IF YOU drive south from Gabarone, the capital of Botswana, until the houses stop and the bush begins, you'll find yourself passing a building that used to be a garage.
When Edinburgh author Alexander McCall Smith used to drive past it, he was reminded of the fictional Speedy Motors garage in his No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, which has been translated into 44 languages and sold 15 million copies in English a
lone.
The writer has now taken over the building, and in June it will get a new lease of life – as Botswana's first opera house.
The signs for the No 1 Ladies Opera House have already been designed by Iain McIntosh, who illustrates McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series in The Scotsman.
A new floor has been put in, the roof repaired, the walls plastered and painted, and five full-time staff recruited. Rehearsals for the grand opening on 21 June have already begun.
Compared to La Scala, it is on the small side. With a full stage and a dozen-strong orchestra, it will hold an audience of 60.
Tickets will cost from £6 to £10, rather than the £180 one might pay for a good seat at London's Royal Opera House.
The opera house will be managed by David Slater, a former teacher who for 20 years ran Botswana's main arts festival.
Although he plans to stage a maximum of two operas a year, each running for a week, Mr Slater aims to stage music events at least once a month. "It will be an extremely good venue, with singing, poetry, guitar recitals – all sorts of things," he said.
McCall Smith, whose ninth book in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is published next week, visits Botswana at least once a year. He has long been impressed by the quality of singing he has heard there, and is keen to offer more opportunities to the country's musicians.
He said: "Last July, David organised a small concert for me and we had some singers who call themselves the Three Botswana Tenors. I'd heard one of them before – a young man with an electrifying voice but very little training.
"The next day I met David for coffee and I thought, 'Why don't we start an opera house?'
"We then went out to a place I had always liked, an old garage the BBC had filmed as if it were the Speedy Motors garage when they made a documentary about the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books. It wasn't being used, so we got the lease. The owners rather liked the idea of it being an opera house.
"We will mount at least one opera a year and use local singers. I hope we'll be able to forge links to help in the training of singers and enable the many fine singers in Botswana to have more opportunities. I'm prepared to bet that we'll have full houses."
The new No 1 Ladies Opera House used to be part of a complex where South African mining companies recruited Botswanan workers and repaired buses and trucks.
From a building steeped in apartheid-era exploitation to one aimed at celebrating the best of Botswana's musicianship is an enormous leap. The title of McCall Smith's new novel, Miracle at Speedy Motors just about covers it. For if an opera house in the African bush isn't a small kind of miracle, what is?
When it is not being used for its stated purpose, the No 1 Ladies Opera House will be a coffee shop and restaurant serving traditional Botswana meals.
It will also be a stop on Africa's only established literary tourist trail, which takes in the nearby film set for the £20 million No 1 Ladies Detective Agency film by Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, which will be shown on the BBC this month. McCall Smith was influential in ensuring the film was shot entirely on location in Botswana, the first time this has happened with a major feature film in the country's history.
• An opera version of Dream Angus, on which McCall Smith collaborated with composer Stephen Deazley, is one of five 15-minute operas performed by Scottish Opera at Oran Mor, Glasgow, until 2 March, and the Hub, Edinburgh (8 and 9 March). Visit www.scottishopera.org.uk.
• Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith is published next week by Little, Brown, price £14.99 and is reviewed in today's Critique.
ODD AREAS FOR ARIASBOTSWANA is not alone in having an opera house in an unusual location.
The Teatro Amazonas, built by wealthy rubber planters in Manaus, Brazil, at the turn of the 19th century, is an ornate belle epoque opera house in the heart of the rainforest. Currently enjoying a renaissance since the election of an opera-loving governor, the building featured in Werner Herzog's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo.
The tiny Maltese island of Gozo (pop 31,000) has two prestigious opera houses.
The Opera Company of Brooklyn once staged a performance of Tosca in an underground car park. Director Jay Meetze said: "Our goal is to perform in unusual venues for those who feel intimidated walking into the great opera houses."
The full article contains 876 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
