BOOK REVIEW: An opera star’s trip from hunger to the high life
Musa Ngqungwana captures his courageous journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of South Africa’s most successful operatic exports, writes Edward Tsumele
ODYSSEY OF AN AFRICAN OPERA SINGERMusa NgqungwanaPenguin While many young men growing up in Zwide, a township in Port Elizabeth, were attracted to crime, grime, unemployment and alcoholism, Musa Ngqungwana expressed himself in a church choir. This decision eventually lifted him out of poverty and made him famous in SA and abroad. Like other South Africans performing on the opera stages of the world, such as Pretty Yende, Pumeza Matshikiza, Vuyani Mlinde, Luthando Qave, Fikile Mvinjelwa, Golda Schultz and Sunnyboy Dladla, the opera star, now based in the US, is making huge waves. His humble beginnings, struggle for education in his formative years and journey to becoming one of SA’s most successful operatic exports is captured in his memoir, Odyssey of an African Opera Singer. Summoning the courage to write the book was, ironically, motivated by negative emotions. "It is a combination of the first book I wrote and self-published last year, titled Odyssey of an African Opera Singer: F...
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