Klutaimnestra-The First Afrikaans Opera
November 1967 marked the premier of Afrikaner Cromwell Everson’s four act opera, “Klutaimnestra”.
First held in Worcester in what is now the Western Cape, the Opera was billed as “the first opera in Afrikaans” and represented Everson’s tribute to the history of his people.
Though the radio opera “Asterion” (Premiered 11 April 1958) and the Dutchman Henk Badings’ Opera meant to match a Libretto by N. P. van Wyk Louw had truthfully laid foundations for Opera in the Afrikaans language, Everson’s work was notable for being the first fully staged Opera where both libretto and music were composed by a South African. As such, there was considerable publicity around the Opera including both newspaper coverage, radio interviews and even a chain of correspondence with Jacques Malan. (Chief Editor of the South African Music Encyclopaedia) This may have been all the more essential in Everson’s mind, as he had not, and never would receive the sort of institutional support of other South African musicians, relying instead of small group of supporters who worked to give awareness to his works.
The work itself focus on the attempts of the Achaean King Odysseus to destroy the Trojan people following the sack of their capital. He therefore fabricates a rumor that the Trojan Princess Polyxena must be sacrificed to resurrect the dead Achilles, imprisoning the women of Troy when they attempt to resist this. Thereafter, the Achaeans soon find their victory slogans turn to bitter irony, as both the knowledge of the Trojan Women’s mistreatment and the judgement of the Gods is visited upon them, largely through Odysseus’ two wives, Klutaimnestra and the Trojan Seeress Kassandra.
A clear allegory for the treatment of the Afrikaners in the Boer War, the Opera then goes further, as the mistreated “underdog” Trojans see their oppressors suffer and eventually come to hold a position of power over the Achaeans, allowing them to rebuild their once-again independent nation. Contemporaries were quick to catch these inferences, with play’s sole decoration (an obelisk) being seen as a stand-in for the Vrouemonument, and a cue for the motifs of the Opera. This sense of “Boerhood” is reinforced many more times in the Opera, whether through the intense prayer of the Trojan Women, Polyxena’s assertion that she would rather die free than live a subject, and musical influences from works such as “Die Stem”, “Suikerbossie” and a prayer scene in tune with “Onse Vader”.
Though well received in the intellectual sphere, and praised for its patriotic messages, Klutaimnestra never received much support, and the “first Afrikaans opera” has been unperformed since 1967. Part of this may be attributed to the work’s long gestation, beginning in 1958, and seeing substantial re-writes, ahead of Everson’s initial showing target of the 1960 Union Festival and after its first play reading on the 3rd of June 1961. Everson only developed his twelve-tone motif in 1966, working to complete the opera for the next year. Thus, the feverish work, together with the disappointment surrounding the release of the work “burn out” Everson for the next decade, a fact that contributed to the composer’s repertoire remaining as small as it did.
Cromwell Everson remained a relatively fringe figure within the world of South African Music even after Klutaimenstra. The Opera would prove to be both his single largest work and his bitterest disappointment, no matter the intensity of its nationalistic chops. Despite his four song cycles, trio, opera, set of inventions and a piano suite, Everson saw limited playing under NP rule, and none whatsoever after Apartheid. Recognition of his pioneering role has therefore largely been limited to a posthumous recognition from the AKTV and limited recordings of both his work and their notations. (Including the Opera itself.)