Earthdiving

Earthdiving or earthdiving is a techno-opera composed by Mokale Koapeng with Péter Louis van Dijk and Martin Phipps, and with text by Nancy Diuguid and Nan Hamilton.

The original text

The text interweaves Greek mythology — specifically the myth of Demeter and Pluto — with Khoisan ritual and beliefs.

The opera is a story of an archetypal family and a community, living in both this world and the underworld, who go through powerful tensions of power, love and revenge to reach forgiveness, reconciliation and compassion. They learn to transform certain emotions which have become destructive for the good of the world.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

2003: Presented by Cape Town Opera in collaboration with Artscape, Dedel'ingoma Music-Theatre Company, the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and the Western Cape Cultural Commission at Spier (7–15 March), directed by Nancy Diuguid and Nan Hamilton. Choreography by Boyzie Cekwana. Set design by Sarah Calburn, costumes by Black Coffee. With the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Xandi van Dijk. Featuring Ntombizodumo Mahlaba, Philisa Sibeko, Mandlenkosi Mhkize, Abel Moeng, Aletta Bezuidenhout, James Stent Mahlaba, Nkozasana Dimande, Miranda Tini, Kwezi Davani, Richard Mbovane, Collen Tontsi, and the Cape Town Opera chorus, under Daniel Mestre.

Sources

Guy Willoughby. 'Bravo!'. Mail and Guardian. 20 October 2006.

Wayne Muller. 2018. A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015). Unpublished PhD thesis.

Ivan Meredith. 2006. 'Opera in South Africa during the first democratic decade'. Unpublished Masters thesis. University of Cape Town.