BY S’BUSISO SHOZI AND NHLANHLA MAHLANGU
„The world keeps dreaming of spring.“
(Tom Waits – You Can Never Hold Back Spring)
Back into the light, into beauty, and into life! Spring represents the power of transformation, rebirth, and an ancient promise of prosperity. What can this fantasy of abundance mean for us – culturally, spiritually, and sonically – across geographical boundaries?
The South African composers and performers S’busiso Shozi and Nhlanhla Mahlangu from Johannesburg’s Center for the Less Good Idea approach the concept of spring anew with the chamber opera SELEMO – through body, sound, and voice. Together with soloists and orchestral musicians of the Komische Oper Berlin, they engage in a musical conversation about returning to a deeply rooted understanding of nature beyond the colonial calendar system. African rites of passage encounter baroque splendor, Antonio Vivaldi’s violin concerto The Four Seasons meets Umkhosi woMhlanga, the ritual reed dance of the Swazi.
Turbulence, grief, and beauty: For many South Africans, the first season symbolizes not only the end of (winter’s) hardship, but is also concretely tied to historical-political memories of student uprisings and strikes. Just as spring itself repeatedly refuses to settle, the springtime opera SELEMO falters, repeats, and begins anew in three movements. Its world premiere at the music theater festival SCHALL&RAUSCH demonstrates that the hope for renewal must be tested again and again.
CO-COMPOSER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR S’busiso Shozi
CO-COMPOSER, STAGE DIRECTOR Nhlanhla Mahlangu MUSICAL MENTOR Neo Muyanga PRODUCER Bronwyn Lace ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Dimakatso Motholo COSTUMES/STAGE DESIGN Nthabiseng Malaka LIGHT DESIGN Michael Inglis SCRIPT WRITER Stacey Hardy DRAMATURGY Sophie Jira/Dennis Depta
WITH Hlengiwe Lushaba Madlala, Tsegofatso Khunwane, Gregory “Kekelingo” Mabusela, Vhahangwele Moopo, Pertunia Msani, Alma Sadé (Performance) and the musicians Deniz Tahberer, Julia Lindner de Azevedo Conte, Magdalena Bogner, Arnulf Ballhorn and Tuyêt Pham
In co-production with Komische Oper Berlin and Center for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg
Funded by
