Cape Town Opera and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra Perform Mozart's Requiem in March

Cape Town Opera (CTO) and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) will once again be collaborating on Mozart’s iconic Requiem at the Paarl Toringkerk on Easter Saturday, 30 March 2024, at 16:00. 

This year's performance in Paarl marks the third Easter collaboration between the two entities and fulfils both companies' common objective which is to present outstanding music and song to a broader audience that extends beyond the city limits. 

Says Magdalene Minnaar, Artistic Director of Cape Town Opera, “The vocal writing in Mozart’s Requiem is absolutely sublime - it is one of the most coveted oratorios for singers to perform. It contains some of the most riviting and sublime vocal writing, both for solo and ensemble. The quartets are particularly genial in its layering of vocal lines - it is one of my personal favourite works."

Bernhard Gueller, the CPO’s principal guest conductor, will direct the CPO Chorus and soloists Siphamandla Moyake (Soprano) alongside Judith Neilson Young Artists Julia Portela Piñón (Alto), Mongezi Mosoaka (Tenor) and Lonwabo Mose (Bass Baritone- pictured).  The Cape Town Opera Chorus under the leadership of Marvin Kernelle directs the CTO Chorus while the  Symphony Choir of Cape Town, trained by Levi Alexander, will also participate in the concert. 

Requiem is the last music written by Mozart before his death at age of 35 and for Gueller, this is the most mysterious Requiem ever written. “It covers the spectrum of emotion from subtlety to high drama,” he says.  "Mozart never completed it, but he left sketches so that Austrian composer and conductor Franz Xaver Süssmayr was able to complete the work that today has become the pinnacle of Mozart’s oeuvre."  

Louis Heyneman, CEO of the CPO added, “Our recent annual chamber music festival in Franschhoek and the concerts in the Toringkerk have become fixtures on the social calendars of these beautiful towns and we are delighted to be able to present this major work to a discerning audience once more.”