Waiting for the Sibyl

2019
William Kentridge Sibyl

To What End?

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.

Waiting for the Sibyl

World premiere: September 11, 2019 at the Teatro Dell’Opera di Roma, Rome.

Concept and Director
William Kentridge

Music Director / Composer
Kyle Shepherd

Associate Director / Choral Composer
Nhlanhla Mahlangu

Costume Designer
Greta Goiris

Set Designer
Sabine Theunissen

Lighting Design
Urs Schönebaum

Projection Design
Žana Marović

Cinematography
Duško Marović SASC

Photography
Stella Olivier

Created and performed by
Kyle Shepherd (Piano)
Nhlanhla Mahlangu (Vocalist | Dancer)
Xolisile Bongwana (Vocalist | Dancer)
Thulani Chauke (Dancer)
Teresa Phuti Mojela (Dancer)
Thandazile ‘Sonia’ Rabede (Dancer)
Ayanda Nhlangothi (Vocalist)
Zandile Hlatshwayo (Vocalist)
Siphiwe Nkabinde (Vocalist)
S’busiso Shozi (Vocalist)

Produced by
THE OFFICE performing arts + film

Toured in association with Quaternaire

Waiting for the Sibyl is co-commissioned by Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Dramaten – Stockholm.

Sibyl

2020

Single-channel HD video
10 minutes

Music composer
Nhlanhla Mahlangu

Video editor
Žana Marović

Sound
Gavan Eckhart

Singers

Nhlanhla Mahlangu
Xolisile Bongwana
Ayanda Nhlangothi
Zandile Hlatshwayo
Siphiwe Nkabinde
S’busiso Shozi

To What End?

2019

Site specific video installation over multiple screens in Times Square, New York

Video design & construction
Janus Fouché

To What End? was made for Midnight Moment, a project of Times Square Arts

Day Will Break More Than Once

Director
William Kentridge

Composition and choreography
Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Kyle Shepherd

Performers

William Kentridge, Dada Masilo, Ayanda Nhlangothi, Zandile Hlatshwayo, S’busiso Shozi, Siphiwe Nkabinde, Gregory Mabusela, Princess Tshabangu and Xolisile Bongwana

VR editor
Janus Fouché

360 cinematography
EDEN

Sound
SoulFire Studios

Making

I was thinking about the theme of fate and our future and the telling of our future, as the Sibyls did; this meets the work of Alexander Calder; and both of these come together in the material ways of working to make the piece. 

The idea of turning leaves into pages, and the pages swirling around, brought together the turning sculptures of Calder, and the pages on which I had been obsessively drawing in the service of making films out of books. Part of the form became the projections of the texts and the drawings in the book and the shadow made in the book by the performer of the Sibyl. Different scenes were added. A scene in the waiting room for the Sibyl. A scene about which is the right decision and which is the wrong one. How do you know which is the chair that will collapse when you sit on it and which is the chair that will support you?

Rehearsals for Waiting for the Sibyl at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, September 2019

Waiting for the Sibyl

Chamber opera

Sibyl

Flipbook film

Drawings

Prints

Sculpture

Day Will Break More Than Once

360° virtual reality film

The Moment Has Gone

Site specific video installation, Times Square, New York

Video courtesy of César Martinez Barba for Times Square Arts 

More

Reading

More projects

Credits

Waiting for the Sibyl

World premiere: September 11, 2019 at the Teatro Dell’Opera di Roma, Rome.

Concept and Director
William Kentridge

Music Director / Composer
Kyle Shepherd

Associate Director / Choral Composer
Nhlanhla Mahlangu

Costume Designer
Greta Goiris

Set Designer
Sabine Theunissen

Lighting Design
Urs Schönebaum

Projection Design
Žana Marović

Cinematography
Duško Marović SASC

Photography
Stella Olivier

Created and performed by
Kyle Shepherd (Piano)
Nhlanhla Mahlangu (Vocalist | Dancer)
Xolisile Bongwana (Vocalist | Dancer)
Thulani Chauke (Dancer)
Teresa Phuti Mojela (Dancer)
Thandazile ‘Sonia’ Rabede (Dancer)
Ayanda Nhlangothi (Vocalist)
Zandile Hlatshwayo (Vocalist)
Siphiwe Nkabinde (Vocalist)
S’busiso Shozi (Vocalist)

Produced by
THE OFFICE performing arts + film

Toured in association with Quaternaire

Waiting for the Sibyl is co-commissioned by Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Dramaten – Stockholm.

Sibyl

2020

Single channel HD video
10 minutes

Music composer
Nhlanhla Mahlangu

Video editing
Žana Marović

Sound
Gavan Eckhart

Singers

Nhlanhla Mahlangu
Xolisile Bongwana
Ayanda Nhlangothi
Zandile Hlatshwayo
Siphiwe Nkabinde
S’busiso Shozi

To What End?

2019

Site specific video installation over multiple screens in Times Square, New York

Video design & construction
Janus Fouché

To What End? was made for Midnight Moment, a project of Times Square Arts

Day Will Break More Than Once

Director
William Kentridge

Composition and choreography
Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Kyle Shepherd

Performers

William Kentridge, Dada Masilo, Ayanda Nhlangothi, Zandile Hlatshwayo, S’busiso Shozi, Siphiwe Nkabinde, Gregory Mabusela, Princess Tshabangu and Xolisile Bongwana

VR editor
Janus Fouché

360 cinematography
EDEN

Sound
SoulFire Studios