Performances
Discover ground-breaking performances and unique creative encounters.
Technopera
The young, innovative company Technopera aims to add electronic music operas to the Dutch cultural landscape as a fully-fledged new music and theatre genre. In experimental, new compositions, techno, deephouse and other forms of electronic music are seamlessly linked to baroque sounds and the classical voice. After a number of successful 'opera raves’, including at the festival Down the Rabbit Hole, Technopera is now creating a completely new set especially for the Opera Forward Festival.
- Location: Foyer
- Date & time: Friday 8 March (22:00 - 23:30)
Admission is free. Please reserve your seat via the button below. There will be a number of last-minute rush seats available to accommodate walk-ins.
The Song Project
The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra started The Song Project in 2023 to give young composers and singers a stage in a project combining existing and new music. This year, two concerts will take place, the first on 9 March in the NedPho-Koepel and the second on 10 March at the Opera Forward Festival. Five singers from Dutch National Opera Academy are paired with five composers, including OFF alumni, from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. The composers each provided an existing song with a new arrangement and also wrote a brand new work for voice and ensemble, using the same text as a starting point. This year's repertoire comes from the late romantic period, with songs by Gustav Mahler, Alphons Diepenbrock and Elisabeth Kuyper. Eleven musicians from the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra accompany the singers in this concert that renews the repertoire and takes new steps towards the future.
- Location: Foyer
- Date & time: Sunday 10 March (14:00 - 15:30)
Admission is free. Please reserve your seat via the button below. There will be a number of last-minute rush seats available to accommodate walk-ins.
Credits
Singers
Hannah Gries (soprano)
Sterre Decru (mezzo soprano)
Thalia Cook-Hansen (soprano)
Elisa Maayeshi (soprano)
Henrik Enger Holm (soprano)
Composers
Jasmine Karimova
Béla Braack
José Nuno Dias Miranda
Mehmet İlhan Gazioğlu
Catharina Clement
11-member ensemble from the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
Spoken word X OFF
Over the last editions, the Opera Forward Festival has presented collaborations with spoken word artists in different ways. This year, we continue the dialogue between the art forms of spoken word and opera with a group of amazing artists. Reflecting on the theme of (ir)responsibility in their own way, spoken word artists Djé-rimo and LOE. team up with classically trained singers Nienke Nasserian and Marlina Deasy Hartanto. Composer Luke Deane shapes the project with them, and brings in his creative and musical input. The experimental and exciting performances will have their premiere in the first weekend of OFF.
- Location: Foyer
- Dates & times: Friday 8 March (19:30 - 20:00), Saturday 9 March (16:45 - 17:15)
Admission is free, there is no need to reserve a seat.
Credits
Djé-rimo
LOE.
Nienke Nasserian
Luke Deane
Marlina Deasy Hartanto
Manu van Kersbergen (Spoken Word curator)
MADWOMAN
Elenora Hu & Amy Chang
Soprano Elenora Hu, winner of the Dutch TV show ARIA, and pianist Amy Chang, part of the Dutch National Opera Studio, have created a recital program especially for the Opera Forward Festival. In MADWOMAN they weave through a tapestry of some of the most beautiful and powerful representations of women in opera and song.
Listen to composer Nadia Boulanger, the most influential music teacher of the 20th century. Get to know Dutch composer Rosy Wertheim, who defied nazi occupation by performing illegal music in her basement. And sit back and enjoy more contemporary songs by Jake Heggie and Errollyn Wallen.
- Location: Foyer
- Date & time: Saturday 9 March (15:30 - 16:15)
Admission is free, there is no need to reserve a seat.
Credits
Soprano Elenora Hu
Piano Amy Chang
A Beautiful Path: Ox song (part 1)
A Beautiful Path: Ox song (part 1) is a research project by Kate Moore about composing in the landscape where the land is both the atelier of the composer and the stage upon which the composer performs. Over a period of 12 months, Kate is walking from Oss in the Netherlands, all the way to Skellig Michael, Ireland. During this long-distance walk, she captures the environments and experiences using voice and a lyre. The creative process of the composer is revealed by taking it out from behind closed doors of a composition studio. The composer becomes a performer, performing the creative act of composition where the composition studio is a walking path.
This is artistic research about the creative process and the intersection between nature and culture. The route itself is a living score, one that depicts music as opposed to a composition that depicts a landscape. The rhythm of steps through an orchestration of evolving ecosystems forms a sensory and emotional experience that moves with the changes of the environment.
- Location: Foyer
- Date & time: Saturday 16 March (15:15 - 16:00)
Admission is free, there is no need to reserve a seat.
Credits
Kate Moore (composer, performer)
Isabelle Vigier (photography, visual design)
With support from AFK, Movement Exposed Gallery and Gaudeamus Festival
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