Student Goitsemang Lehobye is to perform alongside international singers at Artscape and Kirstenbosch.

Wilhelm Snyman

“VERDI’S my man!” says Goitsemang Lehobye, one of the stars of the Festival Opera Gala Concert to be given at Artscape on Saturday and at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden the following day.

“I’ll sing anything because singing will make me happy,” says the vivacious Lehobye, who will be sharing the stage with Olesya Petrova (mezzo), Neil Shicoff (tenor) and Colin Schachat (baritone).

The Cape Philharmonic will be conducted by Richard Cock.

“It’s beautiful music,” Lehobye says.

She enjoys singing in the open air, such as at Kirstenbosch.

She has been told she looks relaxed when she sings with a microphone.

At one point, after an intruder entered her home in Pretoria, Lehobye thought she would not sing again.

“I didn’t actually get sick, I screamed very badly.”

Instead of screaming to technique or hitting a high C, she simply screamed, much to the chagrin of her professor at UCT’s Opera School, Kamal Khan, who asked her: “ ‘Why didn’t you scream with technique?’

“That was the last thing I could do at the time. Someone threatening your life and you think about technique!”

Lehobye has come top in her class, and is only in her second year at the Opera School, after spending six years at the Black Tie Opera Chorus in Gauteng.

Of Khan, she says: “He knows my voice. He knows it more than I do. It scares me sometimes. He’s always there for me. He’s an inspiration.”

Lehobye is careful about the roles she sings, and her goals include the great Verdi roles.

She says her talent comes from her mother’s side.

“I know my mother’s family, not my father’s. And the reason I know the talent comes from my mother’s family is because they’re the fat ones!”

Lehobye first sang in choirs, as her uncle and little sister do.

“The first aria I sang was Mozart’s Porgi amor,” she says.

“People thought we were crying, and laughed at us, and then we said,‘No, we’re singing’.

“We looked at DVDs of operas and then when we saw the subtitles we understood why they seemed to be crying.”

Lehobye is looking forward to the concert, but says humbly in referring to her co-stars: “They’re international people.”

The programme includes a duet from Verdi’s La Traviata, as well as excerpts from Mozart, Puccini, Bizet and Saint-Säens.

Asked about her favourite operas she says passionately: “Verdi! Wagner’s too much. I may go there when I grow older.”

Lehobye loves lieder because “they groom the voice and the poetry and the music are beautiful”.

As a genre lieder need more attention, whereas Lehobye loves Verdi for the drama.

She also loves Bellini’s Norma, and describes herself as a lyric soprano.

Nabucco is the opera in which she really wants to perform one day, in the role of Abigaille. “Just because it’s Verdi and it’s big and grand.

“I learnt Ritorna Vincitor (from Aida). But, ah those costumes, that set!

“I have a dream, though, of singing the (title) role of Carmen. I love that role. If only I was slender! I like to see myself as a Micaëla. Carmen needs to look sexy. It’s one of my favourite operas.

“But Nabucco… Verdi, he’s my man! But I’ve got a thing for big voices.

“Montserrat Caballé is also one of my favourites, but if I had a choice I would be a basso profondo.

“I have sung a low C before but, you know, we sopranos, we always have to go up to a top E or somewhere.

“I would love to be a mezzo just to do Cavalleria Rusticana and Carmen. So I’m a confused soprano.”

The confusion about where to place Lehobye’s voice means we can expect great things from it.

But there’s nothing confused about her loves and ambitions.

Asked where she gets the strength for her performances, Lehobye says: “Is it not God giving us the strength?”

In speaking of some of the people she has sung with, she raves about Johan Botha, with whom she recently performed scenes from La Boheme.

“Sometimes I struggle because of the voice I have. Sometimes you ‘outsing’ a person, but Johan is there, he supports you.”

l The Festival Gala Opera Concert at Artscape on Saturday starts at 8.30pm. For the concert of opera arias and ensembles at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden on Sunday, be sure to ask about the starting time. To book, call 021 421 7695.