TRIAL BY MEDIA
cape town opera . artscape arena . 2024
This powerful new opera by London-based South African composer Conrad Asman delves into the trial of Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic athlete who fatally shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day in 2013. Set entirely within the courtroom, the production examines the profound impact of media coverage on public perception, especially in cases involving prominent figures. It brings the online and social media commentary surrounding the trial into focus, shedding light on how public opinion became intertwined with the broader discourse about the case.
CREATIVE TEAM
musical composition : Conrad Asman
libretto : Schalk Schoombie
direction : Fred Abrahamse & Marcel Meyer
musical direction : José Dias
costume design : Marcel Meyer
set design : Allegra Bernacchioni
projection design : Kirsti Cumming
lighting design : Kobus Rossouw
production photography : Kim Stevens
REVIEWS
The Conrad Asman-composed one-hour opera is also surely the most ambitious of the three pieces, with complex and sometimes difficult music, a cast of 11 singers plus the gymnastically-fingered pianist and musical director José Dias on stage, and phenomenal design that operates on so many levels: there are visual and lighting effects, projections and snippets of video, plus striking costumes. All of which enriches the drama and adds meaningfully to the opera’s extraordinary music and poignant libretto..... If anything, it’s an hour so exhilarating, so fascinating and so thought-provoking that it feels slightly truncated; how fantastic it is to walk out of an opera wishing there was more.
Keith Bain, Daily Maverick
We have opted for a highly stylised and conceptual staging of this work giving the production a stoic, reverential formality more often associated with oratorio rather than traditional opera staging. The “movement” and “drama” of the piece resides wholeheartedly in the turbulent yet magnificent ebb and flow of the music, enhanced by the motion inherent in Kirsti Cumming’s impressively vivid and layered video and projection design aided by Kobus Rossouw’s stark yet sculptural lighting design.
Marcel Meyer, Interview with The Cape Robyn