 The South African College of Music 's opera company became a national success and toured Zambia and the United Kingdom . In the winter of 1956 , Chisholm 's ambitious festival of South African Music and Musicians achieved popular success in London with a programme of Wigmore Hall concerts and the London première at the Rudolf Steiner Theatre of Bartók 's opera Bluebeard 's Castle . The company also performed Menotti 's The Consul as well as Chisholm 's own opera The Inland Woman , based on a drama by Irish author Mary Lavin . In 1952 Szymon Goldberg premièred his violin concerto at the Van Riebeeck Music Festival in Cape Town . His opera trilogy Murder in Three Keys enjoyed a six @-@ week season in New York in 1954 , and two years later he was invited to Moscow to conduct the Moscow State Orchestra in his second piano concerto The Hindustani . In 1961 , his company premièred South African composer John Joubert 's first opera , Silas <unk> . 
