Friday 9 May 2025, 19:00, Moravian Church, Greyton, R190
Lisa Engelbrecht (piano), sopranos Carmen Traut, Frances van Vuuren and Molly Dzangane, tenor Sipho Fubesi and baritone Themba Mdlalose.
A showcase of five of Opera UCT’s finest young voices, accompanied by Dr Lisa Engelbrecht on piano, take the audience on a sparkling journey through the most beloved melodies, songs and waltzes of Strauss, Mozart, Lehar and more. The programme includes popular scenes, arias and ensembles from Die Zauberflöte, Die Fledermaus, Die Lustige Witwe, Der Rosenkavalier amongst others. 2025 marks the Bicentenary of the birth of the great Johann Strauss, an incredibly successful composer best known for his Viennese waltzes and operettas, which earned him the undisputed title “The Waltz King” and became the symbol of Vienna.
BIOGRAPHIES
Carmen Traut
Carmen Traut is a 23-year-old soprano from Rustenburg, North West, whose musical journey began at the age of nine with vocal training. She has completed her UNISA examinations in piano and violin and served as a first violinist in the North West Youth Orchestra. Additionally, Carmen was an active member of the North West Children’s Choir and the Rustenburg Hoërskool Choir.
In 2020, she earned her Trinity ATCL Diploma and completed her Bachelor of Music degree in Opera at the University of Cape Town in 2025 with distinction under Mr. Sipho Fubesi. Her academic achievements include the Erik Chisholm Memorial Prize 2022, the Ralph Nussbaum Music Award 2023, Dean’s Merit, and class medals in German, Italian, and Voice.
Her performance credits with the UCT Opera School include roles as a chorus member in productions such as The Tales of Hoffmann, Dalinda, and as soloist in Side by Side, Launch Concerts, Canciones Españolas, and the UCT Student Showcase. In 2023 and 2024, she also collaborated with the Mira Musica group, participating in community outreach concert programs in Paarl and Rawsonville area. In 2024, she won first prize in the Aviva Pelham Operetta Competition and featured as a soloist in the Youth Classical Concert 2024 with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2025, Carmen will be pursuing her Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at UCT while continuing her voice studies under Mr. Sipho Fubesi.
Carmen, whose name means “sweet singing” in Latin, dedicates her musical talents to honoring God and sharing her love for music with others. Through her artistry, she seeks to inspire and connect with people, reflecting the beauty and joy that music brings into her life.
Dr Lisa Engelbrecht
Vocal Coach | Soprano | Collaborative Pianist
Dr Lisa Engelbrecht is a Vocal Coach/Répétiteur at OperaUCT under the directorship of Prof Jeremy Silver. Lisa, apart from coaching singing students and lecturing in Lyric Diction (German) at UCT, performs regularly as a vocal accompanist in South Africa and abroad. She is a member of the teaching faculty at the International Lyric Academy summer program in Vicenza, Italy where she accompanies students in many vocal recitals, offers vocal coaching and presents masterclasses. Lisa is also a guest vocal coach at the both the Royal Academy and Royal Colleges of Music, London.
Lisa has also worked as coach/répétiteur for the Grange Festival in Hampshire and has regularly coached and played for productions of Cape Town Opera where she was vocal coach/répétiteur on numerous operatic productions before moving on to work at the University of Cape Town. Similarly, before being appointed as a permanent member of staff at SACM she coached and accompanied rehearsals for many productions as well as accompanied numerous auditions and concerts. She has also been instrumental in putting together fundraising concerts with students and alumni of OperaUCT both locally and in London and regularly puts together concerts with students for various Classical music festivals around the country.
Her educational background includes post graduate study at the Royal College of Music, London (P.G Dip in Advanced Performance Répétiteur), University of Illinois (M.Mus in Vocal Accompaniment) and UCT (D.Mus in Collaborative Performance and Thesis) with apprenticeships at San Francisco Opera (Merola program) and Glimmerglass Opera (New York). She has also worked as vocal coach/accompanist for the Jeunes Voix de Rhìn (Opera National du Rhin), and British Youth Opera. Lisa also trained as a soprano with Emma Renzi and uses that training to add further insight to her vocal coaching skills.
Lisa performs vocal recitals regularly, with current and former OperaUCT singers, in Mauritius under the auspices of the Société Musicale Isle de Maurice. She also conducts Vocal Masterclasses with singers on the island.Lisa, as pianist and soprano is also part of a classical vocal duo “The Opera Angels” with British mezzo soprano, Lindsay Thomson, established in 2019.
Frances van Vuuren
Frances van Vuuren, soprano, is a native of Cape Town, South Africa and is currently pursuing a postgraduate diploma in opera at the South African College of Music with Violina Anguelov-Hobbs. During her time at UCT she was a finalist in the Friends of Opera in Cape Town Bursary Competition (February 2023), the Neues Lied competition (September 2023), shared third place in the Aviva Pelham Operetta Competition (May 2023), shared first place in the David Aldred Memorial Prize for Sopranos (April 2024) and placed fourth in the 23rd Schock Foundation Prize for Singing (October 2024). She was awarded first prize in the 2024 Fine Music Radio Bursary Trust Music Awards. With Opera UCT she covered Isabella in L’inganno Felice and performed the role of Stella in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Frances completed her BMus and MMus degrees at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. There, she performed Sandman in Hansel and Gretel and Fortuna/Damigella in L’incoronazione di Poppea. She was also seen in the ensembles of L’étoile, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, H.M.S Pinafore, and Die Zauberflöte. Additional credits include Bianca in La Rondine with Chicago Summer Opera, Eurydice (cover) in Orpheus in the Underworld with Utah Vocal Arts Academy, Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica with Opera Lucca and First Spirit in Die Zauberflöte with Bloomington Chamber Opera.
Molly Dzangare
Zimbabwean soprano Molly Dzangare is a Postgraduate student at the Opera School, University of Cape Town (OperaUCT), South Africa. Before attaining her Performer’s Diploma at UCT, she attended master classes for several years with The Voices of South Africa Trust, with leading opera singers and voice teachers providing the coaching.
In 2019 as a first-year student at UCT, Molly performed with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra Annual Youth Concert in Durban, South Africa. Ms Dzangare appeared as a guest soloist on the popular Opera Gala in Harare (2016-17) (HARARE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS), she was also invited to take part in the (Zimbabwe Creative and Cultural Arts Festival) in Harare 2022.
She was awarded the first prize including audience prize for two opera competitions at the University namely ‘Schock Foundation Opera Competition’, and The ‘David Aldred Competition for Sopranos’ 2020 and 2021 respectively. In 2023 she got the first prize for ‘Aviva Pelham Operetta competition’ and first prize for the ‘Neus-lied (art song competition) at the University. In 2024 she got a bursary award from ‘The friends of Opera in Cape Town’ and was awarded a bursary by Opera Europe.
She debuted her first full role in a new opera by Hendrick Hoffmeyer as Sara in ‘SARA BAARTMAN’ Opera in 2022 and in 2023 she debuted in ‘LES CONTES D’HOFFMAN’ as Giulietta.
In 2024, Ms Dzangare debuted in the world premiere of a long-lost opera, DALINDA by Donizetti were she took on the title role as Dalinda (reworked opera from Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia) This was the first Dalinda to ever been fully staged. A month later the same year, she debuted the role of The Governess in Opera ‘The Turn of the Screw’ which was also staged at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.
Sipho Fubesi
Sipho Fubesi hails from a small town Centane in the Eastern Cape.
He made his Royal Opera House/Covent Garden debut in 2013 as Third Esquire (Parsifal). Previous performances at the Royal Opera House include the world premiere of O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness with Opera East and ROH2 in the Linbury Studio Theatre. He also covered the role of Hassan in Weir’s Miss Fortune on the main stage.
Fubesi studied music at the University of Cape Town under Prof Angelo Gobbato and Sarita Stern. In 2008 he moved to the UK to study at the Royal Northern College of Music, one of the best conservatoires in the world. His prizes at the RNCM included the Frederic Cox Award and the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize, and his roles as a student included Candide, Paris (La Belle Hélène), the title role in La Clemenza di Tito, Don José (Carmen) and Anatol (Vanessa). In 2013 he covered the role of Fenton (Falstaff) for the Glyndebourne Festival and in 2012 Machado (Philips’s The Yellow Sofa) for Glyndebourne on Tour.
Fubesi’s recordings include the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) for SABC television. He also sang Donizetti’s aria ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ from L’elisir d’amore for the soundtrack of the film The Deal. Sipho is a founder of The Mzansi Tenors and a full-time singing lecturer at the University of Cape Town.
Themba Mdlalose
Baritone opera singer Themba Mdlalose hails from the Kingdom of Eswatini. His active involvement in school choirs’ competitions sparked his interest in opera. He then went on to compete and win numerous solo competitions in the Southern African region. The Voices of South Africa International Opera Singing Competition in 2020 stands out as the one in which he won first prize in the under-22 age category. Themba earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science with a major in economics and political science from the University of Eswatini, where he completed his studies. He served as the institution’s choir’s music director while he was a student. Owing to his intense passion, love and enthusiasm for opera, he has since enrolled at the University of Cape Town for opera undergraduate studies where he is currently doing the role of Ridolfo in Opera UCT’s production of Gaetano Donizetti’s long-lost opera Dalind.
