VIDEO
Hear excerpts and see a brief introduction from New York City Opera's VOX 2009 showcase.
Watch Celebratory Dance from the performance at Riverside Church in 2001.
AUDIO
Part 1, scene 3:
Forced into hiding, Nelson Mandela tells his wife Winnie that there is no turning back from his
commitment to overthrow Apartheid.
Part 1, interlude 3:
Mandela is captured by the police and brought to trial for treason.
Tenor solo: “Akube licala kanye” (Zulu bow song)
“Let it be tried and ended, let it be completed!
Let there be a law case, let there be a law case!
Oh! House of the hero! Ntsheshakubola!
Let there be a law case, let it go on and on!
Let there be a law case, let it be tried and appealed!
Come what may, come what may, ha!
Let there be a law case!
He is borne by wagons, making for the court-house;
Trail of horses [with] me going to the Tribal Authorities Court!
Part 2, scene 3 (Prison Visitors’ Room):
The prison guard overseeing Mandela’s contact visit with his daughter and newborn grandchild
is deeply moved by what he witnesses. The Zulu lullaby “Okabani” accompanies
his thoughts.
Soprano solo: “Okabani”
Go out my child, and show the outside!
Whose is that baby?
Our sister’s husband, where has he gone?
Since he’s courting no longer, where has he gone?
Being not yet married, where has he gone?
Has he gone to gather firewood?
Has he gone to fell trees?
You at the back of the hut, you by the doorway!
Chorus
Oh, we do not know!
Part 2, scene 4 (Prison Governor’s Office)
Mandela refuses the Prison Governor’s offer of clemency in exchange for his renunciation
of violence.
Part 2, Interlude 4:
After 27 years of imprisonment, Mandela is released.
PHOTOS
André and Diana Solomon-Glover as Nelson and Winnie Mandela
Part 1/scene 3
Dawn Padmore, Christine Clemmons, Albert Lee and Steven Herring sing
Part 1/interlude 2.
Laura Agudelo, Codi Landis and Craig Bridger as Guards
Part 1
Diana Solomon Glover as Winnie Mandela
Jennifer Jones, Ethel Calhoun, Darryl Foster, Imani Faye, Lloyd Goodman,
Stacy Turner and Darion Aaron in Celebratory Dance
Part 2/scene 5
Ethel Calhoun leaps in Celebratory Dance
Part 2/scene 5
André Solomon-Glover delivers Mandela's Speech in Cape Town
Part 2/scene 5
Radicals protest (Steven Herring, Christine Clemmons, Dawn Padmore,
Diana Solomon-Glover and Sam McKelton)
Part 2/scene 5
Winnie and Nelson argue
Part 2/scene 6