Michael Arendse. Picture: Supplied.
By Michael Arendse
Last weekend family, friends and former colleagues bid farewell to Ruth Goodwin Cookson, the former Eoan Group soprano, at the Central Methodist Mission church on Greenmarket Square.
Cookson died on February 3, 2025, shortly before her 96th birthday. Cookson, a lyric soprano, studied singing at the SA College of Music at UCT in the early 1950s after being turned down by the University of Stellenbosch because the university did not accept coloured Africans at the time. Following a performance in the Wynberg Town Hall, Eoan Group musical director Dr Joseph Manca invited her to perform Handel’s Messiah with the group. This led to several performances with the group from the 1950s to the 1970s in roles such as Violetta (La Traviata), Gilda (Rigoletto) and Cho Cho San (Madama Butterly), and in oratoria such as the Elijah by Mendelssohn.
She achieved success locally and overseas. An opera critic in a London newspaper wrote when the Eoan Group performed there in 1975: “Now here is Goodwin with ‘Tutte Le Feste al Tempio!’ What a beautiful virginal quality she brings to this aria (from Rigoletto)... this is a voice that is totally focused. Goodwin is outstanding by any criteria...”
While listening to the tributes detailing the full life that Cookson had led (she is also a founding trustee of the District Six Museum), and watching the short video containing excerpts from operas she had performed in, I was filled with a mixture of sadness, happiness and awe.
I was sad because I realised yet again the incalculable loss of careers in the arts suffered by coloured and black African communities during the apartheid years. This loss led to many artistically talented people not being able to develop or develop fully their God-given talents and having to settle for menial jobs to make a living.
On the other hand, I was happy because, thankfully, things have improved greatly. Although the artistically talented still face many challenges, those with sufficient talent can now develop careers in the arts if they wish.
I was in awe because in spite of all the challenges faced by the group in those days, its members displayed tenacity and sang simply for the love of singing! If the stories I’ve heard and read about over the years are true, it was definitely not done for money, of which there was always a shortage.
Oh, and having a sense of humour certainly helped them to get through the tough times. The Eoan Group achieved success at the height of apartheid, yet ironically, it was during this time that Cookson, together with other talents such as May Abrahamse, Joseph Gabriels, Vera Gow, Valerie Parkins, Gerald Samaai and pianist Gordon Jephtas, laid the groundwork for others to follow. Of this cohort, Gabriels became the first South African to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the hugely talented Jephtas went on to develop an international career as an accompanist and répétiteur, working with many of the big names in opera including Pavarotti, Domingo, Tebaldi, Corelli, Von Stade, Kraus and Sills.
The next generation of singers included Juilliard School-trained tenor Sidwill Hartman, soprano Virginia Davids, baritone George Stevens. Hartman and Stevens went on to develop successful careers overseas.
The current crop of singers enjoying international success include soprano Pretty Yende, arguably the most successful opera singer ever to come from South Africa, tenor Levy Sekgapane and soprano Pumeza Matshikiza.
With South Africa being the hotbed of talent that it is, there are two prodigies I’m watching with keen interest. They are not singers, but keyboardists. Whether in the vein of Japhtas in terms of career success at the keyboard, that remains to be seen.
One is organist Dale de Windt, from Silvertown, Athlone, just down the road from where the Eoan Group is situated at the Joseph Stone Theatre. The other is pianist Qden Blaauw, from Parow.
De Windt became organist at St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Cape Town when in Grade 10 at Groote Schuur High School. I remember his father recounting how he kept having to take Dale to another music teacher because he (Dale) got bored with the teachers!
Last year, De Windt was accepted for post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Music (RCM) and the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), both prestigious schools in London. Although he decided to accept the offer from RCM, this came without a scholarship or any form of financial support.
About four months before leaving Cape Town for London, De Windt was approach by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) out of the blue and invited to audition for them by video recording.
A week after submitting the audition recording, he was offered tuition for a year free of charge and a generous living allowance.
On a visit home over the New Year, De Windt told excitedly how the conservatoire operates and of the many opportunities he is taking advantage of in Birmingham and London. He will now complete a two-year Master’s programme at the RBC.
Pianist Blaauw was also accepted at both RCM and RAM for his undergraduate studies. He received a full scholarship to RAM, and is in his second year with Russian teacher Rustem Hayroudinoff. During a trip home late last year for a successful outing with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Beethoven’s Fifth, Blaauw also spoke enthusiastically about his time in London. He is particularly grateful for the generosity of his teacher, who allows discussion of interpretation, as long as its justified musically.
As the newest generation of hugely talented up-and-coming artists, De Windt and Blaauw give an indication of what was lost all those years ago. To the original cohort of opera singers and musicians at the Eoan Group, one can only say: Thank You!
* Arendse is a freelance producer in the arts. He is a former board member of the National Arts Council, an agency of the national Department of Sport, Arts & Culture.
Related Topics: