(Preview) Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
In my preview of the Festival programme I was critical of the thin opera programme this year: only one staged opera, ‘Rusalka’ from Garsington, and two concert performances of ‘Salome’ and ‘Fidelio’. So we should be grateful to promoter Ian McFarlane for bringing perhaps the most exciting opera star of the moment to Edinburgh. Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha came to our attention when she won the Song Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 20121. Ian McFarlane, as he did with previous Cardiff winner Catrina Morison, decided to bring her to Edinburgh and right in the middle of the Festival on August 9th: 2.30pm at St Andrew’s and St George’s West Church in George St.
Anyone who watched the opening night of the BBC Proms last week will have seen that Masabane was the star of the evening with her glorious soprano voice soaring into the roof of the Albert Hall in Verdi’s ‘Requiem’. We are very lucky that she is coming to Edinburgh and at a time in the afternoon when there are no clashes with the official festival. Make sure you are there on August 9th. You will witness a singer who is going to be a star of the world’s opera houses in the future.
