
William Kentridge’s award-winning chamber opera Waiting for the Sibyl (2019) makes its New York premiere this week in Brooklyn (until 11 October). The debut comes as part of the inaugural Powerhouse: International arts festival at Powerhouse Arts, a converted former power plant in Gowanus.
The international festival celebrates theatre, music, dance and other types of performance. Founded by David Binder, a former artistic director at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Powerhouse: International kicked off last month with a choreographed skateboarding performance and continues until mid-December. Kentridge's Waiting for the Sibyl features an original score composed by Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Kyle Shepherd making use of South African harmonies, plus an ensemble of ten singers and dancers performing amid a lively melange of the artist's distinctive animated ink drawings, collages, text projections and sculptures. In 2023, the production won an Olivier Award, British theatre’s highest honour.