The company has established itself as South Africa's largest performing arts organisation[2] and the only opera house in Africa with a year-round programme;[3] alongside the classics, Cape Town Opera fosters the expression of a national identity through the creation and performance of new SA works such as Mandela Trilogy and Tsotsi, The Musical, based on Athol Fugard's novel.
[3] Cape Town Opera's Youth Development and Education department provides valuable musical training, free of charge, to more than 2 000 learners in rural and township communities each year.
In this way, Cape Town Opera serves as a cultural ambassador showcasing South Africa's singing talent to the rest of the world.
In October 2009, the company brought Porgy and Bess to the Wales Millennium Centre, Royal Festival Hall and Edinburgh Festival Theatre; it toured six locations in the UK with 26 performances again in 2012 and featured in a concert performance under Simon Rattle in the final concert of the 2012 Musikfest Berlin, part of the Berliner Festspiele.
One concert presented a selection of Verdi choruses and arias and works by Gershwin; in the other, the company performed David Fanshawe's African Sanctus and extracts from the Mandela Trilogy.