Tsakane Maswanganyi, center, sings the lead role of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in "Winnie the Opera" which premiered in Pretoria on April 28, 201. The soprano sings the words: "I know I will be demonized and hated in my day, but there is no other way. With our rubber tires and our boxes of matches, we will liberate this land."
- [Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images]

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela poses with South African anti-apartheid leader and member of the African National Congress (ANC) Nelson Mandela during their wedding in a photo dated 1957.
- [Off/AFP/Getty Images]

Winnie Mandela, center, leaves the Palace of Justice in Pretoria on June 16, 1964 after the verdict of the Rivonia Trial. The trial sentenced eight men, including her husband anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela, to life imprisonment. The men were charged with conspiracy, sabotage and treason.
- [Off/AFP/Getty Images]

ANC leader Nelson Mandela and wife Winnie raise fists upon his release from Victor Verster prison on February 11, 1990 in Paarl, South Africa.
- [Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images]

Winnie Mandela (left) arrives at the Rand Supreme court for her trial in Johannesburg, South Africa on March 7, 1991. She faced charges of kidnapping and assault. A state witness testified that the wife of ANC leader Nelson Mandela had personally beat and whipped him and three other black youths at her home in December 1988.
- [Trevor Samson/AFP/Getty Images]

South African President Nelson Mandela (right) congratulates his wife Winnie after her election to the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) on December 21, 1994 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The couple had been separated since 1992.
- [Walter Dhladhla/AFP/Getty Images]

Winnie Mandela listens to evidence given by former members of the Mandela crisis committee on the fourth day of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings on Winnie Mandela's united football club in Johannesburg, South Africa on November 27, 1997. Mandela is guilty of human rights violations and is accountable for crimes committed by members of the football team she formed in the late 1980s, the truth commission said in a report released October 29, 1997.
- [Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images]

Winnie Mandela leaves Pretoira court on July 5, 2004 after a South African judge scrapped a five-year jail sentence against the ex-wife of former president Nelson Mandela for theft and fraud in connection with bank loans she obtained for her employees.
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Bongani Ndodana-Breen (seated), producer and composer of Winnie the Opera, with director Shirley Jo Finney and producer and librettist Warren Wilensky, in their rehearsal studio at the South African State Theatre in Pretoria. Ndodana-Breen and Wilensky are South Africans who met in Toronto and worked in Canada for many years. Their opera about Winnie Madikizela-Mandela premiered on April 28, 2011.
- [Erin Conway-Smith/GlobalPost]