April Peavey produces the Global Hit. She is based in the Boston newsroom of The World.

Discovering South African Opera Singer Mthetho Maphoyi

January 7, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

Mthetho Maphoyi is from Hermanus township in South Africa's Western Cape (Photo Credit: creatorsdocumentary.wordpress.com)

Here’s the story of how a young man from a township near Cape Town, South Africa, wound up singing opera.

His name is Mthetho Maphoyi. And he was discovered by pianist Derk Blaisse quite by chance.

In 2012 Mthetho Maphoyi sung at the TedxTeen conference in New York City.
His performance is below.

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Discussion

21zrill

It ever seems to amaze and delight me when out of the maddness of this world something so unpreditable yet joyous appears and is noticed. How the sorrow of a boy over his father’s abandonment is transformed into something exquisite We, none of us, ever know when or where we might have dropped a seed along our way and it sprouted into beauty. Z’ Rill, Haverhill, MA USA
http://www.facebook.com/gwendoline.fortune Gwendoline Y. Fortune

His first notes sent the proverbial chills. Sadly, contemporary, untrained and experienced audiences do not know the difference between screaming at a football game, or knowing when the end of an air/aria is reached. I hope we hear much from this wonderful voice and man.
http://profiles.google.com/lauragamse laura gamse

Yeah Mthetho!
Gwen Quinne

Mthetho was “discovered” by a documentary called Being Pavarotti when he was 13 years old: http://www.iptv.org/series.cfm/19586/afropop_ultimate/ep:103/episodes

He is also one of the feature characters in The Creators documentary: South Africa through the Eyes of Its Artists: http://thecreatorsdocumentary.com/