Gordon Jephtas (1943-92) was born into an impoverished, coloured,
single-parent family in South Africa. He began piano lessons after being
intrigued by the harmonium player at the local church. In his teens he
worked as an accompanist with the amateur coloured opera group "Eoan" in
Cape Town, then moved to Europe to further his studies. His first big
break came in 1972 when the Zurich Opera House appointed him to assist
the conductor Nello Santi. Jephtas thereafter established an
international reputation as a vocal coach of Italian opera, and
Switzerland provided him with a liberal environment where he was free to
express his sexuality. Both there and later in the USA, Jephtas worked
with the biggest names in the opera world, from Renata Tebaldi to
Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé and Luciano Pavarotti. He always
longed to be accepted back in South Africa, but his attempts to return
culminated each time in disaster because talent and experience meant
little in a land where "whiteness" trumped everything. An official offer
to be made an "honorary white" merely intensified his inner turmoil.
Back in the USA, Jephtas's professional success was tempered by private
misfortune. He died in New York in 1992.
This book examines the life and career of Gordon Jephtas through the
letters that he wrote home to May Abrahamse, a coloured singer with whom
he had worked since his teens. They reveal in unique detail the life and
achievements of a remarkable musician, but also the psychological damage
wrought upon him by apartheid. Jephtas provides a fascinating case study
of a gifted South African abroad, struggling with issues of race and
sexuality at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
