The Nose

2010

Learning from the absurd

A man wakes up to find that he has lost his nose. In 1837, Gogol writes a short story about the man’s attempts to find the missing proboscis and to reattach it to his face. Gogol considers the story that he has just recounted, concluding that it is a strange and improbable tale. Not only is it very odd for a nose to disappear from a man’s face, only to reappear baked inside a loaf of bread, but it’s even more absurd to imagine that he could persuade the newspaper to let him take out an advertisement looking for his nose. This is not about money. It is about the impropriety of the newspaper and advertisements for lost noses. “Why do authors write stories like this?” Gogol asks. “It’s no good for the country, although in truth it does no harm either…. But why write about it? Such things may happen, but they do not happen often.”

The Nose

Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich

Libretto by the composer with
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Georgi Ionin
Alexander Preis

Based on the story
by Nicolai Gogol, 1837

World premiere: Leningrad, Maly Theater, January 18, 1930

Production for Metropolitan Opera, New York
Premiere 26 February 2010

Conductor
Valery Gergiev / Pavel Smelkov

Director
William Kentridge

Stage directors
William Kentridge
Luc De Wit

Projection design
Catherine Meyburgh
William Kentridge

Set design
Sabine Theunissen,
William Kentridge

Costume design
Greta Goiris

Lighting design
Urs Schoenebaum

I am not me, the horse is not mine

2008
Installation of 8 film fragments
DVcam and HDV transferred to DVD 6 minutes

Directing, animation and photography
William Kentridge

Editing
Catherine Meyburgh

Composer
Philip Miller

Animation assistants
Gerhard Marx, Naomi van Niekerk and Catherine Walker

Galop
Music Composition
Philip Miller

Ngilahlekelelwe Ikhala Lami
Musical arrangement
Philip Miller

Music and lyrics
Richard Siluma and Thulani Manana

Choir
Thulani Manana and Abanikazi Bomkhalanga

The Galop Band
Dan Selsick, trombone; Billy Middleton, tuba; Adam Howard, trumpet; Ntkozo Zunga, Castrol tin-can guitar; Bethuel Mbonani, percussion; Thulani Manaka, vocal leader

Dancing Figure
Thato Motlhaolwa

The Nose workshop participants
Johannesburg January 2008
Panayota Athanasiou, Zola Hashatsi, Rachel Jacobs, Alex-Ann Keppie, Mbovu Malinga, Wez-Lee Masilo Makgamatha, Thato Mathole, Onthatile Matshidiso, Hlomohang Mothetho, Thato Motlhaolwa, Miranda Ndou, Lesego Ngwato, Mzamo Nondlwana, Roberto Manuel Pombo, Eve Rakow, Motlalentwa Sehloho, Rabeka Silinda, Nqaba Thela, Claudine Ullman, Nick Welch

I am not me, the horse is not mine

2008
Lecture/performance with projection
DVcam and HDV transferred to DVD, live performance (45 minutes)

Directing, animation, photography and performance
William Kentridge

Editing
Catherine Meyburgh

Composer
Philip Miller

Stage direction
Sue Pam-Grant

Animation assistants
Gerhard Marx, Naomi van Niekerk and Catherine Walker

Galop
Music Composition
Philip Miller

Ngilahlekelelwe Ikhala Lami
Musical arrangement
Philip Miller

Music and lyrics
Richard Siluma and Thulani Manana

Choir
Thulani Manana and Abanikazi Bomkhalanga

The Galop Band
Dan Selsick, trombone; Billy Middleton, tuba; Adam Howard, trumpet; Ntkozo Zunga, Castrol tin-can guitar; Bethuel Mbonani, percussion; Thulani Manaka, vocal leader

Dancing Figure
Thato Motlhaolwa

The Nose workshop participants
Johannesburg January 2008
Panayota Athanasiou, Zola Hashatsi, Rachel Jacobs, Alex-Ann Keppie, Mbovu Malinga, Wez-Lee Masilo Makgamatha, Thato Mathole, Onthatile Matshidiso, Hlomohang Mothetho, Thato Motlhaolwa, Miranda Ndou, Lesego Ngwato, Mzamo Nondlwana, Roberto Manuel Pombo, Eve Rakow, Motlalentwa Sehloho, Rabeka Silinda, Nqaba Thela, Claudine Ullman, Nick Welch

Telegrams from the Nose

Music and performance
François Sarhan

Text fragments
Daniil Harms

Video
William Kentridge

Premiere: Kaaitheater, Brussels

April 3, 2009

Direction
William Kentridge

Performed by
Ictus & Francois Sarhan

Production
Ictus, Brussels

Conductor
Georges-Elie Octors

Sound
Alexandre Fostier

Stroh-violin
Igor Semenoff

Stroh-cello, voice
François Deppe

Stroh-guitar
Tom Pauwels

Keyboard
Jean-Luc Plouvier

Other instruments
Matthieu Metzger

Making

A workshop done with student actors in Johannesburg furnished many of the silhouettes used. On top of projections of these human figures, paper cut-outs were added and interposed, trying to find a link between the constructivist language of El Lissitzky and the earthy language of Gorky and the Russian filmmakers. Languages which were very different at the time and even antithetical, but which in hindsight are joined by a sense of openness, of possibility, of agency. As if the upheavals of the 1917 revolution could provide an energy for new images, new words, a new language.

Opera

The conception of the opera, its range, inventiveness and daring of the music, is fuelled by the possibilities that seemed unleashed by the transformations in the society around the composer. The opera and, I hope, the production celebrate that moment of possibility. 
We know the post-history.

I am not me, the horse is not mine

8 channel video installation

Compilation of excerpts from the eight film fragments which comprise the installation

I am not me, the horse is not mine

lecture / performance

Telegrams from the Nose

cine-concert with music by François Sarhan

Drawings

Sculpture

Nose Ensemble (Small)130 Small figures presenting the Nose ensemble costumes.Collaboration with Greta Goiris.2009122,6 x 219,2 x 150 cm#Maquette #TheNose
Nose Ensemble (Small)

Tapestries

More

More projects

Credits

The Nose

Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich

Libretto by the composer with
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Georgi Ionin
Alexander Preis

Based on the story
by Nicolai Gogol, 1837

World premiere: Leningrad, Maly Theater, January 18, 1930

Production for Metropolitan Opera, New York
Premiere 26 February 2010

Conductor
Valery Gergiev / Pavel Smelkov

Director
William Kentridge

Stage directors
William Kentridge
Luc De Wit

Projection design
Catherine Meyburgh
William Kentridge

Set design
Sabine Theunissen,
William Kentridge

Costume design
Greta Goiris

Lighting design
Urs Schoenebaum

I am not me, the horse is not mine

2008
Installation of 8 film fragments
DVcam and HDV transferred to DVD 6 minutes

Directing, animation and photography
William Kentridge

Editing
Catherine Meyburgh

Composer
Philip Miller

Animation assistants
Gerhard Marx, Naomi van Niekerk and Catherine Walker

Galop
Music Composition
Philip Miller

Ngilahlekelelwe Ikhala Lami
Musical arrangement
Philip Miller

Music and lyrics
Richard Siluma and Thulani Manana

Choir
Thulani Manana and Abanikazi Bomkhalanga

The Galop Band
Dan Selsick, trombone; Billy Middleton, tuba; Adam Howard, trumpet; Ntkozo Zunga, Castrol tin-can guitar; Bethuel Mbonani, percussion; Thulani Manaka, vocal leader

Dancing Figure
Thato Motlhaolwa

The Nose workshop participants
Johannesburg January 2008
Panayota Athanasiou, Zola Hashatsi, Rachel Jacobs, Alex-Ann Keppie, Mbovu Malinga, Wez-Lee Masilo Makgamatha, Thato Mathole, Onthatile Matshidiso, Hlomohang Mothetho, Thato Motlhaolwa, Miranda Ndou, Lesego Ngwato, Mzamo Nondlwana, Roberto Manuel Pombo, Eve Rakow, Motlalentwa Sehloho, Rabeka Silinda, Nqaba Thela, Claudine Ullman, Nick Welch

I am not me, the horse is not mine

2008
Lecture/performance with projection
DVcam and HDV transferred to DVD, live performance (45 minutes)

Directing, animation, photography and performance
William Kentridge

Editing
Catherine Meyburgh

Composer
Philip Miller

Stage direction
Sue Pam-Grant

Animation assistants
Gerhard Marx, Naomi van Niekerk and Catherine Walker

Galop
Music Composition
Philip Miller

Ngilahlekelelwe Ikhala Lami
Musical arrangement
Philip Miller

Music and lyrics
Richard Siluma and Thulani Manana

Choir
Thulani Manana and Abanikazi Bomkhalanga

The Galop Band
Dan Selsick, trombone; Billy Middleton, tuba; Adam Howard, trumpet; Ntkozo Zunga, Castrol tin-can guitar; Bethuel Mbonani, percussion; Thulani Manaka, vocal leader

Dancing Figure
Thato Motlhaolwa

The Nose workshop participants
Johannesburg January 2008
Panayota Athanasiou, Zola Hashatsi, Rachel Jacobs, Alex-Ann Keppie, Mbovu Malinga, Wez-Lee Masilo Makgamatha, Thato Mathole, Onthatile Matshidiso, Hlomohang Mothetho, Thato Motlhaolwa, Miranda Ndou, Lesego Ngwato, Mzamo Nondlwana, Roberto Manuel Pombo, Eve Rakow, Motlalentwa Sehloho, Rabeka Silinda, Nqaba Thela, Claudine Ullman, Nick Welch

Telegrams from the Nose

Music and performance
François Sarhan

Text fragments
Daniil Harms

Video
William Kentridge

Premiere: Kaaitheater, Brussels April 3, 2009

Direction
William Kentridge

Performed by
Ictus & Francois Sarhan

Production
Ictus, Brussels

Conductor
Georges-Elie Octors

Sound
Alexandre Fostier

Stroh-violin
Igor Semenoff

Stroh-cello, voice
François Deppe

Stroh-guitar
Tom Pauwels

Keyboard
Jean-Luc Plouvier

Other instruments
Matthieu Metzger