Waiting for the Sibyl (Mahlangu) Rome 2019

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Waiting for the Sibyl  
• Composer: Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Kyle Shepherd  
• Libretto: William Kentridge    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Teatro Costanzi, Roma, Italy  
• Recorded: Septemeber 10, 2019
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Xolisile Bongwana, Ayanda Nhlangothi, Zandile Hlatshwayo, Siphiwe Nkabinde, S’busiso Shozi
• Conductor: Kyle Shepherd  
• Orchestra: unknown  
• Stage Director: William Kentridge  
• Stage Designer: Sabine Theunissen  
• Costume Designer: Greta Goiris  
• Lighting Designer: Urs Schönebaum  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Opera di Roma  
• Date Published: 2020  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

The project at Rome Opera, Waiting for the Sibyl, comes from an invitation from the opera house to make a companion piece to the 1968 piece by the American artist Alexander Calder, called Work in Progress. The 1968 piece is a beautiful, whimsical almost-happening of the era, with mobiles slowly turning on the stage, and groups of bicycle riders; but the signature mobiles of Alexander Calder are the heart of the piece. In responding to the invitation to do a second half of the evening, I wanted something that also had a sense of turning, of revolution, and of the lightness of the Calder. I was reminded of the image of the Cumaean Sibyl. My understanding of her story was that she lived in her cave near Naples; people would come to her with questions about their fate, and she would write the answers on oak leaves. There would be a pile of oak leaves at the front of her cave and people would come to get their answers. But inevitably there would be a wind which blew the leaves around – so you never knew if you were getting your fate or somebody else’s fate. It’s a beautiful metaphor of not being able to predict our futures. This idea of leaves blowing and turning, and uncertainty, became the connecting point for Calder’s moving, turning mobiles and something that grounds the piece with that turning but hooks into questions that I’m interested in today.
William Kentridge

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