Op soek na Salome (Searching for Salome) is a new opera by Michael Blake that is based on Etienne Leroux’s controversial 1960s novel, Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins. In writing the libretto of this work, Christine Lucia drew on both Leroux’s original text as well as the English translation by Charles Eglington. This opera combines sound, movement and electronic media and contains seven scenes of roughly ten minutes each.

A project has recently been conceptualized around this as yet unpremiered work. The artistic goal of this project is to develop a new genre of opera in South Africa, namely the ‘workshop opera’ that speaks to a wide audience and encourages the input of a broad spectrum of society. This will include the facilitation of communication between members of the audience and the performers during rehearsals and performances. The short-term goal of this project is live workshop-performances of this opera, while long-term goals include the production of a DVD documenting performances and discourse surrounding this work. This project will contribute to an enhanced appreciation for the Afrikaans literature tradition, as well as giving this tradition renewed relevance by sending it through the artistic filters of our time and place, as well as a different medium.

In line with DOMUS’s goal to further music in South Africa, the special responsibility of DOMUS towards the music of Michael Blake (which is currently housed in the archive) and with regard to the mission statement of Stellenbosch University to promote Afrikaans as institutional language, DOMUS, through identification with this project as a groundbreaking musical initiative, has created an institutional home for it at Stellenbosch University.