Abstract The transplantation of nineteenth-century comic opera to South Africa remains largely undocumented. This article takes steps towards addressing this lacuna as part of a larger contribution to the relatively inchoate field of South African opera studies. By examining the first extended season of light opera in Cape Town, namely that put on by the British and Australian Searelle Opera Company in 1887, it is argued that the company’s successful staging of more than a dozen works in a season which lasted over six months and encompassed 162 performances can be attributed to several factors. Among these were its emphasis on comic operas of chiefly French and British origin (especially those by Gilbert and Sullivan), which had attracted large audiences in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States of America and elsewhere. Other contributing factors were the flexibility of the company’s repertoire and the use of ancillary entertainment, not the least of which were violin performances by the Hungarian virtuoso, Ede Reményi.

中文翻译：

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在开普敦普及喜剧歌剧：Searelle Opera Company 的 1887 季

摘要 将 19 世纪喜剧歌剧移植到南非的情况在很大程度上仍然没有记录。本文采取措施解决这一空白，作为对南非歌剧研究相对早期领域的更大贡献的一部分。通过考察开普敦的第一个轻歌剧延长季，即1887年由英国和澳大利亚的Searelle歌剧公司上演，认为该公司在一个持续6个多月的剧季中成功上演了十几部作品。包括 162 场表演可归因于几个因素。其中包括强调主要源自法国和英国的喜剧歌剧（尤其是吉尔伯特和沙利文的歌剧），这些歌剧在英国、澳大利亚、美利坚合众国和其他地方吸引了大量观众。