Let Opera Forward Festival surprise you with everything opera can be. With work by established names and a new generation of makers, musical performances, video art and talks, OFF explores the art form that is opera. From the theme that is central to this sixth edition, ‘New Beginnings’, OFF invites you to discover that opera is also something for you.
The Opera Forward Festival is the ultimate platform ant the engine for innovation in opera. Since its first edition in 2016, OFF has been looking for the power of opera today, in a world that is changing rapidly. OFF is the place where we give way to new ways of making opera, with new artistic and social impulses, with new narratives and voices. A music theatre festival that shows the state of the art of contemporary opera with established artists and joins forces with adventurous creators to explore what everything that opera can also be.
This is reflected in the four performances that are part of OFF: Manoj Kamps and Lisenka Heijboer Castañón use their collective working method - which they also used for their successful project FAUST [Working title] - to create the performance I Have Missed You Forever, Robin Coops and Avinash Changa present Orphée | L'Amour | Eurydice, a three-part opera experience in which Virtual Reality plays a major role, and the hyper actual opera Denis & Katya is an excellent example of how opera can be about the now. With Eurydice - Die Liebenden, blind by Manfred Trojahn we are continuing the DNO tradition of world premieres by renowned international composers.
A richly varied contextual programming, in collaboration with organisations such as Brainwash Festival and The School of Life, shows, furthermore, through all kinds of viewing, reading and listening material, that opera resonates beyond the walls of the theatre and touches on relevant themes.
Within this edition of OFF there is also an important place reserved for students from various art schools, resulting in three different OFF Labs: Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Arts & Science.
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