Winnie The Opera
R10 million funding, four years of planning and six weeks of intense rehearsal will see fruition as Winnie The Opera takes to the stage at the Pretoria State Theatre for five performances only on April 28. Producer Mfundi Vundla tells us about casting, his on-stage moving moments and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s reaction to the production. Read more about the production by clicking on this link.
South Africa: Winnie the Opera - Casting Winnie, Cont'd
... opens at the South African State Theatre, Pretoria on April 28, 2011, no doubt in time for her hollywood debut, which we guess makes 2011 officially the year of the Winnie. Opera composed & produced by Bongani Ndodana with libretto by Warren Wilensky and Mfundi Vundla. Directed by Shirley Jo-Finney with the Kwa Zulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra. Promo:
Winnie's appearance on the ninth and final day of her hearing before the TRC court and bishop Tutu appears to be the stage and book marker, from which the accused Winnie will take flights of recollection, re-living her journey and South Africa's up to that point. Opera's plot - here. A ton of workshop videos - here. Below, composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen talks about putting the Archbishop to music:
H/T: Africlassical
>via: http://bombasticelements.blogspot.com/2010/12/south-africa-winnie-opera-casti...
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Giving a new voice to the life of our Winnie
Mfundi Vundla's opera pays respect to an icon, writes Jackie May
Apr 20, 2011 10:02 PM | By Jackie MayOpera has its political heroines. There's Aida, Tosca, Leonora and Abigaille. Now a new name has joined the list of magnificent operatic characters. Winnie debuts tomorrow in South Africa's Winnie the Opera.
'Her life is inspiring, almost Napoleonic'
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"I feel that attempting to portray Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in a more straightforward medium might diminish the complexity of this South African icon," says producer Mfundi Vundla.
The self-proclaimed Winnie scholar and creator of long-running soapie Generations says he's scared for opening night, which Madikizela-Mandela is attending in Pretoria on Freedom Day.
"I've never done something this huge. It's exciting. Generations is also big, but in a different sort of way. Here we're dealing with a living icon and tackling her not-so-distant past, which makes it intimidating."
Madikizela-Mandela has not seen the script nor sanctioned the story. That she hasn't interfered in the making of the opera is "the best situation a writer and artist could want. We're delighted we can't be accused of producing a sanctioned story, nor that we whitewashed it. We can't be accused of writing a product that 'rehabilitates' her."
When Vundla pulled out of a Winnie film project three years ago, he read news of Madikizela- Mandela being denied a Canadian visa. She had planned to watch a workshop for an opera on her life.
"I approached the producers and started to collaborate with them."
The work needed a complete rewrite. It took the team of Vundla, composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen and director Warren Wilensky two-and-a-half years to write and compose Winnie the Opera.
Vundla says: "I was really looking forward to writing a Winnie story the way we [South Africans] see it. Her life is almost Napoleonic. Great historical figures have always inspired artists. Beethoven was inspired by the colossal figure Napoleon. We are no different.
"Here we have a social worker who married a revolutionary and was thrust into liberation politics. A new persona emerged in the process. Now she is both hero-worshipped and reviled.
"We look at the complexity of her life, look at the whole thing through music. There is African choral music, minimalist music, folk and romantic sounds."
What will most people be thinking when they leave the opera?
"I think respect," says Vundla.
"Winnie deserves respect. I don't know how I would have responded to torture, to being sent to a gulag in the Free State, to raising two children on my own. I don't know how I would have responded. I have the greatest respect for somebody who can survive that."
Winnie the Opera opens on Wednesday at the State Theatre in Pretoria.
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South Africa:
"Winnie the Opera" - Excerpts
Below, excerpts from the "opening"...:
Madikizela-Mandela has not seen the script nor sanctioned the story. That she hasn't interfered in the making of the opera is "the best situation a writer and artist could want. We're delighted we can't be accused of producing a sanctioned story, nor that we whitewashed it. We can't be accused of writing a product that 'rehabilitates' her."
H/T: Africlassical