Dates

27 October 2024 - 7 April 2025

Location

Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Studio Boekman and on tour

Running time

1:00, no interval

Tickets

From € 12,50

Lennox, campaign image; boy with moon necklace and book 'Lennox'

Hiphop opera in adaptation of thrilling children's book (8+)

Lennox wanted to become brave soon. Preferably as quickly as possible, because he was ready for it. Fortunately, Lennox looked pretty cool for a boy who wasn’t yet brave.” RIGHTABOUTNOW INC. and Dutch National Opera have turned the exciting children’s book Lennox en de gouden sikkel (Lennox and the golden sickle) into a dynamic hiphop opera. A musical story about courage, friendship and the discovery that your world gets bigger when you know more.

Photo: Michiel Spijkers

Funky family opera in adaptation of thrilling children's book (8+)

Lennox knows his father is suffering from a mysterious illness, but nobody tells him what's exactly going on. When his father forgets to take his lucky chain with him on the way to the hospital, Lennox decides to go after his father together with his best friend. 

Based on prize-winning book

The book’s author Zindzi Zevenbergen won a Zilveren Griffel, a prominent Dutch award for children’s books, in 2022; the illustrators Hedy Tjin and Brian Elstak won a Zilveren Penseel award. Their dynamic illustrations were a major source of inspiration for the aesthetics of this production.

Multi-instrumentalist and producer Bnnyhunna (Benjamin Ankomah) wrote the music for Lennox, his first opera. He received a Buma Music In Media Award in 2023 for his work, which combines jazz, gospel, afro and hip-hop influences. Maarten van Hinte (2023 Playwriting Award) adapted the book into operatic libretto and Marjorie Boston is the stage director.

During the creation process, text and music were further developed during working sessions in the studio with artistic team, musicians and cast. The process has been inspired by working methods from hip-hop (the cypher) and jazz, as well as from the Camerata fiorentina, the group of artists and thinkers who pioneered the very first operas in the late 16th century.

Director Marjorie Boston and librettist Maarten van Hinte are pioneers of hip-hop theatre in the Netherlands and the founders of hip-hop and urban production house RIGHTABOUTNOW INC. They produced the successful stage adaptation of Brian Elstak's children's book Tori in 2020. Besides operas for the big stage, Dutch National Opera also produces small-scale youth productions with creators working at the interface of artistic disciplines, such as Kriebel (2019), Hup Herman! (2023) and De theorie van alles (2023).

Prijzen kaarten

  • CJP, Stadspas & Jeugd t/m 16 jaar: € 12,50
  • Volwassenen: € 15,00

Alle prijzen zijn exclusief boekingskosten (€ 2 per kaart).

About the creators

Bnnyhunna (Benjamin Ankomah) is a multi-instrumentalist and producer known for his unique blend of jazz, gospel, afro, and hip-hop. In 2023, he was awarded the Buma Music in Media Award. With Lennox, he is writing his first opera, collaborating with composer Neo Muyanga, who previously composed the music for How Anansi freed the stories of the world.

Maarten van Hinte, a writer and theater maker, is adapting Lennox en de gouden sikkel into an opera libretto. In 2023, he won the Toneelschrijfprijs for the music theatre production Queen of Disco and made his debut as a librettist with How Anansi freed the stories of the world.

Marjorie Boston is a theatremaker and artistic leader directing Lennox. Together with Maarten van Hinte, she founded the production company RIGHTABOUTNOW INC., which emerged from Made in da Shade, the company that introduced urban theatre to the Netherlands in 1992. Boston and Van Hinte are pioneers of hip-hop theatre in the Netherlands.

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Ticket prices

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Prijzen kaarten

  • CJP, Stadspas & Jeugd t/m 16 jaar: € 12,50
  • Volwassenen: € 15,00

Alle prijzen zijn exclusief boekingskosten (€ 2 per kaart).

Performance information

Sung in Dutch

Composition  Bnnyhunna (Benjamin Ankomah) 
Libretto  Maarten van Hinte
Musical dramaturgy  Neo Muyanga

Stage direction  Marjorie Boston
Musical direction  Lochlan Brown
Set design  John Lippens & Koen Jantzen
Costume design  Iris Elstrodt
Lighting and video design  Wes Broersen
Assistant stage direction Kaja van Bruggen
Dramaturgy  Wout van Tongeren

Violin Celeste Engel
Guitar / bass  Noah Stakenborg
Keyboards  Lochlan Brown / Charlie-Bo Meijering (alternating)
Percussion  Dimairon Catal

Lennox  Jonathan Eduardo Brito
Aya  Charlene Sancho 
Mrs. Babel / Tram conductor / Receptionist / doctor Miebond  Nienke Nasserian
Mr. Babel  Ayrton Kirchner
Glimmerik Gustav Borreman

Commission  Dutch National Opera 
Co-production Dutch National Opera and RIGHTABOUTNOW INC.

Performances for schools
We offer exclusive school matinees for primary school students (group 5-6). Please visit this page for more information.

The original book, Lennox en de gouden sikkel, by Zindzi Zevenbergen, Hedy Tjin and Brian Elstak is published by De Harmonie, Amsterdam 2021, at the initiative of IXL Sickle Cell Awareness, an organisation working to raise awareness of sickle cell disease.

Donate to the Sickle Cell Fund

Sickle cell disease plays an important role in Lennox's story. The Sickle Cell Fund was established in 2017 with the aim of funding scientific research into sickle cell disease. With, among others, Miffy as ambassador, the fund creates more attention to this unknown hereditary blood disease with which 300,000 children a year are born worldwide. Without treatment, they do not live longer than 5 years. By financially supporting the Sickle Cell Fund, you contribute to pioneering research that will enable better treatment and ultimately a cure.

Animation Sikkelcelfonds

sikkelcelfonds animatie

In coproduction with

Founding partner programming Studio Boekman

FONDS 21

Partner

Freek En Hellade Jonge Stichting