Operas

World premieres, present-day subjects and ground-breaking musical theatre. Discover Oedipus Rex / Antigone, The Shell Trial and The Four Note Opera

Oedipus Rex / Antigone

This double bill — Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (1927) and Samy Moussa’s Antigone (2020) — centres on the tragic collision between the political and the personal. In this new production, stage director Mart van Berckel and director-choreographer Nanine Linning bring together the worlds of classical tragedy and of twentieth- and twenty-first-century music in a unique theatrical experience.

9-24 March 2024

The Four Note Opera

Inspired by Luigi Pirandello’s meta-theatre, composer Tom Johnson wrote a piece for a group of singers who have only four notes at their disposal and couldn’t sing about anything other than the opera they are now performing in. Fifty years ago, the Four Note Opera was a mocking reflection on opera norms. Is the criticism still relevant?

15-17 March 2024

The Shell Trial

In 2021, a Dutch court ruled that Shell was legally responsible for its contribution to climate change. In the new opera The Shell Trial, by composer Ellen Reid and librettist Roxie Perkins, the various voices in the climate debate are heard. The message of this topical opera is that the climate crisis is above all a crisis of responsibility.

16-21 March 2024