William Kentridge's award-winning chamber opera *Waiting for the Sibyl* (2019) makes its New York premiere this week at Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn, as part of the inaugural Powerhouse: International arts festival. The opera, which won an Olivier Award in 2023, features an original score by Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Kyle Shepherd, and incorporates Kentridge's animated ink drawings, collages, text projections, and sculptures. Inspired by the Cumaean Sibyl of ancient legend, the work explores themes of fate and uncertainty, with paper leaves from texts like Dante's *Divine Comedy* symbolically blowing through the action. The production was originally commissioned by the Rome Opera as a companion piece to Alexander Calder's 1968 *Work in Progress*.
This premiere matters because it brings a major, internationally recognized theatrical work by one of today's most prominent visual artists to a New York audience for the first time, while also highlighting the challenges of touring Calder's original sculptures due to insurance and transport costs. Kentridge's solution—to create copies of the Calder works—was rejected by the Calder Foundation, raising questions about artistic reproduction, legacy, and institutional control. The festival itself, founded by David Binder, signals a new cultural hub in Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood, blending visual art, theatre, music, and dance.