lifeopera 3 THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT MAY 8 2011

Tsakane Madwanganyi as Winnie

OBURG, 1998. Journalists, pho- tographers and cameramen crowd outside the Johannesburg Central Methodist Church for the next round of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Jhearings into atrocities committed under Winnie is interrogated by her accusers, above. Cover picture: Mothers of the Missing (who act as spirit guides) with Winnie while she is in . Everyone is scrambling for at Central . their close-up, the right angle, their sound- bite as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of then-president , is set to testify about allegations that she was complicit in murder, torture This Winnie and arson during the 1980s. This is the opening scene of Act One in Winnie the Opera, a local production about one of ’s most divisive political figures. The opera, which opened to a standing ovation at the State Theatre in Pretoria on April 28, takes a snapshot look at Winnie’s life. Writer, Warren Wilensky leads the audience into the past, highlighting certain events he believes shaped history to bring Winnie to this Soars point, where she is flayed by international media and despised by many. Opera is not often based on the lives of actual people and so, it may seem an odd Review by Andrea van Wyk way to depict someone’s life story. But, it is an art form that is highly emotive and Winnie’s story is nothing if not dramatic. In their heavy bass voices, lawyers fling accusation upon accusation at Winnie musical show but a visual spectacle as nie nor about defending her. Wilensky ex- during the TRC hearing. Composer Bon- well. plains that her faults are what make her gani Ndodana-Breen skilfully weaves the Beautifully animated backdrop graph- such a great protagonist. orchestra’s music, creating tension, then ics depicting the Pondoland Hills comple- “It’s not the story of a grand heroine. relenting, continuously building it up and ment the scene where the family of Nelson It’s the story of the human condition, es- surrendering again. Mandela and Winnie negotiate her lobola. sentially,” he says. It’s so successful that members of the In the scene where Winnie is tortured, the And as such, the show does not disap- audience constantly cast furtive glances to light casts shadows across her lonely fig- point. The production is dramatic, where Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and poignant, provocative. A moved Winnie members of her family were sitting dur- Madikizela-Mandela told the media after ing opening night. the opening performance, that she was Winnie the Opera is historic in that it is humbled by the interpretation of her life. the first full-length opera to be composed She admitted that she had never before set and orchestrated by a South African black foot in the State Theatre, which was composer and Ndodana-Breen has done a viewed as one of the monuments to masterful job. To the conventions of clas- I think there’s a marriage apartheid. When I asked her how it felt to sical music he adds traditional choral mu- see her life play out on stage, she laughed sic, themes from standard church hymns between“ politics and and threw her arms around me, saying, and Xhosa instruments. Unlike tradi- “My dear, it was amazing!” tional, European opera, the singing is con- opera – both are The show very unfortunately had only versational and is performed in both Eng- a week-long run at the State Theatre, but lish and Xhosa, with some Afrikaans slang dramatic.You just look at the producers hope to take it to Joburg, thrown in. Soprano Tsakane Madwan- Durban, Cape Town and abroad. One can ganyi, who plays Winnie, captures the her,Winnie’s life and you only hope the talent and brilliance of this drama and inner conflict of her character. production will be taken to the rest of the This, she says, was not difficult. “I think think:what an opera! world. there’s a marriage between politics and While opera appeals to a very limited opera – both are very dramatic. You just market, this particular story certainly look at her (Winnie’s) life and you think: has mass appeal. Like Argentina’s own what an opera!” ure so as to create the impression of heroine-villain Eva Perón, the enigmatic Though opera is not particularly popu- prison bars, while actual news broadcasts story that is the life of Winnie Madikizela- lar in South Africa, this production has of the time are incorporated into the Mandela is a global one: the story of any- modernised and localised the medium. scenes of the TRC hearings. one and everyone. Taking a cue from the global operatic According to the producers, Winnie the ● Andrea van Wyk is an Eyewitness stage, Winnie the Opera is not merely a Opera, is neither about condemning Win- News reporter.