{"id":23412,"date":"2026-02-18T17:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/?page_id=23412"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:11:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:11:24","slug":"programmheft-selemo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/en\/programmheft-selemo\/","title":{"rendered":"Booklet: Selemo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u00a9 Peter van Heesen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 culturally, spiritually, and sonically \u2013 across geographical boundaries? The South African composers and performers S\u2019busiso Shozi and Nhlanhla Mahlangu from Johannesburg\u2019s Centre for the Less Good Idea approach the concept of \u201cspring\u201d anew with the chamber opera SELEMO \u2013 through body, sound, and voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Peter van Heesen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Sophie Jira, dramaturg at the Komischen Oper Berlin and the festival SCHALL&RAUSCH<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Bronwyn Lace and William Kentridge founded The Centre for the Less Good Idea, creating a space for experimental, collaborative, and interdisciplinary art based in Johannesburg. Inspired by the South African saying, \u201cWhen the good doctor can\u2019t cure you, find the less good doctor!\u201d, the artists at The Centre for the Less Good Idea are convinced that it is worthwhile to pursue secondary, supposedly less promising ideas \u2013 mending the cracks and fractures that often appear in an initial concept once it leaves the drawing board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Centre has since become an established and influential space for artistic projects in South Africa and beyond. To date, more than 500 individual performances, films, and installations have been presented. In 2023, performers from The Centre for the Less Good Idea appeared in Berlin-Neuk\u00f6lln with African Exodus as part of the Schall&Rausch festival. The springtime opera SELEMO was developed in 2025\/2026 through workshops and rehearsals in Johannesburg and Berlin: through body, sound, language, and voice, musicians from the Komische Oper Berlin and performers from the Centre re-examined the theme of \u201cspring,\u201d associating, experimenting, discarding \u2013 and, together with Nhlanhla Mahlangu (director) and S\u2019busiso Shozi (musical director), discovering a shared musical language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SELEMO \u2013 A RITUAL PERFORMANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does \u201cspring\u201d mean to us? What resonates in the word \u201cspring,\u201d and what do we think of when we hear \u201cprimavera\u201d? In the South African language Sesotho, the word selemo carries multiple meanings: spring, year, and beginning \u2013 but also crack or fissure. More broadly, selemo <\/em>signifies a cycle that begins again and again. It is the season of ploughing, when the earth is broken open so that something new may grow. Renewal and rebirth, unstoppable change and revolution, rupture and movement \u2013 all of this can be spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music in SELEMO also plays with the allure of perpetual beginnings \u2013 with the idea of being able to try again, and better, and with the question: What is my personal spring? The artists explore different kinds of beginnings, weaving together personal associations of spring with ancient and newly imagined rites of passage in a performance that \u2013 like spring itself \u2013 refuses permanence. Across the world, people celebrate birth and marriage, purification and initiation; everywhere, there is mourning and farewell. Through song, body, and ritual objects such as baskets, fabrics, feathers, brooms, and mats, SELEMO carries us through life\u2019s transitions and the diverse cultural perspectives that shape them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THREE MOVEMENTS OF THE UNSEASONAL BODY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SELEMO combines perhaps the most famous musical portrait of spring\u2014La primavera<\/em> from Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons), Op. 8<\/em>, by Antonio Vivaldi \u2013 with African vocal traditions such as Amahubo, the ritual music of the Zulu, as well as various ritual chants and protest songs. In bringing together musical traditions from the Global South and North, fractures and differences also come to light: while music in the European Baroque often adorned festive occasions, traditional South African music \u2013 sounding on the other side of the globe during Vivaldi\u2019s lifetime \u2013 never functioned as mere decoration. It was never background music, but always served a purpose within communal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reapproaching orally transmitted African musical traditions through movement and voice also means using the body as an archive and a source of composition \u2013 recovering knowledge that was lost through colonialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Songs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Peter van Heesen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I. THE BLOOM <\/strong>

#1 QalaQala
#2 Spring loaded – 100 contradictions (allegretto)
#3 Vivaldi Spring – Movement 1 (allegro)
#4 Izandla Ziyagezana (adagietto)
#5 Nomkhubulwane (adagio) 

II. THE SURGE<\/strong>

#6 Mr. Quignard – Printemps (aria rossignol) 
#7 Erotic Chaos  
#8 Chant: Nkosi, bheka intwasa hlobo 
#9 Happy birthday to you
#10a Vivaldi Spring – Movement II 
#10b Keke’s answer

III. THE PARTY <\/strong>

#11 Vivaldi Spring – Movement III (allegro) 
#12 Biko 
#13 Intando (andante)
#14 TOYI TOYI (attacca)
#15 We bafana (War Lullabye)
#16 Litany of names 
#17 Nguni cosmology (attacca)

IV: RESTART<\/strong>
#18 Jiki Jiki (Apology to the planet-Song)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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COntents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Peter van Heesen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Notes about the springs in SELEMO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Nhlanhla Mahlangu<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From Start to Start<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(From Orchestra Tuning to #1 QalaQala)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every start is a threshold, a thin, trembling line between what has been and what dares to become. For the creator, the beginning is both burden and blessing, a liberation of imagination, a confrontation with possibility, a small world forming in the palm of the hand. Beginnings carry ethical gravity; they shape relationships, communities, futures. They ask for courage, for clarity, for the shedding of old skins. To begin is to declare oneself, to choose a life and step into its unfolding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Bloom<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(From #2 Spring loaded to #3 Vivaldi Spring-Movement 1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blooming is relational. Nothing opens alone; light, season, soil, and community shape the courage to emerge. Blooming is revolt, a refusal to remain contained, a cracking of ground and history in the name of possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Purity of Purity<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(From #4 Izandla Ziyagezana to #5 Nomkhubulwane and #6 Nightingale)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purity is not perfection, but readiness. It is the washing of hands, the quieting of the tongue, the clearing of the heart of malice, haste and deceit. To plant in the Insimu kaNomkhubulwane<\/em> is to speak directly to life itself. Each seed pressed into the earth is a vow, a careful utterance made only when one\u2019s intentions are aligned; the soil receives only what is truly offered. To plant is to join the world\u2019s unfolding with integrity to accept uncertainty, responsibility, and the quiet miracle of becoming, knowing that what grows will reflect the state of the one who planted it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Surge<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(From #7 Erotic Chaos to #8 Chant: Nkosi, bheka ibandla lakho)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a manifesto of flesh and fire, a cry hurled over church harmonies, turning ritual into rebellion. Desire becomes a weapon, rebirth a refusal to be contained. Desire is cosmic force. Life is seized, not granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Happy Birthday, Zalo and Inyoni<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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#9 Happy Birthday to You<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shamed for watching sex in a church, yet you yourself arrived through sex. Happy Birthday. Birth is the trembling threshold of existence, the moment where the unseen chooses a shape, a pulse, a name. In Zulu philosophy, this is Imbeleko<\/em>, the unveiling of a life to ancestors, kin, and cosmos. A ritual that refuses shame, that says: You are not an accident of secrecy, you are a continuation of lineage. The newborn is lifted, not hidden. Carried into the arms of those who understand that flesh is sacred, that the body is a vessel of memory, that intimacy is not sin but the architecture of becoming. Imbeleko<\/em> reminds us: Every beginning is communal, relational, luminous. A life emerges not only into breath but into story, ethics, responsibility, into the long echo of those who came before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Bird\u2019s View (Freedom imagined)<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(#10a Vivaldi Spring-Movement II)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birds carve freedom into the sky, their wings sketching possibilities across the open blue. A movement without walls, a choice made moment by moment. Freedom, like flight, is fragile and active – a dance with wind, season, and horizon. It is never solitary; it exists in relationship with the world\u2019s currents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Liebeslied uLove Song and Marriage – The Baroque Pulse<\/strong>nd Ehe \u2013 Der barocke Puls<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(From #10b Keke\u2019s song to #11 Vivaldi Spring-Movement III)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom and binding meet in marriage like two currents colliding in one river. To love is to surrender nothing of yourself, yet offer everything. To be held without being owned. Every vow is a paradox: The ring is a circle, yes, but also a doorway. A limit that becomes a horizon. Marriage is the choreography of this contradiction, a duet where each dancer must remain utterly themselves for the union to breathe. Too much freedom, and the dance dissolves. Too much binding, and the dance breaks. So the art lies in the tension. Union is not a cage but a chosen gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Biko<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(#12Biko)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song asserts that truth cannot be destroyed, only transformed. The lion represents Bantu Steve Biko, a truth-speaker whose power lies not in violence but in exposing lies. His voice does not disappear; it sinks into the land, the body, and collective memory. Passed through mothers, workers and children, truth becomes ancestral, embodied, and communal. The poem ultimately suggests that a nation remembers not through monuments or leaders, but through breath, rhythm, and the persistent courage to speak what remains true, even in darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scores of dominion<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(#13 Intando)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am the Orchestra and I claim you. My batons rise like borders, my scores are the laws you will obey. Every measure is a command, every silence a warning. Your will belongs to me. You will follow my tempo. Your choices are illusions I carve each one for you. Your steps are permitted only because I allow them. My order is the only path. You will move as I decree. I am your heart now, your nature, your reason, your treasure. I am the pulse that governs you. My orchestra colonizes the spirit. You belong to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Toyi Toyi \u2013 Spring Revolution<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(#14TOYI TOYI)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spring is the moment life refuses its cage. It cracks winter\u2019s discipline, splits the earth, and rises singing not for beauty, but for motion. This is music as function, as force, as the drum that tells the body move now, move together, move forward. Like South African struggle songs that were never meant to decorate suffering but to organize breath, to synchronize courage, to turn fear into collective stride. Spring is revolt made visible. Harmony becomes strategy. Rhythm becomes direction. Melody becomes a map toward a future not yet born. Renewal is never gentle. It arrives loud, unruly, unstoppable like a crowd breaking into song not to sound beautiful but to stay alive, to stay moving, to stay human. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lament of the dead<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(#15 We bafana (War Lullaby))<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young men return from the mountains, dust on their shoulders, songs still warm in their throats. THEIR ANCESTORS SPEAK OF WHAT WAS TAKEN. Their voices tremble like gourds in the wind. \u201cWhere are the calves?\u201d they ask. \u201cWhere is the land that fed them? Where is the soil that held our footprints?\u201d The young men bow their heads. The calves are gone. The fields are fenced. The porridge tastes of someone else\u2019s fire. They remember when the earth answered to their footsteps, when rivers did not carry foreign names, when homesteads stretched wide as breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ancestors speak again: \u201cWe watched the strangers arrive with papers sharper than spears, with laws heavier than shields. They struck down the dog at the gate, claimed the homestead, and called it theirs.\u201d Awu, awu, awu – the lament rolls like thunder. \u201cYoung men!\u201d they call. \u201cDo not forget the mountains. Do not forget the calves. Do not forget the taste of porridge cooked from your own harvest. The land remembers you, even when it is taken.\u201c <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eternal Life – Spring as Death – The Necessary Ending<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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(From #16 Litany of names to #17Nguni cosmology and #18 Jiki Jiki)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spring does not oppose death; it works with it. As new life surges forward, old forms collapse, not out of tragedy but out of usefulness spent. Last year\u2019s growth becomes fuel, compost, rhythm, the bassline under the new melody. Loss becomes tempo. Every blossom is fed by something that had to fall away. And still the singing continues voices rising, falling, rising again not to decorate the season but to drive it, to push it forward, to make renewal inevitable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An EMpty Canvas<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Peter van Heesen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Dennis Depta, dramaturg at Neuk\u00f6llner Oper<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was quite astonished by SELEMO\u2019s costume and set designer Nthabiseng Malak, who, during the concept rehearsal on January 11, 2026, shared her thoughts and detailed working process with the assembled team at the Schillertheater\u2013only to end the final slide of her presentation with a blank screen. She had returned to the very beginning. And this exactly one month before the premiere. Wow. Restart. Qala Qala.<\/em> I consider this an important and honest step in artistic practice, and I deeply admire that courage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This spirit continued to define everyone involved in the production: equipped with a profound and genuine interest in collectively exploring what has never existed before \u2013 \u201cdreaming in real time,\u201d as director Nhlanhla Mahlangu describes the work of The Centre for the Less Good Idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first heard that the Centre would be engaging with \u201cspring\u201d through Vivaldi, my political heart briefly fell asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How arrogant of me! I had completely failed to grasp the political dimension inherent in the whole undertaking. Since the imposition of the Gregorian calendar, South Africans have effectively had to begin their year at the wrong time. Autumn becomes spring, because the actual spring falls in autumn. Time is out of joint. \u201cWe need a better spring than the one we are living in. So we will not wait for the calendar,\u201d performer Hlengiwe Lushaba Madlala proclaims at the very beginning of the show. That urgency is contagious. Things are rearranged again and again \u2013 during rehearsals, but also within the piece itself. SELEMO thus contains both the magic of an empowering new beginning and the ugly face of external control, of colonial legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the South African artists involved are working together here for the first time, exploring \u2013 alongside the musicians and the singer Alma Sad\u00e9 of the Komische Oper\u2014the many dimensions of spring<\/em>. Rehearsals often unfold in a circle, with little to no notation; instead, there is collective singing and music-making\u2014listening to one another, paying attention. Together with musical director S\u2019busiso Shozi, material is continually modified. Everything happens in the room, on the rehearsal stage and the stage itself. How healing this feels in Berlin\u2019s grim January slush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the framework of an opera production, this shared spring-sound body emerges \u2013 a beat and music machine, the sound of this 2026 ensemble. What happens here is the opposite of opera in the rigid institutional musical sense. You can see it in the bodies on stage; it vibrates. Vivaldi is not baroque decoration for festive occasions. The musical image in 2D acquires purpose. Here, they are collectively striving toward knowledge and truthfulness. To me, this search feels fundamentally honest \u2013 in stark contrast to what I usually encounter on German-language stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Centre for the Less Good Idea is a space of possibility. And I am deeply grateful that the Centre, the Komische Oper, and the Neuk\u00f6llner Oper have extended this experimental space to Berlin, allowing this \u201cmarriage of cultures\u201d to take place on Karl-Marx-Stra\u00dfe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Peter van Heesen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CO-COMPOSER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR<\/strong><\/strong> S\u2019busiso Shozi CO-COMPOSER<\/strong>, STAGE DIRECTOR<\/strong><\/strong> Nhlanhla Mah\u00adlan\u00adgu MUSICAL MENTOR<\/strong> Neo Muyanga PRODUC<\/strong>ER Bronwyn Lace ASSOCIATE PRODUCER<\/strong> <\/strong>Dimakatso Motholo COSTUMES \/ STAGE DESIGN<\/strong><\/strong> Nthabiseng Malaka STAGE DESIGN ASSISTANT<\/strong> Elena Gorlatova LIGHT DESIGN<\/strong> Michael Inglis VISUAL ARTIST<\/strong> Marcus Neustetter SCRIPT<\/strong> Stacey Hardy DRAMATURGY <\/strong>Sophie Jira, Dennis Depta DRAMATURG<\/strong> ASSISTANCE <\/strong>Paula Luise Fr\u00f6hlich ASSISTANT DIRECTOR <\/strong>\/ STAGE MANAGER<\/strong><\/strong> Sandra M. Heinzelmann PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Facundo Nahuel Aguilar PRODUCTION MANAGER<\/strong> Lucia Leyser MAKE-UP<\/strong> Anne-Claire Meyer STAGE MANAGEMENT <\/strong>Regina Triebel, Sophie Reavley SOUND ENGINEER<\/strong> Zain Vally TECHNISCHE PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT<\/strong> Helmut Topp SOUND <\/strong>Ronald Davila<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WITH <\/strong>the performers Hlengiwe Lushaba Madlala, Tshegofatso Khunwane, Gregory \u201eKekelingo\u201d Mabusela, Vhahangwele Moopo, Pertunia Msani and Al\u00adma Sa\u00add\u00e9 \/ Polly Ott as well as the musicians Deniz Tahberer, Julia Lindner de Azevedo Conte, Magdalena Bogner, Arnulf Ballhorn and Tuy\u00eat Pham<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Partners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Komische Oper Berlin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Schall&\u00adRausch. Festival for Brand New Music Theatre<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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S\u2019busiso Shozi | CO-COMPOSER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Zivanai Matangi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

S\u2019busiso Shozi is a Durban-born composer, theatre maker, vocal coach and performer. As a creative, Shozi is primarily interested in exploring sounds, text and the body in motion, embracing collaborations as means of developing sets of ideas. Through his practice, he explores the origins and intersections of African sounds, language and culture across the continent. In 2024, Shozi further explored and presented his methodologies in a residency that was held by the Cartier Foundation in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shozi has written, composed, musically directed and produced for Theatre works such as African Exodus<\/em> which was recently staged at Perelman Performing Arts Centre NYC. Shozi has also composed the music to Shaka iLembe Season 2 <\/em>and Queendom Season 1<\/em> (BET Telenovela). He is currently commissioned by Neuk\u00f6llner Oper and Komische Oper Berlin as a composer and musical director for the new chamber opera called SELEMO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nhlanhla Mah\u00adlan\u00adgu | CO-COMPOSER<\/strong>, STAGE DIRECTOR<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Zivanai Matangi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nhlanhla Mahlangu is a singer, composer, theatre-maker, dancer, and educator. He was born in the late 1970s in the Phola Park squatter camp in apartheid-era South Africa and experienced first-hand the conflicts of the 1990s between the African National Congress, the Inkatha Freedom Party, and the so-called \u201cThird Force.\u201d His groundbreaking work Chant<\/em> is shaped and inspired by these experiences. Through his practice, Mahlangu uncovers personal and collective histories while using art and performance as instruments of healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Neo Muyanga | MUSICAL MENTOR<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Stella Olivier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Neo Muyanga is a composer, musician and installation artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His practice straddles the spheres of live performance, audio-visual exhibition and scholarship. Muyanga is based in South Africa and tours globally regularly, with recent projects including operas, choral and instrumental works for chamber and large ensemble. Muyanga creates sound and visual works that are informed by archival research and often feature a strong focus on voice<\/em> as a vector that shapes and transforms society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Soweto, Muyanga\u2019s compositional style reflects largely his grounding in South African choral music while exhibiting a blend with other influences \u2013 including the Italian Madrigal, Ethiopian Mezmur and the Shaabi tradition of Egypt \u2013 encountered over the 3 decades of his artistic career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This season, Muyanga presents SELEMO as the impresario of the Centre for the Less Good Idea atthe Neuk\u00f6llner Oper, a co-production with Komische Oper Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bronwyn Lace | PRODUCer<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Zivanai Matangi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bronwyn Lace is a visual artist from Botswana who lives and works between Johannesburg and Vienna. Site specificity, responsiveness and performativity are central to her work. Lace focuses on the collaborative relationships between art and other fields, including physics, history, museology, philosophy and literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bronwyn Lace completed her studies in fine arts in 2004 and, in 2016, co-founded the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, South Africa, with William Kentridge, which she now directs and serves as its international liaison. In 2020, Lace co-founded The Zone<\/em>, a collective based in Vienna that is committed to developing a completely new transdisciplinary and deliberative approach to research and curatorial work in art and science. As part of the Centre for the Less Good Idea, she is presenting the chamber opera SELEMO this season in collaboration with the Komische Oper Berlin and the Neuk\u00f6llner Oper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dimakatso Motholo | Associate PRODUCER<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Zivanai Matangi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dimakatso Motholo-Miya is an arts management practitioner, administrator, stage manager, and producer with a Master’s in Cultural Policy and Arts Management from the University of Witwatersrand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Holder of The Centre, she manages strategic vision, operational execution, people leadership, program orchestration, and stakeholder relations. This cross-functional role requires adaptability, strong communication, and integration for The Centre\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working in the non-hierarchical, experimental incubator space allows her to both contribute and learn, while her performance background provides insight into creative production. The Centre’s inherent experimental and process-oriented nature resonates with Motholo’s methodology: learning and producing through doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nthabiseng Malaka | Costume \/ Stage Design<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Zivanai Matangi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nthabiseng Malaka is a South African theatre-maker who\u2019s focus is scenography and costume design.Malaka graduated from University of the Witswaterand with a BA in Dramatic Arts. She is currently the resident designer at The Centre for The Less Good Idea and has worked in numerous theatre productions across the different theatre spaces in Gauteng including Market theatre, Joburg theatre, and Soweto theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023 Malaka was chosen as one of the three set designers to be part of the international program in collaboration with Scenography Today, Opera for Peace and UNITA for the future, here she is being mentored by Christian Schmidt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early 2020, Malaka was mentored by the internationally-renowned costume designer Greta Goiris. She then went on to design sets and costumes for Seasons 8, 9 and 10 of The Centre as well as create Goraa Goreng?<\/em>, a project that incorporated scenography as installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through her work with theatre, she has received Naledi Theatre Award nominations for her costume design and set design work. Malaka was also costume designer for Disneys  The Magic Box since its first premiere in Bueno Aires, Argentina 2023. For Selemo, Malaka is the scenograpger and costume designer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael Inglis | Light design<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Michael Inglis\u2019 diverse career as a theatre-maker has taken him to theatres around the globe in a wide range of creative and technical roles. He has traversed numerous genres, from musicals and contemporary circus to drama, physical theatre, puppetry, and visual theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His company, Emmet Theatre, is dedicated to creating innovative South African theatre works that combine creative and technical expertise to produce remarkable theatrical experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past three years, he has been a regular collaborator at The Centre for the Less Good Idea, contributing to various productions in South Africa and internationally. Previously, he worked as lighting designer with Nhlanhla Mahlangu and S\u2019busiso Shozi on their production African Exodus<\/em> during the Centre\u2019s tenth season in Johannesburg (South Africa) as well as at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York (USA). He is currently presenting SELEMO in collaboration with the Komische Oper Berlin and the Neuk\u00f6llner Oper as Technical Director and Lighting Designer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Marcus Neustetter | VISUAL ARTIST<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Marcus Neustetter (born 1976 in Johannesburg) earned an MA in Fine Arts in 2001 from the University of the Witwatersrand. His artistic practice is shaped by transdisciplinary collaboration, site-specificity, socially engaged interventions, and work at the intersection of art and cultural activism. Through projects in Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia, his work seeks a balance between poetic form and critical inquiry, with drawing serving as a central element of his creative process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2000, Neustetter founded The Trinity Session, focusing on social participation and art in public space within complex contexts. In 2020, he co-founded The ZoNE, a transdisciplinary platform for research and exchange between art and science. He currently works between his studios in Johannesburg and Vienna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Stacey Hardy<\/strong> | Script<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Stacy Hardy is a writer, researcher, and editor whose work explores the intersections of embodiment, the individual, and society. She is the author of the short fiction collections Because the Night<\/em> (Pocko, 2015) and An Archaeology of Holes <\/em>(Rot-Bo-Krik, Paris 2022; Bridge Books, Chicago 2023), and co-author of The Breathers<\/em> with Daniel Borzutzky. Her critically acclaimed plays and award-winning librettos have been performed globally at venues and festivals such as the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France and the Royal Opera House in London. Hardy is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Wits University, an editor at the Pan-African platform Chimurenga, a partner in the African creative writing teaching initiative Saseni, and a founder of Ukuthula, a project that develops new writing from and against gender-based violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sophie Jira | DramaturgY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Jan Windszus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sophie Jira, born in Vienna, spent her youth in the standing-room section of the opera house. She studied musicology at the University of Vienna and has since focused primarily on operetta, Viennese music, and the music of the Strauss family. For the Johann Strauss Year 2025, she serves as dramaturge for Eine Nacht in Venedig<\/em> (directed by Nina Spijkers) at the Volksoper Wien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She gained her first professional experience in the press office of the Wiener Staatsoper, in the organization of the Wiener Opernball, at the Narrenturm in Vienna, and in programme production for the cultural radio station \u00d61.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2020 to 2024, Sophie Jira was engaged as a music theatre dramaturge at the Theater Altenburg Gera, where she collaborated with directors such as Achim Freyer, Bernd Mottl, Kay Kuntze, and Laurence Dale. For Gera, she wrote several commissioned works and stage programmes, including revues (Wien bei Nacht<\/em>, 2024). Her first full-length operetta, Redoute in Reu\u00df<\/em> (music by Olav Kr\u00f6ger), set in the miniature principality of Reu\u00df-Greiz-Schleiz, premiered in 2024 at Theater Gera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophie Jira is a fellow of the Akademie Musiktheater heute of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung in the Libretto\/Text division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 2024\/25 season, she has been working as a dramaturg at the Komische Oper Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DenNis Depta | DramaturgY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Peter van Heesen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dennis Depta, born in 1988 in Cottbus, is a dramaturge, performer, and musician. Since 2014, he has been fearlessly confronting the rest of society with the Berlin (music) theatre collective glanz&krawall\u2014from the high culture of opera to the poetic forlornness of a lone entertainer in a village disco. Together with director Marielle Sterra, he brings formats of popular culture such as wrestling, circus, punk concerts, or harness racing into the theatre, while increasingly taking theatre into urban spaces\u2014for example into clubs, lidos, or psychiatric institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2019, Depta and Sterra have initiated the inclusive theatre and music festival series BERLIN is not\u2026, for which music acts and performing arts groups alike reinterpret operas by Richard Wagner & Co. for a broad audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 2025\/2026 season, Depta has been working as a dramaturge at the Neuk\u00f6llner Oper in Berlin. He is the guitarist of the bands SCHROTTI STAR ORCHESTER and KANAL. Depta believes that art comes from desire, not from skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sandra M. Heinzelmann | ASSISTANT DIRECTOR <\/strong>\/ STAGE MANAGER<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Tara Friese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After studying at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg, where she earned her diploma in music theatre directing, she moved to Berlin. There, she quickly became part of the city\u2019s vibrant cultural scene as a freelance artist. In addition to her theatre work, she explored the world of street art, created atmospheric soundscapes for gallery openings, and delighted audiences as a cassette DJ. With the band Aeternitas, she wrote and staged the world\u2019s first goth-rock musical\u2014an experiment that reflects her passion for unconventional forms of music theatre. This enthusiasm continues in the live tutorials IT’S JUST OPERA, HONEY and IT’S JUST A LEITMOTIF, HONEY, which she developed for the Neuk\u00f6llner Oper. Thanks to her freelance work, she has collaborated with renowned institutions such as the Komische Oper Berlin, Atze Musiktheater, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and the University of the Arts Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hlengiwe Lushaba Madlala | Performer<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Hlengiwe Lushaba Madlala was born in KwaMashu in South Africa and received her acting, singing and dance training at the Tecknikon Natal (now Durban Institute of Technology). Since then, she has developed various choreographies and productions for the EDGE Programme (It’s not over until the Fit Fat Phat Lady Sings<\/em>) and the Dance Umbrella Festival (Is this Africa put a cross on the appropriate woman<\/em>). Madlala has been awarded the Standard Bank Award for Dance and the Gauteng MEC Choreographic Award for her work and was also nominated for the SAFTA Golden Horn 2024 for her acting performance in My Brother’s Keeper<\/em>. She has also appeared on stage in musical productions, including Hairspray The Musical<\/em>, Touch my Blood<\/em> and Lost in the Stars<\/em>. In 2013, Madlala also staged Cabaret <\/em>for the Via Katlehong Dance Company. At the Neuk\u00f6llner Oper Berlin, she now performs together with the collective Centre for the Less Good Idea in SELEMO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tshegofatso Khunwane | Performer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Tshegofatso Khunwane is a dynamic vocal artist and African percussionist whose work bridges music, dance, and theatre across local and international stages. He holds a National Diploma in Vocal Arts and an Advanced Diploma in Performing Arts (Music) from the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), where his training laid a strong foundation for a multidisciplinary performance career.
Tshegofatso has contributed as a vocalist and percussionist to acclaimed dance productions, including Lekgoba<\/em>, directed by L.J. Makhele, presented at the Dance Umbrella (2019), the Incubator Programme (2020), and later at the State Theatre during the Kucheza Afrika Festival (2021). His performance credits also include the TUT Dance Season<\/em> (2019) and Internal <\/em>by Sibonelo Mqunu, performed at the Kucheza Afrika Festival (2022) and at Durban University of Technology (2024). He further featured in Imxinwa<\/em> and Maai<\/em>, created by Ziyabukwa Mankabane, as both vocalist and percussionist.
A significant highlight of Tshegofatso\u2019s career is his ongoing collaboration on Broken Chord<\/em>, created by Gregory Maqoma and Thuthuka Sibisi. As part of the quartet, he toured extensively across Europe as well as the USA, Canada, and the UK between 2021 and 2024. From 2022 to 2024, he was also part of Mohile Music and Events, contributing as a percussionist, vocalist, dancer, and casting director in cultural exchange showcases in India (Mumbai, Greater Noida and New Delhi).
In his final year at TUT, Tshegofatso was cast as Monostatos in Mozart\u2019s opera Die Zauberfl\u00f6te (The Magic Flute)<\/em>. Since 2022, he has continued to perform with a wide range of jazz, African jazz, afro-pop, percussion, and theatre ensembles, including Routed Stems, Waffle House, Ibutho (Phila Dlozi), Milanzi Melodies, and Indlovukazi, while also collaborating with DJs for events such as Gbedu Nights.
Tshegofatso Khunwane\u2019s artistry is defined by versatility, cultural exchange, and a deep commitment to African musical expression on global stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gregory \u201eKekelingo\u201d Mabusela | Performer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Kekelingo (Born Gregory Kekeletso Mabusela) is a musician from Soweto in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His music journey started in 2001 when his arts and culture teacher assigned him to create musical instruments. Kekelingo started off by building plastic drums, from recycled buckets and tins. In the process he built a plastic horn made of plastic bottles and roll on container. It produced a saxophone and trumpet sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, Kekelingo would walk along Vilakazi Street in Orlando and busk for tourists. He later started frequenting in New Town, Johannesburg outside the Market Theatre, Where he met Hugh Masekela. Masekela was fascinated by the sounds produced by Kekelingo\u2019s horn and encouraged him keep playing the instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, Kekelingo participated at SA\u2019s Got Talent and reached the semi finals. The event was marked the beginning of his journey as a full time musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, Kekelingo joined a band called The international award winning band Muffinz as drummer and singer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2013 7 time SAMA awards nominee ( The Muffinz Band)
2014 Metro FM best group winners (The Muffinz band)
2017 The Centre for the less Good idea Season 2 Enyangeni
2019 Holland Festival Amsterdam (Enyangeni)
2023 Kekelingo due EP release
2025 Moya Chekhov International Theatre Festival
2025 Acces The music in Africa Conference for Collaborations ,Exchange and Showcases<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vhahangwele Moopo | Performer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Vhangwele Moopo is a South African Vocalist whose work spans choral, classical and operatic music. Her talent became evident early on, earning her multiple accolades at Thirisanho School Competitions. She later expanded her performance experience through participation in various diocesan choirs and appearances at the Old Mutual Choirs Competitions between 2010 and 2012. During this period, she also performed internationally in Germany with the Harmonious Ensemble, gaining valuable global exposure. In 2016, she joined the vocal quartet LA Africa, directed by Buchanan Marais. Her classical repertoire includes solo performances from H\u00e4ndel\u2019s Messiah with Soweto Angelic Voices. In 2018, she performed African Art Music with the IONIAN Orchestra, led by Bab Bhekumuzi Mngoma. This collaboration continued into 2022 with performances of Judas Maccabaeus.
From 2023 to 2024, Moopo worked with CSMI (Creator Senzo Music Initiative) in partnership with the IONIAN Orchestra under the leadership of Bab Mngoma. She also expanded her operatic repertoire, collaborating the Malagasy dancer Gaby Saranouffi as an opera singer in Ranavalona III: The Chrysalis Queen of Madagascar. This season, she is working on SELEMO as a performer in collaboration with the Neuk\u00f6llner Oper and Komische Oper Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pertunia Msani | Performer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Pertunia Mpumelelo Msani is a performance graduate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Msani\u2019s professional practice is rooted in social engagement and impact \u2013 using music and theatre to bridge worlds and tell stories that begin to change our communities. Msani is a vocal artist whose interest is in the voices ability \u2013 its power and helping people discover their own voices. Msani has a workshop process called IZWI which invites participants to co-create song through their own voices, creating remedies for themselves. This process invites participants to be in the practice of community. The workshop process was found as a result of Msani\u2019s EP called I<\/em>zwi. which was the beginnings of her interest in the voice as an instrument or tool for change. Msani has spent several years as a creative researcher and theatre company member at the University of the Witwatersand, Johannesburg working closely with underserved communities and youth through innovative theatre interventions. Msani is also a collaborator with The Centre for the Less Good Idea creating and touring professional theatre works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Al\u00adma Sa\u00add\u00e9 | Performer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Jan Windszus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although Alma Sad\u00e9 had little to do with music in her youth, she was nevertheless drawn to the arts. In her hometown of Tel Aviv, she first completed a school internship in the props department of the local opera house and subsequently worked there as a stage manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even at that time, the political situation in Israel was tense, marked by fear of war and terror. On one occasion, Alma Sad\u00e9 accompanied her aunt, a designer, to a fashion show in New York City. Sad\u00e9 stayed in the city that never sleeps and made her way on her own. In this new environment, she eventually discovered her own voice\u2014first in jazz, and later in classical singing. She studied for four years at the renowned Mannes College of Music and was subsequently engaged by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in D\u00fcsseldorf\/Duisburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with her colleague and best friend in D\u00fcsseldorf, Theresa Kronthaler, she visited Berlin shortly after Kronthaler had joined the ensemble of the Komische Oper Berlin. Soon afterward, an opportunity arose when a Zerlina was being sought for Peter Konwitschny\u2019s production of Don Giovanni. Barrie Kosky heard her audition and invited her for a working session. Since the 2014\/15 season, she has been a permanent ensemble member at the Komische Oper Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Polly Ott | Performer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Mario Bergmann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Polly Ott is a New Zealand soprano who has been based in Berlin since 2012. She studied at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and at the Universit\u00e4t der K\u00fcnste Berlin, where she completed her Master\u2019s degree in Opera with distinction. Her first engagement in Germany brought her to the Neuk\u00f6llner Oper in 2013 with AIRRossini<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, she has appeared at opera houses and concert venues throughout Europe and New Zealand, including New Zealand Opera, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Komische Oper Berlin, Theater Magdeburg, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, and the Cuvilli\u00e9s-Theater. Among her defining roles are Despina (Cos\u00ec fan tutte<\/em>) and Anne Frank (The Diary of Anne Frank<\/em>). In the concert repertoire, she has performed works such as Mozart\u2019s Exsultate, jubilate<\/em>, Bach\u2019s St John Passion<\/em>, and Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polly Ott combines vocal versatility with a striking stage presence\u2014OperaWire has praised her as a \u201ccontemporary singing actor.\u201d As an independent artist, she created the internationally award-winning music video Ophelia\u2019s Aria<\/em> and released her debut album Mother Earth<\/em> with Atoll Records in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deniz Tahberer | Violin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Claudia von Galli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Deniz Tahberer is a Turkish-Canadian violinist and composer who is equally renowned for his expressive solo and chamber music performances as he is for his stylistic openness and artistic curiosity. As a soloist and chamber musician, Deniz Tahberer is a fixture in the musical life of Saxony and Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He gained international attention by winning first prize at the XXIX Michelangelo Abbado Violin Competition in Milan<\/em> (2010). Two years later, together with pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz, he won first prize at the International Duo Competition of the Lausanne Music Academy (2012). These awards marked the beginning of an international career that has taken him to renowned stages throughout Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his work as a performer, Tahberer is also a passionate composer. His early works were created at the intersection of traditional Turkish music and European classical forms. In recent years, his compositional language has evolved significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronic soundscapes, global influences, and rhythmic impulses from South African and other world music traditions increasingly characterize his current work. His music reflects an open, contemporary attitude and deliberately transcends cultural and stylistic boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For several years, he has been deputy concertmaster at the Komische Oper Berlin, where he ideally combines his experience as a soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Julia Lindner de Azevedo Conte | Viola<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Heiko Roith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Julia Lindner de Azevedo Conte has been a violist with the Komische Oper Berlin since 2019 and is a familiar presence at SCHALL&RAUSCH: for her, the festival series has been both laboratory and playground from its very first edition\u2014a space where orchestral experience meets experimental formats and fosters intercultural connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chamber music, contemporary premieres, and unconventional collaborations are as much a part of Julia\u2019s artistic identity as the classical repertoire. She studied at the Hochschule f\u00fcr Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with Prof. Pauline Sachse and completed her Master\u2019s degree in 2023 at the Universit\u00e4t der K\u00fcnste Berlin under Prof. Wilfried Strehle (former principal violist of the Berliner Philharmoniker).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masterclasses with Prof. Andreas Willwohl and Prof. Hartmut Rohde, as well as intensive artistic exchange with Elizaveta Zolotova (RSB), were important musical influences\u2014alongside studio experimentation with bands such as Corvus Corax and The Tunics, or with the jazz piano quintet Maria Baptist & Strings, of which she was a member from 2014 to 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an academy member of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and for several years as a temporary member of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, she worked with some of the most sought-after soloists and conductors of our time and built a vast orchestral repertoire spanning all eras and genres. This wide-ranging experience has made her a sought-after guest musician with orchestras both nationally and internationally, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Orquestra Sinf\u00f4nica do Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo (OSESP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Kammerorchester Metamorphosen Berlin, she recorded several CDs for Sony Classical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arnulf Ballhorn | Double bass<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 David Beecroft<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Arnulf Ballhorn has been a bass player in the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin for over 25 years, where he is also involved in chamber music productions and intercultural projects. He had completed his double bass studies with Prof. Rainer Zepperitz, the long-time solo bass player of the Berlin Philharmonic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musical preferences are difficult for him to narrow:
In addition to his work in the orchestra, contemporary music and classical chamber music as well as jazz and tango and intensive work with the electric bass are among his basic musical needs. He regularly plays at international festivals of various musical genres and also runs his own label and studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His commitment to the orchestra goes far beyond \u00bbnormal\u00ab service. In the team of Selam Opera<\/em> and especially in the concepts of the \u00bbOpera Dolmu\u015f\u00ab, Arnulf Ballhorn was able to contribute ideas and experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some of the Komische Oper Berlin\u2019s sensational festivals in recent years (including the two tango festivals and the festival Schall&Rausch<\/em>), various programme components have been significantly designed by him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Magdalena Bogner | FLute<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Pilo Pilcher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Austrian flutist Magdalena Bogner has been principal flutist at the Komische Oper Berlin since September 2015. She has made guest appearances in orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, as well as with leading German radio orchestras, and has worked with renowned conductors including Kirill Petrenko, Zubin Mehta, andSimon Rattle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to versatile chamber music activities, she has been a permanent member of the ensemble of 14 Berlin flutists since 2017. Furthermore, since July 2023 she has accompanied the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra as a lecturer in the flute group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the summer semester of 2025, Bogner sets up her own flute class at the Hochschule f\u00fcr Musik \u00bbFranz Liszt\u00ab Weimar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tuy\u00eat Pham | Piano<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Zivanai Matangi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tuy\u00eat Pham was born in Paris to Vietnamese parents and now lives in Berlin. As a pianist, she primarily dedicates herself to chamber music. In addition to the classical repertoire, she engages with Latin American music, Jewish song recitals, contemporary music, and improvised music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was a co-founder of the group Vibratanghissimo (Tango\/Jazz), with which she performed in concerts for many years. Together with the bandoneon player and composer Helmut Abel, she founded the Mafalda Ensemble, which performs both works by Helmut Abel and tango-inspired music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuy\u00eat Pham studied in Paris and Berlin. Particularly formative for her artistic development were her encounters with and studies under Klaus Hellwig, Gy\u00f6rgy Seb\u0151k, Aribert Reimann, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In co-production with the Komische Oper Berlin and the Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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 \u2013 culturally, spiritually, and sonically \u2013 across geographical boundaries? The South African composers and performers S\u2019busiso Shozi and Nhlanhla Mahlangu from Johannesburg\u2019s Centre for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":23328,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_teasertitle":"","_hidetitle":false,"_titletag":"","_marqueeTitle":false,"_subtitle":"A Springtime Opera","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/?page_id=23069","_onepager":[],"_onepager_single":false,"_pinkie_id":23328,"footnotes":"","_post-color":[]},"class_list":["post-23412","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23412"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23432,"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23412\/revisions\/23432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neukoellneroper.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}