Dutch National Opera

Codes

Gregory Caers / Bas Gaakeer

Check availability

Photo: Hugo Thomassen

Dates

16-21 March 2025

Location

Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Main Stage

Running time

1:00

Tickets

From € 26

Photo: Hugo Thomassen

Rituals for a multicultural city

The director Gregory Caers will once again be in the Opera Forward Festival. After offbeat productions with students in previous editions of OFF, in 2025 he will be working with a large group of young people from Rotterdam’s vocational theatre school, VU-Koor and with other students from (art) colleges around the Netherlands.

Rituals for a multicultural city

Codes is intended as a gift to the city of Amsterdam as it celebrates its 750th anniversary. In a city that is home to so many religions and cultures, Caers will work with the students to find rituals that are accessible and meaningful to all. While ever fewer people seem to feel an attachment to a specific religion, the yearning for connection in a polarised world is perhaps greater than ever. It is human nature to want to share strong emotions such as joy, sorrow or mourning and to find a way to express them as a community. To create a ritual everyone can feel part of, Caers and his team will return to the origins of various religions and rites, and then go back even earlier in time, to the cradle of human harmony.

Performance information

Got tickets for the premiere? Stay after the performance for a spectacular party with a DJ!

Concept and stage direction Gregory Caers
Composition and musical direction Bas Gaakeer
Texts Gregory Caers, Jasmijn van Wijnen
Set design Karel Vanhooren
Costume design Gerbrand Bos
Assistant costumes Eva Arends
Lighting design Dennis Diels
Choreography Shara Maaskant, Ada Daniele
Dramaturgy Jasmijn van Wijnen

Performers
Elise Bruinen
Steven van Oudshoorn
Nara Gonçalves
Dimitri Nijsse
Hannah Lak
Layla Mino
Nena Bouwhuis
Yanna Notterman
Liv Paszkiewicz
Zon Donze
Daan Hogervorst
Rugia Bangura

First- and second-year students of MBO Theaterschool Rotterdam

VU-Koor
Rehearsal Dody Soetanto

Synths, keys, electronics Jarno van Es
E-drums Jonathan Szegedi
Bass guitar / synth bass Kay Hasselbaink
Percussion Ezgi Elkirmiş
Ney Sinan Arat
Kemence Emine Bostanci
Clarinet Georgia Siama
Cello Hadewych van Gent
Guitar Bas Gaakeer