Oh, To Believe In Another World
William Kentridge
A film for Shostakovich 10th Symphony
William Kentridge has created some of the most original and bold stagings in the opera world--his productions of Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose and Alban Berg's Wozzeck among them--and film and video work is central to his practice. Now, in a project to be commissioned by the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, he returns to Shostakovich with a 50-minute film designed as a dynamic visual counterpoint to the great composer’s Symphony No. 10, created to be shown with live musical accompaniment by an orchestra. Symphony No. 10 was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra on December 17, 1953, the same year as Stalin’s death. It was Shostakovich's first symphonic work since his second denunciation in 1948, and is often cited as an inflection point in his rehabilitation as a creative artist. Kentridge’s film will incorporate elements of techniques he developed and deployed in his production of Wozzeck, his expansive multidisciplinary theatrical work The Head & the Load, and the immersive Pepper’s Ghost illusion used in his experimental adaptation of the avant garde theater piece Mayakovsky: A Tragedy. The resulting film will illuminate, interrogate, and honor the symphony; the combination will add up to an inspiringly confounding evening of music and cinema.
Team
A Film to Accompany the Performance of Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 in E Minor
Director William Kentridge
Editors Janus Fouché, Žana Marović
Costume & Puppet Designer Greta Goiris
Set & Model Designer Sabine Theunissen
Cinematographer Duško Marović SASC
Video Control Kim Gunning
Assistant Director of Chorus Nhlanhla Mahlangu
Performers Thulani Chauke, Luc De Wit, Andrea Fabi, Teresa Phuti Mojela, and Phuphuma Love Minus (Isicathamiya Chorus)
Costume and Puppet Makers Emmanuelle Erhart, Judith Stokart (assisted by Diego Sillands)
Model Makers Damon Garstang, Claire Zinn
Associate Editor Joshua Trappler
Assistant Compositor Octavia Sonyane
Camera Operators and Technical Direction Chris-Waldo de Wet, Jacques van Staden
Production Management Taryn Buccellato
Studio Director Anne McIlleron
Administration Linda Leibowitz, Natalie Dembo
Project Initiator Numa Bischof Ullmann
Executive Producer THE OFFICE performing arts + film
Commissioned by the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and made possible through a grant by the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne.
Five Channel Film Installation
15 min 42 sec
Director William Kentridge
Editor & Sound Designer Janus Fouché
Additional Editors Žana Marović, Joshua Trappler
Costume & Puppet Designer Greta Goiris
Set & Model Designer Sabine Theunissen
Cinematographer Duško Marović SASC
Performers Thulani Chauke, Luc De Wit, Andrea Fabi, Teresa Phuti Mojela, and Phuphuma Love Minus (Isicathamiya Chorus)
Assistant Director of Chorus Nhlanhla Mahlangu
Costume and Puppet Makers Emmanuelle Erhart, Judith Stokart (assisted by Diego Sillands)
Model Makers Damon Garstang, Claire Zinn
Compositor Janus Fouché
Assistant Compositor Octavia Sonyane
Camera Operators and Technical Direction Chris-Waldo de Wet, Jacques van Staden
Production Management Taryn Buccellato
Studio Director Anne McIlleron
Administration Linda Leibowitz, Natalie Dembo
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Tour Dates
2025
- Bergen International Festival, Bergen (NO)
- GS Arts Center, Seoul (KR)
- MITO SettembreMusica, Milan (IT)
- Philharmonie de Paris, Paris (FR)
- Philharmonie Essen, Essen (DE)
- Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane (AU)
- Southbank Center, London (UK)
2024
- Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona (ES)
- New York Philharmonic, New York (USA)
2023
- Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong (HK)
- Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna (AT)
2022
- Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Lucerne (CH)
- Pompeii Theatrum Mundi, Pompeii (IT)