Composed in 1909, Erwartung by Arnold Schoenberg tells a melancholy story of love, loss, and longing that takes the form of a one-act monodrama. Rhode’s performance, “Arnold Schönberg Erwartung – A Performance by Robin Rhode”, grounds these complex, universal emotions to the particular social and cultural trauma of South African racial politics and migrant labor. Staged in New York City’s Times Square, the intimate one-person show is scaled to dramatic proportions within this most public of settings, giving a candid and global voice to this cause. Schönberg described Erwartung as a 30-second anxiety attack, extended musically into a 30-minute opera. Staged on a set based on the original sketches made by Schönberg in 1909 depicting the opera stage as an oval, Rhode’s reinterpretation draws threads between the past and present versions of this performance. Erwartung is performed by the renowned French soprano Carole Sidney Louis.