Distinguished South African tenor Lukhanyo Moyake, recently appointed soloist with Cape Town Opera, is currently rehearsing at Artscape for a welcome reprise of the company’s 2021 production of Bizet’s Pearl Fishers ahead of its opening on 10 May 2023. BEVERLEY BROMMERT chatted to him about the production:
Lukhanyo Moyake has an impressively diverse array of lead roles in opera, both locally and overseas, which makes his response to the question, “So, have you always wanted to sing?” all the more startling: “No, not at all! My first great love was rugby!”, chuckles this affable celebrity from the Eastern Cape.
He adds that at school, his friends persuaded him to join them in the school choir, and more often than not he was entrusted with solos in choral performance – an early recognition of his natural talent. Recalling those days, he identifies Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito as music that stood out for him, igniting his interest in opera as he sang a solo part in a choral section of that work.
Nevertheless, on matriculating he chose a career in IT – which ended when he was introduced to the collective magic of the Three Tenors, featured on a video cassette: “I thought, listening to Pavarotti, how much I wanted to sing like him,” he remarks. And the result of that aspiration was a sea change as computers made way for operatic training.
From KZN to Cape Town and beyond
After completing a Bachelor’s degree in Practical Music at the University of KZN with distinction, Moyake responded to an invitation from CTO to audition, joining the CTO Studio in 2010 and at the same time studying towards a Postgraduate Diploma at UCT’s Opera School. By 2012 he was accepted into the CTO Young Artists’ Programme … and then came his notable début as the lead (Alfredo) in La Traviata, in 2015.
“That role will always be very special to me, an all time favourite,” says Moyake, his affection for it enhanced by the fact that it also happened to mark his début with the English National Opera’s production of Verdi’s masterpiece.
Later this year in October, CTO will stage La Traviata at Artscape with the lead sung by … Moyake. “It seems things have come full circle,” he comments happily.
More coming up …
As for The Pearl Fishers, the role of Nadir, which he shares with the great tenor Levy Sekgapane in the forthcoming run, is far from unfamiliar to him, since he filled it in the 2020/2021 production.
“Interpreting a role one has sung before is always different; it modifies with a new director, and with the passage of time a voice inevitably changes. Mine has moved from lyrical tenor to a fuller lyrico spinto, as I have matured.” His reading of Nadir’s character has not changed, however: he still sees him as “a simple guy who falls in love with forbidden fruit, he can’t help himself. He is vulnerable, but easy to love and easy to forgive …”
Next up in Moyake’s schedule will be the challenging role of Cavaradossi in Cape Town Opera’s grand scale Tosca, that takes place in both Johannesburg (Mandela Theatre) and in Cape Town (Artscape Theatre) in July and September 2023 respectively and which he is eager to undertake: “I do enjoy new parts as they prevent you from becoming too comfortable and complacent.” A happy counterpoint to the pleasure of familiarity.
What: The Pearl Fishers
Where and when: Artscape from 10 to 14 May 2023. Lukhanyo sings the role of Nadir on Saturday 13 May at 6pm.
Tickets: Computicket
WS
