Music

Sibyl

Rating: 4.5
Author: Michael Halliwell

William Kentridge’s unique visual language

Sydney Opera House

by Michael Halliwell •

ABR Arts • 03 November 2023

Music

Sibyl

William Kentridge’s unique visual language

Sydney Opera House

by Michael Halliwell •

ABR Arts • 03 November 2023

Sibyl (photograph courtesy of Sydney Opera House and by David Boon).

Fresh graves are everywhere; no place will resist destruction; where shall we put our hope

William Kentridge, Sibyl

The use of the word ‘protean’ has become clichéd. Similarly, ‘Renaissance man/woman, polymath’ etc., have been used to describe many artists, perhaps never more appropriately than in the case of William Kentridge. His output is staggering, ranging over stage works, a wide range of performance art, installations, film, and several other areas, yet whatever the work might be, it is immediately recognisable.

Kentridge’s is an often surreal visual language, employing ink drawings and charcoal animations, frequently underpinned by music. His directorial output is well known to Sydney audiences through a moving staging of Schubert’s great song cycle, Winterreise (2016), and a searing production of Alban Berg’s operatic masterpiece, Wozzeck (2019). Kentridge is both designer and director, moulding his stage direction to complement and extend his unique visual language. But central to his output has been the work created in his Johannesburg workshop with the evocative name ‘The Centre for the Less Good Idea’. More of that later.

Michael Halliwell

Michael Halliwell studied literature and music at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, at the London Opera Centre, and with Tito Gobbi in Florence. He has sung in Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia and was principal baritone for many years with the Netherlands Opera, the Nürnberg Municipal Opera, and the Hamburg State Opera singing over fifty major operatic roles, including several world premiere productions. He has served as Chair of Vocal Studies and Opera, Pro-Dean and Head of School, and Associate Dean (Research) at the Sydney Conservatorium. He is President of the International Association for Word and Music Studies. His publications include the monographs, Opera and the Novel (Rodopi: 2005); and National Identity on Contemporary Australian Opera: myths reconsidered (Routledge, 2018), as well as many chapters and articles. He still performs regularly and recent CDs include When the Empire Calls (ABC Classics, 2005); O for a Muse of Fire: Australian Shakespeare Settings (Vox Australis, 2013); Amy Woodforde-Finden: The Oriental Song-Cycles (Toccata Classics, 2014); That Bloody Game; Australian WWI Songs (Wirripang, 2015).