When Jocasta unwittingly marries her son Oedipus, an inevitable tragic continuity is passed to the next generation. Internationally acclaimed choreographer and director McGregor gives the classical tragedies of Jocasta, her son Oedipus and daughter Antigone a gripping, contemporary movement language: expect no narrative dance to illustrate the music and words, but rather an integrated experience in which the movements of singers and dancers reveal their own truths.

Stravinsky

In Oedipus Rex, Stravinsky’s imposing opera-oratorio in Latin, the city of Thebes is afflicted by the plague. The only way to end it is to find and punish the old king’s murderer. Under pressure from his desperate subjects, King Oedipus goes in search of the perpetrator and discovers the horrific truth – that he himself is the guilty man. The incestuous couple is performed by a charismatic duo of celebrated singers: British mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and Canadian tenor Sean Panikkar.

Samy Moussa

While Stravinsky’s oratorio assigns a key role to the male chorus, the Canadian composer Samy Moussa features the female chorus in his new composition. His Antigone, sung in Ancient Greek, deals with the tragedy of Oedipus’s daughter. Moussa’s lively, colourful sound palettes have previously been performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker and London Symphony Orchestra, among others. Conductor Erik Nielsen, a specialist in the modern and contemporary repertoire, will lead the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in the premiere of Moussa’s major vocal composition.

Wayne McGregor

Wayne McGregor is a multi-award-winning British choreographer and director, internationally renowned for trailblazing innovations in performance that have radically redefined dance in the modern era. He founded Random Dance (now Studio Wayne McGregor) in 1992 and created over 30 works for its dancers. Since 2006 McGregor has been resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet. His works have been commissioned by the most important ballet companies in the world, including Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Bolshoi Ballet, New York City Ballet and many more. He has also directed various opera productions, including for the Royal Opera House in London (Dido and Aeneas and Acis and Galatea) and the English National Opera (Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice). His contemporary idiom of movement is a perfect match for the intense classical stories of Oedipus and Antigone.