Postcolonial Opera

Abstract Postcolonial Opera: William Kentridge and the Unbounded Work of Art examines the social and political role of opera in the postcolony. Taking as a starting point the multimedia operatic experiments of South Africa’s most celebrated contemporary visual artist, William Kentridge, it investigates contemporary opera’s potential to process the troubled histories that haunt post- and decolonial societies. Centered around the critical-theoretical themes of return, confession, mourning, time, place, and totality, the book considers the artist’s productions for puppets (Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, 1998; Confessions of Zeno, 2002), his operatic installation for a miniature automated theater (Black Box/Chambre Noire, 2005), his chamber work for performers and machines (Refuse the Hour, 2012), and his “processional operas” (Triumphs and Laments, 2016; The Head & the Load, 2018). Postcolonial Opera argues that Kentridge’s newly conceived operatic form, built on ideas of “unboundedness” rather than “totality” or its opposite, “formlessness,” offers opportunities to engage anew with questions of race, coloniality, and cultural belonging in the postcolony. While Kentridge’s pieces take seriously the artist’s responsibility to deal with the genre’s colonial past, they also offer humor, beauty, and catalytic opportunities to reimagine the form and function of opera in the postcolonial present. Postcolonial Opera intervenes in contemporary debates about opera’s relevance and contributes to the growing study of the art form’s relationship with race and coloniality. It argues that Kentridge’s multimedia experiments—at once local and global—present compelling perspectives on the contradictions and compromises of the genre’s position in the postcolony.