Years
2019 2018
Months
February March April May June July August September October November December
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
Born in the RSA (Eng)

PLAYWRIGHT: BARNEY SIMON

DIRECTOR: KARABELO LEKALAKE

VENUE: SCAENA THEATRE

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

 

Dates and times:

29 October 2014              19h30

30 October 2014              19h30

31 October 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)

 

Born in the RSA was improvised from life. The play looks at the atrocities of the apartheid regime. This docu-drama is based on real-life characters that were caught up in the 1985 state of emergency. The play focuses on political events that challenged the perception that, in our society the victims are only those who are oppressed. The audience gets to encounter and listen to personal testimonies of people who were caught in the cross fire. The interwoven stories of the seven characters vividly paint a bleak picture of the apartheid regime and the South African Police’s tactics: the guilt by association, sudden arrest, slow interrogation and forced confessions through torture.

 

Glen Donahue (Magnus Mc Phail) is a Wits University graduate and betrayal is the name of his game. Glen is highly paid by the police to spy on “trouble makers”.  He does not mind compromising people close to him as long as he can be compensated appropriately.  This is evident when he has a steamy affair with Susan Lang (Marle Visagie) simply because he is spying on her. Susan, an art teacher is totally taken by Glen’s charm. Her remarkable characteristic of being loyal to the liberation movement is apparent in the play. However, she seems to be unaffected by the notion of being Glen’s mistress. Nicky Donahue (Imke Reinecke) married to Glen, is kind to blacks, but prefers not to listen to stories of how black people suffer because of apartheid.

 

Sindiswa Ngube (Keketso Tsiane and Petunia Kgotlhe), a black schoolteacher, is guilty of no crime except being the sister of the trade-union leader, Thenjiwe (Dieketseng Dlamini), with whom Susan is affiliated. Sindiswa's punishment in the play is the arrest of her 10-year-old son on trumped-up charges. An Afrikaner activist lawyer Mia Steinman’s (Rona Van Blerk) career is influenced by renewed political activist such as Braam Fischer, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. Since childhood Mia was exposed to various people visiting her parents’ house and all she wants is equal rights for everyone.

 

The sweet musician Zack Melani (Che Keet) is so disturbed by the cruel treatment of his friend's incarcerated child that, to his horror, he finds himself inexorably driven into becoming ''the black King Kong'' whites fear him to be. As he fantasizes about cracking the skulls of white schoolgirls, the audience sees the begetting of violence by violence.

 

The three day performance of Born in the RSA is at Scaena Theatre from 28 till 31 October at 19:30. Tickets are available at Computicket.

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful, to better understand how they are used and to tailor advertising. You can read more and make your cookie choices here. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept