GERALD WALTER SAMAAI, tenor, born 23 March 1940 in Paarl
Gerald Samaai received his primary school education at Bethal. He was a boy soprano soloist for the school choir under the late JR Balie. Gerald matriculated at the Northern Paarl High School in 1957, and qualified as a teacher at the Johannesburg Eurafrican Training Centre.
SInging in the bathroom at a hostel he was approached by the music teacher Stenck Gryzenhout en encouraged to start taking singing lessons. During his first lessons he was trained by a tenor, and after three months he became a soloist with the Ebenaezer Choral Society. His first performance as a soloist with an orchestra followed after nine months of study, and the conductor at that occasion was the well known Fritz Schuurman. Gerald left Johannesburg after working for two years as a teacher in Germiston. In 1964 he joined the EOAN Group in Cape Town to further his singing career with special interest in opera. At the time he was studying under Olga Magnoni.
Gerald's debut was as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore during the EOAN Group's opera season in April 1965. The conductor was Dr Joseph Manca with Alessandro Rota as producer. The opera was staged in the Cape Town City Hall. In August 1965 the EOAN Group went on a national tour to Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London, during which Gerald sang the lead tenor roles of Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore and Alfredo in La Traviata. During this period he left Olga Magnoni to study with Alessandro Rota. In October 1969 he sang Almaviva in the EOAN Group's premiere production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and he received rave reviews with the critics commenting on the suitability of this role to his style of singing.
In October 1971 he sang the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto in Cape Town, as well as Beppe in Pagliacci. During this time the EOAN Group also produced the musical Carmen Jones, directed by Dr Stein Warren of Broadway fame. In 1973 Gerald won the South African Broadcasting Company's soloist award and performed with the SABC Orchestra under Dr Anton Hartman.
In 1975 he was invited to perform at the Aberdeen International Festival of Youth Orchestra in Scotland. He also sang in the 1st and 3rd acts of La Traviata with the British Youth Orchestra under the baton of Nicolas Brothwait. He attended classes in opera and drama at the London Opera Centre during this tour, working with Brian Rixon and Ann Carocks-Taylor. Towards the end of this tour he sang Alfredo in a gala evening of highlights from La Traviata in London's Drury Lane Theatre.
