Years
2019 2018
Quartet For The End Of Time
2018-10-25

Quartet For The End Of Time

By Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

25 October 2018

Odeion

19:30

“THE IDEA OF THE END OF TIME AS THE END OF PAST AND FUTURE AND THE BEGINNING OF ETERNITY”

Anmari van der Westhuizen and Samson Diamond (members of the renowned Odeion String Quartet), will join with the award-winning soloists Grethe Nöthling and Danrè Strydom to perform one of the 20th century’s most compelling chamber music works, Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. These musicians need no introduction to Bloemfontein audiences.

Composed while he was a prisoner of war, Messiaen's Quartet has continually wowed audiences since its creation. The oppressive conditions within which the work was conceived - set against the backdrop of wartime conditions in Nazi Germany - contribute to the work’s inner narrative. In this unsettling time of global political and social uncertainty, we aim to reframe this work from the past in order to contemplate the present. Music woven together with other art forms elicit and explain a range of emotions where words often fail.

A selection of striking WWII photos will be projected behind the musicians - reflecting the theme and history of the composition.

About the composition
Olivier Messiaen (1908 - 92)
Quatour pour le fin du temps (1940 - 41)

Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was written in perhaps the most incongruous spot any great score has been composed in: an unheated barrack in Stalag VIII-A, a German prisoner-of-war camp, during the second winter of World War 2. Messiaen wrote this mystical quartet for the instruments available in the camp (clarinet, violin, cello, and piano) in a setting that is arguably among the least conducive for creative work.

The quartet is Messiaen's musical depiction of and rumination on Revelation 10:1-7, which the composer included as a heading to the score:

“I saw a mighty angel descending from heaven, clad in mist, having around his head a rainbow. His face was like the sun, his feet like pillars of fire. He placed his right foot on the sea, his left on the earth, and standing thus on the sea and the earth, he lifted his hand toward heaven and swore by Him who liveth forever and ever, saying: "There shall be time no longer, but at the day of the trumpet of the seventh angel the mystery of God shall be consummated."

ADMISSION

  • R120 (adults)
  • *R80 (pensioners)
  • *R70 (UFS staff)
  • *R50 (students, learners and block bookings of 10+)

Tickets available at Computicket or online at http://online.computicket.com/web/

*Please note that tickets for pensioners, students, learners and UFS staff can only be purchased at a Computicket outlet (Shoprite Checkers) or at the doors since a valid card or ID has to be presented to qualify for the above-mentioned discount.

ENQUIRIES
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)


Back
Curl up and dye

Playwright: SUE PAM-GRANT

Director: KARABELO LEKALAKE

Venue: Scaena Theatre

Language: English

 

Dates and times:

24 September 2014         19h30

25 September 2014         18h00

26 September 2014         19h30

 

Prices:  R 40.00 for adults / R 30.00 for students or scholars / R 25.00 for pensioners or for groups of 10 or more

 

Bookings:   Computicket (0861 915 8000)

 

The play is set against the background of Joubert Park, the infamous grey area in Johannesburg. The year is 1989 and South Africa is nearing the end of the apartheid regime. While some are fighting to keep what they have, others are fighting for existence.  Sue Pam Grant’s thought-provoking Curl Up & Dye highlights some of the challenges facing the community during apartheid. The  play focuses on the lives of the five seemingly different woman, whom the ruthless course of South African society in the eighties has thrown uncomfortably together. It all comes tumbling down as they battle and bump into their own truths unwillingly, yet still clinging to the old masks. But as it all unravels, Roline (Yoliswa Jacobs) reverts to her true self and the demons that she can never escape. Living in a society where everything she wants to hide is skin deep and easily exposed, it heightens the fear and the powerlessness that dominates her life. The character of Mrs Dubois (Marnel  Bester ) who often finds comfort in the discomfort of others, escapes her dark reality by reminiscing about the good old days. Miriam (Mosili Makuta) is the unsung hero in the play. Although she is the same age as Mrs Duboise, race, class and the system doesn’t allow her to get equal treatment as her counterpart. Charmaine’s (Jana Coetzer) destructive world is made up of drugs, alcohol and prostitution. She engages in these activities because that is the only way she manages to numb her pain. Then there is Dudu Dlamini( Setheo Thamae),  she is a highly qualified nurse who makes her unlikely way into the scenario. Dudu brings hope into the hopeless situation.

With this play, Grant mirrors all shades of grey that infect our society. Although some might be uncomfortable watching this play, the play explores with tenderness, compassion and wonderful humour the fears, conflicts and hopes of these women living on the edge. As we celebrate 20 years of democracy our country, the play exams the then volatile, segregated country and it captures the success and journey of the new South Africa.

Curl Up & Dye will be presented by honors students from the University of the Free State at the Scaena Theatre. Catch this exciting, hilarious and intriguing    play on the 24th September 2014(19:30), 25th September (18:00) and 26th September (19:30).

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