In the spring of 2007, William Kentridge's production of The Magic Flute opened in Johannesburg, South Africa after an extended world tour. The performances were the culmination of a remarkable creative process that began with a commission from the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels in 1998. As he prepared The Magic Flute, Kentridge also dark miniature mechanized theatre production called Black Box/Chambre Noise. A searing analysis of the massacre of the Herero people in German South West Africa (now Namibia) at the beginning of the twentieth century, Black Box answers some of the troubling questions posed by the Enlightenment values of The Magic Flute.
Through an interview, essays, and Kentridge's own notes, as well as photographs and drawings that he created while he was working on The Magic Flute and Black Box, William Kentridge Flute considers one of the most productive periods in the career of a major contemporary artist.
Published by David Krut Publishing, Parkwood, South Africa, 2007.
Edited by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen. Full color illustrations.