Dutch National Opera Announces Lineup For Second Lockdown
A newly adapted production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro will have its online premiere on 29 November.
By: Stephi Wild Nov. 27, 2020
Now that it is no longer possible to present large-scale opera productions, Dutch National Opera has opted for flexible and agile programming with plenty of room for young makers and performers, as well as new artistic experiments and different ways of presenting.
A newly adapted production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro will have its online premiere on 29 November. On 20 December, the special chorus programme Voices out of Silence, curated and rehearsed by our future chief conductor Lorenzo Viotti, will be presented online, and in January there will be a performance of Rossini's Petite messe solennelle with an absolute top cast.
There are also two OFFspring productions on the programme (29 November and 30 December) and our chorus will also present a heartwarming programme of Christmas Carols in collaboration with Dutch National Opera Studio. On 28 December Leonard Evers' family opera Goud! premiers in a new production by Kenza Koutchoukali, for a live audience of 30 visitors at Dutch National Opera & Ballet.
Director Sophie de Lint: "During this pandemic, the entire company is operating in a completely different way, in a kind of permanent festival mode. We work with international talent, such as our future principal conductor Lorenzo Viotti, Mozart specialist Riccardo Minasi and the Italian rising star Andrea Battistoni. In addition we present OFFspring, which offers a new generation of music theatre makers from the Netherlands the opportunity to formulate artistic responses to our originally planned productions that unfortunately cannot take place live. They get to work creatively with opera, within the limitations of the current crisis".The performance is an adapted version of the production from 2016. The opera was reduced to a length of just over two hours so that it could be performed safely and without an interval in corona times. The adaptation was made under the supervision of conductor Riccardo Minasi, director David Bösch and revival director Maria Lamont, in collaboration with Meisje Barbara Hummel, Klaus Bertisch and Ernst Munneke. Under complex and ever-changing circumstances, they have created a topical and exciting version of Mozart's masterpiece.
In the leading roles we have a cast of international 'rising stars', including Ying Fang (Susanna), Davide Luciano (Il Conte di Almaviva), Ruzan Mantashyan (La Contessa), Riccardo Fassi (Figaro) and Polly Leech (Cherubino). The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra is in the pit. The performance, which can only be seen online, will premiere on the online platform of Dutch National Opera & Ballet on Sunday 29 November at 19:00, and will remain there until 27 December as a video-on-demand. Price: €2.95.
Figaro (solo): Bring me a Storm - artistic response and complement to Le nozze as part of OFFspring
An online opera that complements and responds to Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Starting point is Figaro's explosive monologue from Pierre Beaumarchais' original play Le mariage de Figaro, which Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte only included in their libretto in an adapted and very much shortened version. In this performance, personal and poetic echoes of this revolutionary text resound in a new opera-monologue, sung by countertenor Angelo Custódio. The artistic team consists of alumni of the Opera Forward Festival; composer Boris Bezemer, director Stephen Liebman, scenographer Django Walon and dramaturge James Whiting.
The performance was especially adapted for online presentation and recorded on the big stage of Dutch National Opera & Ballet, and will premiere on the Dutch National Opera & Ballet website and YouTube channel on Sunday 29 November at 21:30, right after the premiere of Le nozze di Figaro. The online performance can be viewed there free of charge until 27 December.
Voices out of Silence - Lorenzo Viotti and the Chorus of Dutch National Opera
The Chorus of Dutch National Opera and future chief conductor Lorenzo Viotti break the silence of the second lockdown with an atmospheric, almost meditative musical programme. Viotti is the musical director and curator of a unique audiovisual production that explores the meaning of silence, stillness and the sheer power of the human voice. A cappella, i.e. without instrumental accompaniment, the chorus performs a varied repertoire with 'hope' as the central theme. The programme includes choral pieces by Carlo Gesualdo, Igor Stravinsky, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten and Francis Poulenc, among others. The production, which will only be presented online, will premiere on our online platform on Sunday 20 December at 19:00, and will remain there until 17 January as a video-on-demand. Price: €2,95.
Christmas Carols - The ultimate Christmas feeling with the Chorus of Dutch National Opera, Nieuw Amsterdams Kinderkoor and Dutch National Opera Studio
Together with soloists from Dutch National Opera Studio and Nieuw Amsterdams Kinderkoor, the Chorus of Dutch National Opera brings Christmassy atmospheres to homes around the world. In a heartwarming video production, they sing well-known as well as lesser-known Christmas carols in different languages. This programme will be streamed free of charge on Facebook, YouTube and the website on 24 December 2020.
Goud! - Grimm Fairytale as a heartwarming family opera during the Christmas holidays (4+)
The family opera Goud! by composer Leonard Evers comes to Dutch National Opera in a brand-new production by young Dutch directing talent Kenza Koutchoukali. Previous performances were canceled due to the corona measures. The performance, with Dutch singers Nienke Nasserian Nillesen and Vera Fiselier alternating in the leading role, will now finally be performed live. In Goud!, a singer and a percussionist tell the story of a magical fish that can make all your wishes come true. The production will premiere on Monday 28 December at 16.00 in Dutch National Opera & Ballet for a live audience of 30 people. Also on 29, 30 and 31 December (2 pm and 4 pm) and 2 and 3 January (11 am, 2 pm and 4 pm). In collaboration with Opera Zuid.
OFFspring #4 - A new music theatre performance in dialogue with Verdi's Aida and Amsterdam-Zuidoost
The fourth OFFspring-team (composer Silvia Lanao, director Stijn Dijkema, set designer Han Ruiz Buhrs and dramaturge Isabel van Hauwe) respond to the way in which Verdi - without ever having set foot in Egypt himself - wrote his opera Aida. They want to work differently, in close dialogue and cooperation with the city district of Amsterdam-Zuidoost and its residents and artists. That is why the project focuses on the exchange between five singers from the Chorus of Dutch National Opera and the Afro-Surinam music group Black Harmony. The project will be filmed in the Decoratelier of Dutch National Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. The performance will premiere on the website and the YouTube channel of Dutch National Opera & Ballet on Wednesday 30 December at 19:00. The online performance will be available free of charge for one month.
Petite messe solennelle - top soloists and chorus in Rossini's mass
Italian conducting talent Andrea Battistoni (La bohème at DNO in 2017) comes to Amsterdam for Rossini's 'small' solemn mass, a work the Italian composer wrote long after he stopped composing operas. Four excellent singers will perform the solo parts: the American tenor Michael Spyres (previously Il Conte di Libenskof in Il viaggio a Reims at DNO), the Chinese soprano Ying Fang (who makes her DNO-debut in November 2020 as Susanna in the online Le nozze di Figaro), the young French mezzo-soprano Katia Ledoux (previously Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande with DNO and winner of the International Vocal Competition) and the Dutch bass-baritone Frederik Bergman, who is part of Dutch National Opera Studio, our talent development programme for young opera talent. The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra joins them from the pit. The rehearsals and recording will take place in December. The broadcast is scheduled for January.
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