Three local teenagers, who are taking the local theatre scene by storm as actors, singers and dancers, will soon make their opera debut alongside leading South African tenor Stéfan Louw.
The Malinga sisters - Neliseka, 19, Thobeka, 17, and Mfihlakalo Malinga, 15, from Empangeni in Kwa-Zulu-Natal - are all students at Centurion College in Johannesburg.
Last year, they were members of the cast that won a Naledi Theatre Award for Nomzano, a community theatre production directed by Gcebile Dlamini of the Hillbrow Theatre Project.
"Singing changed our lives in many ways. It's relaxing and fun and we get to meet new people," Neliseka said.
The Malinga sisters joined Louw's Youth Audience Development Programme for Opera last year.
Neliseka said: "Both my mom and my dad sing. It's a family thing and it's growing," she said.
Louw has great faith in the sisters' future musical career and is encouraging them to enroll in the University of Cape Town's Bachelor of Music programme.
He said: "A couple of years from now one of them might be the next Pretty Yende."
In 2011, Yende won first prize at Operalia, The World Opera Competition, which was held in Moscow.
The sisters will perform with Louw in Aria! Opera for Everyone on June 20 at the Roodepoort Theatre.
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