Opera: slater & co treat revellers to unique setswana solos

But last weekend, music lovers were treated to a rare delight from Italian composer Pietro Mascagni's one-act opera Cavalleria Rusticana translated and set in Botswana.

The sumptuous show took place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the No.1 Ladies Opera House, and is scheduled to continue next weekend at the Maitisong Theatre in Gaborone.The collaboration of directors David Slater and Andy Batshogile, costume designer Ann Gollifer and pianist Sandra Zarins resulted in an excellent show in which local idiom and language were given probably the best treatment ever. Batshogile and Ame Mokoba translated the opera into Setswana. The story explores themes of love, betrayal, deception and revenge. In the story, Turridu (Boyce Batlang) returns from the army to find that his lover Lola (Boitumelo Pilane) has been married by the prosperous business man Alfio (a convincing Lucky Ramaloko).