Dutch National Opera

The Girl, the Hunter and the Wolf

Vasco Mendonça (1977)

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Photo: Michiel Spijkers

Dates

15-23 Oct 2022

Location

Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Boekmanzaal

Running time

0:45, no interval

Tickets

Not available

Things are not what they seem (6+)

Dangerous, greedy, cunning, and dishonest: this is most likely the wolf you’ve read about in fairy tales. But what if he were allowed to have a say? Is he really such a scoundrel, or perhaps just unlucky?

Things are not what they seem (6+)

In The Girl, the Hunter and the Wolf you will experience classic fairy tales through the eyes of the wolf. That incident with Little Red Riding Hood, the scene at the Little Pigs’ front door… things weren’t as straightforward as we’ve always been led to believe. Due to a string of misunderstandings, prejudices, bad luck and a bizarre confluence of circumstances, the wolf is always wrongly portrayed as a villain. It’s high time to restore his good name.

The Girl, the Hunter and the Wolf is a musical, tragicomic performance for anyone aged 6 and over. By presenting a different perspective to how the wolf is generally perceived, the production makes an appeal for empathy and tolerance in a playful and imaginative way.

Creative team

The Portuguese composer Vasco Mendonça often writes for opera and music theatre. His first opera, House Taken Over, premiered at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. For The Girl, the Hunter and the Wolf, he is working with the philosopher and writer Gonçalo M. Tavares, whose novels, children’s books, essays, plays and poetry have been translated into more than 25 languages. The stage direction is in the hands of the innovative Flemish theatre maker Inne Goris, who works at the interface of music theatre, dance, and visual arts.

Performance information

Composition Vasco Mendonça

Libretto Gonçalo M. Tavares

Stage direction Inne Goris

Musical direction Alphonse Cemin

Dramaturgy Willem Bruls

Scenography Stef Stessel

Costume design Lotte Boonstra

Costume assistance Eli Verkeyn, Stefania Assandri

The Wolf Arturo den Hartog

The Hunter Leonie van Rheden (o.a.)

The Girl Sabra el Bahri Khatri (o.a.)

Musical performance SPECTRA (percussion, electric guitar, bass clarinet & cello)

Co-production with LOD muziektheater (Gent) and LU.CA

– Teatro Luís de Camões (Lisbon)

School performances Private matinee performances will be given especially to schools.

Youth opera (6+)

Sung in Dutch

5 reasons to look forward to The Girl, the Hunter and the Wolf

Trailer - Het meisje, de jager en de wolf

Vasco Mendonça's music is also a driving factor, played sublimely by SPECTRA. One of the musical highlights is the interplay between el Bahri-Khatri and Van Rheden with an ear-catching blend of their voices.

16 October

The wolf doesn't hurt a piglet and befriends Little Red Riding Hood in wonderful youth opera

16 October

The music, performed by SPECTRA (percussion, electric guitar, bass clarinet & cello), is quite complex but exciting with lots of percussion, timpani beats and bass lines, and there is fine singing by Arturo den Hartog, Leonie van Rheden and Sabra el Bahri Khatri.