, the students are faced with new exciting challenges, experiencing theatre and applying what they have learnt over the past two years and thirdly they are learning what industry expectations are and grasping new aspects of designing for theatre. They are gaining experience by being exposed to deadlines and precise schedules.

Individually they are given the opportunity to create specific designs for Cape Town Opera. Future experiential student training and an on-going relationship between Cape Town Opera and CPUT offers the students major benefits such as on-the-spot training and experience. In addition, audience members are in for a real treat with some very clever design elements being added to the set.

Student's artistic development

From sets to singing Cape Town Opera is an integral part of student development. Two of Cape Town Opera's 2013 operatic masterpieces, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Rossini's The Barber of Seville are in collaboration with the UCT Opera School. The onstage experience afforded to the students with Cape Town Opera furthers the artistic development of the singers and also gives them hands on experience of performing to an audience.

Cape Town Opera's highly experienced creative and technical teams are delighted to contribute to the development of local students and to grow the entertainment industry by equipping future role players with knowledge, experience, techniques and above all, a passion for what they do.

For more, go to www.capetownopera.co.za