Talk about a quick contemplation In September 1996.

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Talk about a quick contemplation In September 1996, conductor Leslie B Dunner generally music director and principal conductor for the Joffrey Ballet, was based in London conducting with the Royal Ballet. He was getting ready for a trip to Durban, southern Africa, where he was scheduled to manners Haydn's "Lord Nelson" Mass. After studying the score, he received a epistle from his manager. It assumeed the South African ensemble wanted to know where to lance the Khumalo.

"I called my manager," said Dunner "and said, 'What's a Khumalo?' He said, 'Apparently, it's the composer of the piece you're conducting.' on the contrary I had been contracted for the 'Lord Nelson' Mass. That's what I had prepared."

Dunner traveled to southern Africa the following Sunday and took his first turn the thoughts at the score of "uShaka," a cantata written in 1994 by means of Mzilikazi Khumalo and librettist Themba Msimang about the legendary king Shaka Zulu Dunner rehearsed the choir forward Monday, worked with the orchestra forward Tuesday, held a joint rehearsal onward Wednesday and performed the piece forward Thursday.

"And it's a 90-minute work," said Dunner with a laugh. "In Zulu The score is massive. It's in four parts plus an epilogue. The chorus was 250 commonalty I think. The first thing I asked for was a rebuke in pronunciation because I didn't know anything about the language. And the notation was different for the chorus from what we use, thus I had to adjust to that. I had to learn that musical calligraphy."

It's safe to say that

Dunner's performances of "uShaka" coming up Thursday and Friday at Ravinia Festival will be slightly les fraught. The chorus and soloists will reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] point from Opera Africa, the company Ravinia brought here in 2004 for the American premiere of "Princess Magogo," a largely staged opera also by Khumalo and Msimang. Sibongile Khumalo (no relation to the composer) who sang the title part of Princess Magogo, will be featured in "uShaka." The musical forces also include a narrator, and the orchestra will be the Chicago Sinfonietta, which was the orchestra for Ravinia's "Princess Magogo" performances. There will be English supertitles.

Born in the late 1700 and assassinated on his half-brother in 1828, King Shaka Zulu used his iron will and ruthles warfare to defeat rival tribes, eventually transforming the Zulus into the largest and in the greatest degree powerful tribe in southern Africa. Khumalo and Msimang have condens the king's life into 90 tightly packed minutes, using a phraseology that frequently includes call and reply between narrator and chorus.

"I construct the music very Stravinsky-esque, same rhythmically challenging," said Dunner. "It uses quite a bit of romantic harmonies, and the vocal writing is straight abroad of the traditions of the Zulu agriculture It's interesting to see for what cause that combines with the European-style of the orchestral writing.

"The scales are compatible, and the rhythmic oscillation is very compatible with Western musical notation. further visually, it's very different. It's kind of an approximation for the choir while Western notation is excessively exact. But when we combined the orchestra and chorus in the first rehearsal in Durban, I was just astounded at the accuracy of the choir."

Ravinia has brought 70 southerly African artists to Chicago for "uShaka," and they will be appearing at several adventures before Thursday's opening night:

- At 10 a.m. today, singers from the troupe will participate in services at St Sabina Catholic ecclesiastical body 1210 W. 78th Pl.

- At 12:30 pm Monday, the cast gives a independent performance to open Chicago's Sister Cities Festival at the Daley Center Plaza, Washington and Dearborn.

- in succession Monday, Opera Africa will hem in a choral clinic at Kenwood Academy High exercise for invited Chicago Public institute choirs.

wdelacoma@suntimes.com

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'USHAKA'

When: 8 pm Thursday and Friday

Where: Ravinia Festival, Lake dress up at Green Bay, Highland Park

Tickets: Pavilion, $15-$60; lawn, $10

Phone: (847) 266-5100

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