Benjamin Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in South Africa
Photo: Courtesy of the theatre company
Isango Ensemble, the South African opera company, which delighted Boston audiences in 2014 with their lively production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, recently returned to the city. Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was one of two operas – Carmen, the other – that they brought to ArtsEmerson’s Cutler Majestic Theatre. The performers, who hail from South Africa’s townships around Cape Town, perform classical operas that have been reconceived and reculturated. Although all the performers are Black, one of the principal goals of the company is to build a diverse audience representative of a unified, but multi-cultural South Africa. Therefore, since most libretti are written in European languages, the operas are translated into South African tongues with English predominating. Unfortunately, the multiple languages and accented English can make it hard to follow the show. Supertitles would help greatly.