Tuesday 14 May Concert: Theo Bross (cello) & Guncha Hojanepesova (piano)
Thursday 16 May Broadchurch Series 2 [2]
Saturday 18 May Concert – Christine Nyoni and Friends
Thursday 23 May Broadchurch Series 2 [3]
Friday 24 May Verdi: Requiem [first performed 22 May 1874]

The Academy has a major hall booking for the week 27 May – 1 June and (regrettably!) there will therefore be no DVD showings during that week.

TUESDAY 14 MAY : THEO BROSS (CELLO) & GUNCHA HOJANEPESOVA (PIANO)

Theo Bross needs no introduction to Bulawayo audiences and he will be partnered by Guncha Hojanepesova, a recent arrival in Zimbabwe who will be making her debut in Bulawayo. They present a wide-ranging programme including one of the pinnacles of the cellist’s repertoire, Brahms’ First Cello Sonata, as well as several shorter and delightful works.

Theo and Guncha are keen to support music in Bulawayo and the Academy and have offered to play in Bulawayo for ‘what you can afford’! What we can afford depends on the support for the concert so we hope everyone will make an effort to attend.

A snack-supper with the performers will be available after the concert, price $10.00 including a glass of wine. It must be pre-booked at the Academy.

Admission: US$5.00 [free to Red Carpet Members]

THURSDAY 16 MAY AT 6.30 P.M. BROADCHURCH SERIES 2 – 2

Carriages: 8.45 p.m.

Ellie struggles to control her sister amid family tensions; Alec has to face his demons; Mark Latimer must make a decision.

It’s not a case of the more the merrier. Instead it’s an even richer recipe for a seriously dramatic series that already had an A-game in place. [TV Insider]

Admission: US$2.50 [free to Film Members]

SATURDAY 18 MAY AT 6.00 P.M. AFRICA DAY CONCERT with CHRISTINE NYONI AND FRIENDS

Experience a night of African music ranging from different regions of our continent with a mix of classics to modern African music. There will be music from Salif Keita to Miriam Makeba.

Come dressed in your best African attire!

Admission: $5.00 single – $8.00 doer two – $20.00 for six!

THURSDAY 23 MAY AT 6.30 P.M. BROADCHURCH SERIES 2 – final episodes

Carriages: 9.00 p.m.

A trap is set; Paul helps a figure in distress; Ellie finds herself alone. Decisions are made, truths are revealed, and lives are forever changed.

There’s no denying it’s a pleasure to revisit this cast and to once again share both the pain of this English town and the scenic glory of its seaside setting. [USA Today]

Broadchurch remains a tense, engrossing drama. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Admission: US$2.50 [free to Film Members]

FRIDAY 24 MAY AT 6.30 P.M. VERDI: REQUIEM

Carriages: 8.50 p.m.

Verdi’s Requiem was first performed 150 years ago on 22 May 1874; it was written in memory of the Italian writer and nationalist Alessandro Manzoni and is perhaps as operatic a score as anything he wrote, ranging from the dramatic power of the famous Dies Irae to the sublime lyricism of the work’s arias and duets. This performance from Berlin was given to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Verdi’s death in January 1901 and will be preceded by excerpts from a gala that took place just a few weeks before which includes extracts from four of his best-known operas, ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’, ‘Don Carlos’, ‘Rigoletto’ and ‘La Traviata’.

A profound interpretation which offers the cream of today’s young singers. [MusicWeb International]
This is a performance which starts exceptionally well but which grows and grows, all the soloists clearly becoming more and more caught up in the music making. And from the point of view of orchestral playing and the conductor’s reading, this is the performance of one’s dreams – a perfect balance between the spiritual and dramatic. [Amazon]
In no other performance that I have seen or heard has the comparison with Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel seemed more appropriate, both in the quality and the quantity of fear and awe that it evokes [Classical Music]

Abbado appears to see the work as just what it is, a mass for the dead, and as such he fills it not only with the powerful Wrath of God but with gentle and comforting words of mercy and forgiveness, too. It is in these quieter, calmer moments of repose that I found Abbado’s vision especially moving, a sweeter, slower-paced, more contemplative reading than those of some of his rivals, yet just as gripping. You might say he follows the advice of many critics by not making the piece sound too much like a large-scale grand opera. [Classical Candour]
The performance is never less than engrossing and often astonishing. It’s the heightened sense of concentration that grabs the listener, a wish by all the performers that these concerts should be something special. [Classical Source]