Australian Exclusive
In the Joan Sutherland Theatre
Opera
One of the world’s most distinctive visual storytellers, William Kentridge, has created two beguiling works that invite us to embrace the precariousness of our time. This multilayered production fuses together dance, opera, charcoal drawing and film.
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Date |
Time |
|
Thursday 2 November 2023 |
7:30pm |
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Friday 3 November 2023 |
7:30pm |
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Saturday 4 November 2023 |
7:30pm |
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Standard |
Price |
|---|---|
|
Premium |
$139 |
|
A Reserve |
$129 |
|
B Reserve - Partial View |
$115 |
|
C Reserve - Partial View |
$105 |
|
Full-time Student |
Price |
| All Reserves |
$50 |
|
Multipack Buy 2 |
Price |
|---|---|
|
Premium |
$125.10 |
|
A Reserve |
$116.10 |
|
B Reserve - Partial View |
$103.50 |
|
C Reserve - Partial View |
$94.50 |
|
Multipack Buy 3+ |
Price |
|---|---|
|
Premium |
$118.15 |
|
A Reserve |
$109.65 |
|
B Reserve - Partial View |
$97.75 |
|
C Reserve - Partial View |
$89.25 |
|
Mob Tix Discounted tickets for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and community groups. |
$25 |
$8.95 booking fee applies per transaction
Prices correct at the time of publication and subject to change without notice. Exact prices will be displayed with seat selection.
The authorised agencies for this event are Sydney Opera House. For more information about Authorised Agencies, see the frequently asked questions below.
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Run time
Performance duration is 90 minutes including interval.
Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.
Age
Recommended for ages 15+
Children aged 15 years and under must be accompanied at all times. Children aged 0 - 23 months at the time of a performance may be seated on a parent’s lap free of charge. All children occupying a seat or aged 2 year/s of age or older must hold a valid ticket.
The Opera House is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children that visit or engage with us. Read our Child Safety Policy.
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Visual and aural alchemy by South African artist William Kentridge
Myth, magic, music, movement, and mesmerizing imagery combine in revered South African visual artist William Kentridge’s newest production.
Presented in two parts, Sibyl is inspired by the Greek myth of the Cumaean Sibyl, and wrestles with the human desire to know our future and our helplessness before powers and technologies that obscure that knowledge from us.
Part 1: The Moment Has Gone
22-minute film with live score by Kyle Shepherd
A short film combining piano and an all-male South African chorus led by Nhlanhla Mahlangu. The film features Kentridge’s unique charcoal animation technique of successive erasure and redrawing conjuring his alter ego Soho Eckstein. Set between a municipal art museum and an abandoned mining area at the edges of the city where unofficial artisanal gold mining takes place, Soho comes face to face with his fate.
Part 2: Waiting for the Sibyl
42-minute chamber opera
A visually stunning chamber opera that incorporates the signature elements of Kentridge’s visionary practice—projection, live performance, recorded music, dance / movement.
Waiting for the Sibyl tells the story of the Cumaean prophetess Sibyl. It explores what it means to grapple with the endlessly human task of making sense of our contemporary world and living with uncertainty about our future. Created in collaboration with choral director and dancer Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Kyle Shepherd, one of South Africa’s leading progressive pianists and composers, it is a piece for nine performers that unfolds in a series of 6 short scenes.
Waiting for the Sibyl is profound, jarring, playful, and a visually stunning meditation on what it means to be alive.
This program is proudly supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW’s Blockbusters Funding initiative
The TimesTo call it stimulating would be an understatement. It is also cumulatively, and sometimes almost inexplicably, moving.
Artist information
William Kentridge
William Kentridge (1955, Johannesburg) works across mediums of drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theatre and collaborative practices, to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, always maintaining a space for contradiction and uncertainty.
His work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Musée du Louvre in Paris, Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, the Kunstmuseum in Basel and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. His work can be found in the collections of art museums and institutions across the globe.
Kentridge has directed Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Shostakovich’s The Nose, and Alban Berg’s operas Lulu and Wozzeck, for opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, English National Opera in London, Opera de Lyon, Amsterdam Opera, the Sydney Opera House and the Salzburg Festival. His original works for stage combine performance, projections, shadow play, voice and music, and include the Refusal of Time, The Head & the Load, and Waiting for the Sibyl.
In 2016 Kentridge founded the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg: a space for responsive thinking and making through experimental, collaborative and cross-disciplinary arts practices. The Centre hosts an ongoing programme of workshops, public performances and mentorship activities.
He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities including Yale, Columbia and the University of London. Prizes include the Kyoto Prize (2010), the Princesa de Asturias Award (2017), the Praemium Imperiale Prize (2019), and an Olivier award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera in 2023.
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Other information
Venue information
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.
Getting here
The Sydney Opera House Car Park, operated by Wilson Parking, is open and available to use. Wilson Parking offer discounted parking if you book ahead. Please see the Wilson Parking website for details.
Please check the Transport NSW website for the latest advice and information on travel. You can catch public transport (bus, train, ferry) to Circular Quay and enjoy a six min walk to the Opera House.
Covid-safe information
The health and wellbeing of everyone attending the Opera House is our top priority. We’re committed to making your experience safe, comfortable and enjoyable, with a number of measures in place including regular cleaning of high-touch areas, air conditioning systems that maximise ventilation, and hand sanitiser stations positioned in all paths of travel. We remind our audiences and visitors to please stay home if you feel unwell. If you need to discuss your ticketing or booking options, contact our Box Office team on 02 9250 7777.
The health and wellbeing of everyone attending the Opera House is our top priority. We have a number of safety measures in place including regular cleaning of high-touch areas, air conditioning systems that maximise ventilation, and hand sanitiser stations positioned in all paths of travel. While face masks are no longer required, we ask all our patrons and visitors to practise good hygiene. Please stay home if you feel unwell and read more about our flexible ticket options.
The Sydney Opera House no longer requires patrons to show that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Frequently asked questions
Ticket purchases and collection at our Box Office is discouraged and eTicket or postal delivery methods should be used, wherever possible. However, if you are collecting your tickets from the Box Office, we recommend doing this at least 60 minutes before the event starts. If you have already received your tickets, the venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Please take your seats as soon as you arrive.
If you are late, we will seat you as soon as we can and, where possible, in your allocated seat. However, to reduce movement in the venue as well as minimise disruption to the performance and other patrons, ticketholders may be seated in an allocated latecomer’s seat. Please be aware that some events have lock-out periods. In these cases, latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance. On occasions, this may not be until the interval, or at all where there is no interval.
Details of our right to refuse admission can be found in our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Events.
In accordance with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags under the Monumental Stairs, prior to entering the building. Bags will be scanned by an x-ray machine, and staff will wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling your belongings, such as gloves. Cloaking facilities will be open 60 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 60 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. However it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly to minimise contact and queuing. Any bags larger than an A4 piece of paper will need to be checked into the Cloak Room.
The authorised agency for this event is the Sydney Opera House.
Only tickets purchased by authorised agencies should be considered reliable. If you purchase tickets from a non-authorised agency such as Ticketmaster Resale, Viagogo, Ticketbis, eBay, Gumtree, Tickets Australia or any other unauthorised seller, you risk that these tickets are fake, void or have previously been cancelled. RESALE RESTRICTION APPLIES. For more details, please refer to our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Attendance at Events.
Please contact Box Office on 9250 7777 as soon as possible to advise if you can no longer attend.
Foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
The venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances.
Please bring a credit or debit card for any on site purchases to enable contactless payment. You’re welcome to bring your own water bottle but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues. Opera Bar, Opera Kitchen and Portside are also available for you to enjoy.
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Sydney Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House became a smoke-free site in January 2022. Read our Smoke-free Environment Policy.