Stéfan Louw

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South African opera tenor, Stéfan Louw.

Biography[edit]

Stéfan Louw is recognised as one of South Africa’s best tenors and has been performing opera since 1999. The Sunday Times newspaper wrote of his Rodolfo (2005) that his voice should be declared a national treasure.

His opera career started off in 1995 as a member of the Pretoria State Theatre Ad-hoc Opera Chorus and only a year after joining the chorus, received the Chorister of the Year Award. During the five years he was a member of the Opera Chorus he sang in more than 20 productions. In 1999 Stéfan made his debut as Beppe in I Pagliacci, for which he received the prestigious FNB Vita Opera Award for Most Promising Newcomer.

Since then Stéfan made a living singing opera and his repertoire includes roles such as Alfredo in La Traviata, Barinkay in Der Zigeunerbaron, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Duncan in Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, The Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, Tonio in La Fille du Regiment, Pang in Turandot, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Radames in Aïda and Rodolfo in La Boheme. Stéfan has also performed the tenor solo roles of Puccini's Messa di Gloria, Handel's Messiah, Rossini's Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solenelle, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as well as Dvorak's Mass in D-major at numerous occasions throughout South Africa and Namibia.

In September 2008, he made his international debut as Pollione in Norma at the Vichy Opera[1] in France, followed by Radames in Aïda at the Opéra de Dijon in France in December of the same year.[2]

For his role as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Cape Town Opera (2009) Norman McFarlane of the Kunste Bolander wrote that Stéfan invested himself in the role in such away that his unlikeable character was the talk on more than one occasion during the short intermission. He (McFarlane) believes that this is an affirmation of the skill with which Louw acquits himself of the role.

In February 2011, Stéfan became a regular contributing writer to the Citizen newspaper's entertainment edition called CitiVibe. His goal with the column called OperaSmalls is to educate the people of South Africa about what opera is by writing about the history of opera, the different voices in opera, the different opera styles and also bust some myths about opera. Furthermore Stéfan is the founder of a non-profit organisation called Sempre Opera. The purpose of this organisation is to create an opportunity for established opera singers to practice their art form by producing full-length operas of exceptional artistic standard across South Africa. The launch concerts for Sempre Opera took place in March 2012 in Pretoria and Johannesburg. In February 2013 he handed over the reins of the organisation to his colleague, Linette van der Merwe.

Louw embarked on producing a series of concerts whereby he aims to bring true opera aficionados a measure of quality, whilst at the same time encouraging new audiences to appreciate true opera. The production is called Aria! Opera for Everyone[3] and he adapts the programme and supporting artists with each concert. The 2013 season at the Roodepoort Theatre (Promusica Theatre)[4] has been so successful that it has been extended into 2014.

Opera repertiore[edit]

Oratorio repertoire[edit]

  • Puccini's Messa di Gloria
  • Handel's Messiah
  • Rossini's Stabat Mater
  • Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
  • Dvorak's Mass in D-major
  • Rossini's Petite messe solennelle

References[edit]

External links[edit]