“Buya”

Mbeki "Dikela" Mbali, composer & librettist

Lunga Eric Hallam, tenor
Chris Reynolds, piano

Popularly known by his clan name, Dikela, Mbeki Mbali (b. 1963) hails from Aliwal North, a small town in central South Africa. He grew up at Tentergate Village near Queenstown, where he studied through high school. He has a strong religious background in the Anglican church, thanks largely to his father, who functioned as a sub deacon. He also has a strong foundation in music, thanks to his mother, a soprano. Mbali himself began his musical life as a choir soloist, singing tenor in church and at school. Once settled in East London on South Africa's Eastern Cape, he became a member of the Serenade Choir, whose conductor Mthunzi Noganta significantly encouraged his gifts. He graduated in both singing and choral conducting from the University of Port Elizabeth.

The multiple genres of Zulu folk music have earned enormous popularity worldwide. Two American folk-singing groups, The Weavers and The Kingston Trio, famously helped that process along in the 1960s, and groups like the renowned South African male vocal ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo (founded by Joseph Shabalala in 1960) continue to bring this music to a huge international audience. The song "Buya" presents a nostalgic lover who longs for his beloved, Nomvula, to return to him. He would even command the mountains to collapse, if only he could see Nomvula beyond them.

Text & translation

Buya, buya, ndithi buya, aw' we Nomvula.
Come back, come back to me, my dear Nomvula.

Ntliziyo yam' mphefumlo wam' ulangazelala wena
My heart, my soul desires you

Nje ngebhadi libhadula
Like a wandering loner.

Ukufun'umthombo.
Looking for a fountain.

Namhlanje, namhlanje, namhlanje ngalemini
Today, on this beautiful day,

Intle ndivanje sendicinga
I find myself reminiscing

Ngezomini phantsi komthi womkhiwane.
On our joyful moments under the tree.

Sonwabile khona
We were happy, very happy, there under the fig tree.

Aw' ezomini azikhulekwa zona.
Oh! Those days are gone, and cannot be brought back.

Ndithi buya, ndithi buya, Nomvula.
I say come back, please come back, Nomvula.

Wayotshona le kwelendunduma
You vanished to the place of storms, Johannesburg.

Buya, buya, ntombazana, buya,
Come back, my dear lady. Come back, come back to me.

Dilika ntaba zingamasithela.
I command the mountains that are a barrier

Buya buya we Nomvula.
Come back, come back to me, my dear Nomvula.

Dilika ntaba ndibonane no Nomvula,
I command you mountains to collapse, so I may see Nomvula,

Buya, buya ntomb'enkulu.
Come back, come back to me, big girl.

Kobamnandi'ekhaya xa ndinawe,
I would be happy to have you back home.

Buya, buya.
Come back, come back to me!

Tenor

Lunga Eric Hallam

The tenor and first-year Ryan Opera Center member was born and raised in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. He founded a nonprofit organization called Phenomenal Opera Voices the same year he enrolled at the University of Cape Town College of Music, where he received his diploma and postgraduate (with honors) degrees in music, training with Professor Sidwil James Hartman (vocal studies). Recent engagements as a Young Artist at Cape Town Opera include Tebaldo/I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Edgardo/Lucia di Lammermoor, and Roberto/Maria Stuarda, as well as Don Ramiro/La Cenerentola at Cape Town Conservatory. Hallam also competed as a semifinalist in the 2019 Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition and the 2019 Voice of South Africa International Singing Competition. In Lyric’s 2021 Season, Hallam will appear in Samson and Delilah and The Marriage of Figaro.

Lunga Eric Hallam is sponsored by Richard W. Shepro and Lindsay E. Roberts and Ms. Gay K. Stanek.

Pianist

Chris Reynolds

The first-year Ryan Opera Center pianist is currently a doctoral candidate at The Juilliard School. He recently concluded his run as performance pianist for Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s chamber opera Intimate Apparel at the Lincoln Center Theater. Other recent performance venues include Bayreuth, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, WQXR, the Kyoto Summer Music Festival, and the National Sawdust. A two-time winner of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital Auditions, he has been a fellow at SongFest and Aspen Music Festival and School, as well as a Schwab Rising Star at the Caramoor Center for the Arts as part of the New York Festival of Song Emerging Artist Series. Reynolds has worked at the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater as an opera coach/répétiteur. He has given a series of lecture-performances at Columbia University and Union College in Schenectady, and has been on the faculties of the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, William Paterson University, and the Mostly Modern Festival. Reynolds holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. In Lyric’s 2021 Season, he will serve on the music staff for The Marriage of Figaro.

Chris Reynolds is sponsored by Nancy Dehmlow, Loretta N. Julian, and Philip G. Lumpkin.

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