Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Shirley Jo Finney Directs Bongani Ndodana-Breen's 'WINNIE The Opera,' Premiering April 28 in Pretoria, South Africa


[Shirley Jo Finney]

John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com sends this news:
Shirley Jo Finney, recent winner of nearly every directing award in Los Angeles for The Ballad of Emmett Till at the Fountain, is now directing an opera about the life and times of Winnie Mandela, set to premiere on April 28, 2011 at the State Theater in Pretoria, South Africa.

“The opera focuses on when Winnie Mandela was summoned in 1997 before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body charged with investigating wrongs committed during apartheid, to probe the murder of one of her supporters. The opera of the woman often called 'the mother of the nation' will be in English and Xhosa.

“Shirley Jo says of WINNIE composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen: 'His music is inspired ... touched by the gods.'"

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