Here comes Africa's 'Pavarotti'

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Correspondent | Friday May 11, 2007 00:00

 

The affable Belobo has been based in Germany for the last six years. He says his opera exploits continue to surprise Europeans as they wonder how he cut it. Belobo says in the whole of Germany there are only two black people doing opera house, regarded as the most exclusive form of music.

While at Maitisong this weekend the man who sharpened his skills in France says he will  perform about 15-17 pieces of classical music, backed by his own piano player, who was expected to arrive in Gaborone yesterday.

He says he will perform 'something a bit different' from what he is used to doing in Europe. 'My role is to interpret. We act on stage, so it is not only me on stage most of the time, I act alongside a team of more than 100 people, orchestra, and other musicians', he explained to Arts & Culture. This time though Belobo's baritone will come out clearly for everyone to enjoy, it will not be mixed with any other voices as he gives a rare solo performance.

The bespectacled singer is not just here to sing and probably make a few bucks. He arrived in Botswana on May 3 and soon started opera coaching lessons alongside David Slater at Maruapula. The duo are working with 18 locals, including a host of aspiring opera singers groomed by Slater during his time as Maitisong director.

Belobo says he cannot believe the talent of some of the locals he is working with.
' I have been coaching people who have had five or seven years' of opera singing around the world, but I am not exaggerating when I say people here are so talented,' he said in an interview with Showbiz at Maitisong.

The baritone says he wants to make Africans conscious of their potential. ' I take opera like football. At some point it was a new sport in Africa, now Africa produces some of the best footballers in the world. I just want to show people that Africans can be the best in the world in opera as well.'

Belobo says he has had a passion for classical music since the age of 11 when he enrolled for voice studies in Yaounde, Cameroon.  In 1996 and 1997 his exploits were rewarded when he was crowned national classical music champion. He was also recognised in the neighbouring Ivory Coast where he also won an award. In 1997 he won a scholarship to study classical music in Nice, France, where he won a gold medal. He   later trained under famous classical music trainer Isabelle Guillaud in Paris and completed his final diploma

In 2000 he won second prize in an international competition in Geneva. His most remarkable performance on the international stage was perhaps in 2002 in Vienna, Austria, where he won five prizes at a single event, the international Belvedere competition. 

As a result of this feat, he won himself professional contracts with Semperoper Dresden, Strasbourg Opera, the Kammeroper Vienna and a recital at the Philharmonic hall in Cologne. He also had a one-and-a-half year stint with the Bavarian national opera in Munich before Semperoper Dresden, Germany, engaged him.