People of Note Fine Music Radio

Peter Shaffer’s award winning play Amadeus has just opened at Theatre on the Bay starring Alan Committie as Salieri and Aidan Scott as Mozart. This thrilling drama received worldwide acclaim with the film Amadeus and is always an incredible experience in the theatre, even though the theory Shaffer puts forward about Salieri murdering Mozart is not true. My guest on People of Note this week is Alan Committie who talks about his experience with this coveted role.

My guest on People of Note this week is the distinguished actor, director, writer, scenic and costume designer, Marcel Meyer who, with Fred Abrahamse, is co directing a newly written opera by the South African composer Conrad Asman. It’s called Trial by Media and concerns the Oscar Pistorious murder trial. It is one of three short operas in Cape Town Opera’s season called Shorts – the others are La Voix Humaine by Poulenc and Mozart’s Impressario.

Birds and birding feature in this week’s People of Note. I’ll be talking to Mike Buckham who has been passionate about bird watching since he was six years old. Now he is the Chairman of the Cape Bird Club and continues to attract new members and young people to the joy of bird watching.

Rodney Trudgeon’s guest on People of Note this week is Chantal Coetzee, who is an artist, feminist historian, speaker and radio presenter. Her current series of artworks is called African Queens: Restoring History and is her passion project. Her giant paintings are portraits of African Queens whose lives she has meticulously researched.

Lara Foot’s highly acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s OTHELLO is about to open at the Baxter. In the lead role is a son of John Kani, Atandwa Kani who is enjoying a hugely successful career based in New York with television, film and acting careers running side by side. Atandwa has won numerous awards locally and internationally and is very excited about this exciting new production of Othello in which he plays the title role.

My guest on People of Note this week is a highly respected and award winning journalist, author, broadcaster who has covered major events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism. His recent book with the provocative title, Why The Germans Do It Better was a best seller and his latest book is called In Search of Berlin. John is fascinated by Germany, although he is English, and has harsh words to say about Brexit.