Carmen, Tosca and Madame Butterfly have all received the treatment. So has Jerry Springer. Why not, then, the tragic heroine of South Africa in Winnie — the Opera? The tumultuous life story of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela and flawed icon of the struggle against racial apartheid, is to be told in an opera at the State Theatre.
Publicity for the show, which receives its world premiere in Pretoria in April, reads: ‘She gave voice to a time. She gave voice to a place. She gave voice to a people. Love her or hate her — but come and hear her.”
The historic language of the form, Italian, will be jettisoned in favour of a libretto combining English and isiXhosa, with a 60-piece orchestra performing a fusion of Western and traditional African music.
Whereas an opera about Nelson Mandela might risk hagiography, his former wife’s life invites greater moral ambiguity.
During the apartheid era she was convicted of kidnapping 14-year-old activist Stompie Moeketsi. She separated from Mandela in 1992 after details of her infidelity emerged. In 2003 she was convicted of more than 40 charges of fraud, although her prison sentence was suspended on appeal.
But for many she remains a lodestar of opposition to the apartheid government and, now an MP, is still regularly introduced by ANC officials as ‘the mother of the nation”.
Warren Wilensky, the producer and librettist of Winnie — the Opera, said of her story: ‘I don’t think it gets any better. When you get into it, you can see she is the perfect operatic character. The high and lows of her life are too big for a normal dramatic story. It has to be an opera.”
He promised a warts-and-all portrait, adding: ‘It’s not about a grand heroine, it’s about real life and humanity. She was there at a difficult time with no support and came to personify the Struggle. We’re trying to tell a fully rounded story that I don’t think has been told before.”
Wilensky said the opera opens with a barrage of accusations against Madikizela-Mandela at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with the international media in the role of a Greek chorus. She recounts how her life has led up to this moment.
But one character who does not appear is Mandela. ‘We thought he would overpower the story,” Wilensky said. ‘In one line she asks, ‘Nelson, where are you?’ That’s a theme throughout — where is Nelson? But it’s Winnie’s story.”
He said Madikizela-Mandela was ‘humbled” when told about the show and had given it her blessing. He said he expected her to be present at the opening night: ‘I think if she’s not invited, she’ll be gate-crashing the party.”
Winnie — the Opera, composed by Bongani Ndodana-Breen and directed by Shirley Jo Finney who is based in the United States, reflects a surge of cultural interest in Madikizela-Mandela. Last year the British actress Sophie Okonedo played her in the BBC drama, Mrs Mandela, and this year the Hollywood star Jennifer Hudson takes the title role in the movie, Winnie. —