Michel van der Aa and Meriç Artaç on their new operas
Revitalising the established repertoire
This special anniversary edition of OFF features new works by composers from the rich Dutch music scene. Michel van der Aa presents his latest opera, Theory of Flames, while Meriç Artaç's new music theatre piece, Requiem, will also have its premiere.
Text: Benjamin Rous
Michel van der Aa: “I find it important to look for a topic that’s anchored in the present day, something that concerns me and the people around me. Theory of Flames is about a film director, Neola, who slowly loses herself in a kind of parallel reality. My operas are often about social and ethical questions. In this new piece, it’s about how to deal with the situation when someone else’s idea of what’s true, and what isn’t, starts to diverge from your own views. We want to show that this is a grey area, and that the characters gradually drift apart. I don’t want to present Neola as a kind of crackpot; I want the audience to largely stay with her as she goes through this process, which is a very gradual evolution.”
“The audience should feel with the characters on stage and identify with them. I try to present the topic by making it about people and inviting empathy; that humanistic perspective is a constant aspect of my work.”
“I always think very much in images, not just in sounds. I find some ideas easier to explain using images than music, so I am constantly juggling with the cinematic dimension, the stage dimension, and the music dimension, making sure the right dimension is highlighted at the right moment.”
Meriç Artaç
“Do we dare to choose the unknown, despite all the risks involved?”
Meriç Artaç: “I find opera a wonderfully expressive art form. You can create your own universe, which you then can share on stage. I think that the all-encompassing operatic world has always been inside me, and eventually, I was able to express it.”
“I am mainly concerned with the psychology of the characters and the astounding stories we can end up in. It may seem obvious to categorize stories using the dualities of good and evil, ugly and beautiful, and so on, but ultimately, it all depends on the perspective you consider things from.”
“For this opera, I am interested in the main character’s relationship to her memories. She finds herself at a moment of transition between the familiar and the unknown. She pauses to reflect on her life and is driven by the desire to take a leap of faith. What lies beyond the familiar? Do we dare to choose the unknown, despite all the risks involved?”
“That also applies to a lot of opera houses, which still tend to stick to the repertoire everyone knows. I think it would be good if more new works were performed. We shouldn’t be afraid to present new operas to audiences; we can give them the space to get used to the idea. Operas from the past were new once too. The Opera Forward Festival is one of the platforms where creatives are given the opportunity to try out new things. It helps enrich the otherwise rigid repertoire with their inspiration and imagination.”