Premier of Winnie the Opera to be held on 28th

Her voice soaring over the stage, a soprano captures the rebellious, violent passion of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, in an opera devoted to the former wife of South African icon Nelson Mandela.“I know I will be demonised and hated in my day, but there is no other way,” she proclaims, as the orchestra thunders from the pit. “With our rubber tires and our boxes of matches, we will liberate this land.” Fist raised, standing in army fatigues before a cardboard township, singer Tsakane Maswanganyi rehearses her role ahead of the world premier of “Winnie the Opera”, which opens April 28 at the State Theatre in Pretoria. The story begins in 1997, with Madikizela-Mandela testifying before the truth and reconciliation, the panel tasked with uncovering political crimes committed during white-minority apartheid rule.The scene is a snapshot of the life of a woman harassed by the police, banished far from her home, held in solitary and repeatedly tortured, while her husband languished in an apartheid prison. The idea for the opera was born in 2007, with fellow South African Warren Wilensky, a film producer who also works in Canada. A few months later, the staged a multimedia show called The passion of Winnie at a Toronto festival. Madikizela-Mandela was supposed to attend, but Canada denied her a visa.