Dates

9-24 Mar 2024

Location

Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Main Stage

Running time

1:35, no interval

Tickets

From € 16

Oedipus Rex / Antigone

Compelling classical tragedies in modern form

These two works – Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (1927) and Samy Moussa’s world premiere Antigone (2020) – are all about crime and punishment. This new production by the top British choreographer and director Wayne McGregor brings together the worlds of classical tragedy, modern dance and music from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Photo: Marta Syrko

Compelling classical tragedies in modern form

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.

 

New composition by 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 big name in the international world of dance and opera. Dutch National Ballet has previously performed his Chroma and Yugen to great acclaim. 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 intense contemporary idiom of movement is a perfect match for the intense classical stories of Oedipus and Antigone.

Start of ticket sales

General ticket sales for Oedipus Rex / Antigone start on 24 August 2023 at 12.00 midday. Want to make sure you don’t miss this moment? Then sign up for the ticket alert, and we’ll send you a reminder as soon as ticket sales begin.

Opera and ballet join forces for the opening of the Opera Forward Festival

Performance information

Musical direction  Erik Nielsen
Choreography and stage direction  Wayne McGregor
Set and costume design  Vicki Mortimer
Lighting design  Lucy Carter
Video design  Akhila Krishnan

Dancers  Dutch National Ballet

Oedipus Rex
Opera-oratorio
Sung in Latin

Libretto Jean Cocteau, based on Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

Oedipus  Sean Panikkar
Jocaste  Sarah Connolly
Creon  Bastiaan Everink
Tiresias  Rafal Siwek

Antigone
World premiere
Sung in Ancient Greek, composed for women’s chorus and orchestra

Libretto
Samy Moussa in collaboration with Niall Potter
Based on texts by Aeschylus, Apollodorus, Empedocles, Euripides, Philostratus of Lemnos and Sophocles

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra

Chorus of Dutch National Opera
Chorus master Edward Ananian-Cooper

Co-commission and co-production with Den Norske Opera (Oslo). Antigone: Co-commission with Festival de Lanaudière (Canada).

Order tickets

General ticket sales start on 24 August 2023 at 12.00 midday.

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Wayne McGregor
Photo: Pål Hansen

Wayne McGregor on Oedipus Rex / Antigone

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