Mandelas struggle portrayed in opera The extraordinary life story of Nelson Mandela has been turned into an opera, Mandela Trilogy, which dramatises the defining moments that shaped South Africa's first post-apartheid president. Speaking to the BBC's arts correspondent Rebecca Jones, the South African baritone Orbit Ludovic - one of the singers portraying Nelson Mandela in the opera - said that if one person in the world deserves to have an opera, it is Nelson Mandela. "The world needs to hear the story through music," he said, "and it's the most powerful way to tell a story."