A musical tribute to the life of Nelson Mandela
musica di Péter Louis van Dijk (Atto I e III) e Mike Campbell (Atto II)
regia e libretto Michael Williams
direttori Tim Murray (9, 12), Alexander Fokkens (10, 11)
scenografie e costumi Michael Mitchell
coreografie Sibonakaliso Ndaba
luci Kobus Rossouw
film design Mike van Ryneveld, Kirsti Cummings
sound design Marcel Bezuidenhout
Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini
Cape Town Opera Voice of the Nation Choir
direttore del coro Marvin Kernelle
prima italiana
si ringrazia l’Ambasciata del Sudafrica in Italia
con sovratitoli in italiano
All sorts of music tributes have been paid to Mandela in South Africa, but African Songbook, staged by Cape Town Opera’s Michael Williams in 2010, gets the very man on stage. This ambitious piece, soon renamed Mandela Trilogy (three interpreters for three episodes in Mandela’s life), fuses the glorious tradition of South African musical, hugely popular with the black population, with opera, jazz, classical and traditional music. Ample space is left to the time young Nelson spent in the South-African Harlem of Sophiatown, dancing and listening to mbaqanga, kwela and jazz. Popular singer Dolly Rathebe, with whom he had an affair, is also featured in the opera, which portrays the man in the dual role of “saint and sinner”, as he once described himself.
