About the art of love

The mythical love story of Orpheus and Eurydice shows us that you often only value what you have when it is no longer there. When his great love Eurydice dies, Orpheus realizes even more how deeply he feels for her. It makes him decide to go after her, to the other side, and drives him to a crucial decision, when he chooses to have one last moment with her.

Inspired by the Greek myth and Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonette an Orpheus, Manfred Trojahn presents an contemporary, dramatic poem in which he takes us on an inevitable journey by train and ship, where Eurydice sees old acquaintances and meets Orpheus. Orpheus thinks he can be an addition to Eurydice's life, but once on the 'other side', Eurydice decides she no longer needs someone else for her life to be fulfilled. Eurydice - Die Liebenden, blind uses the power of music to allegorically describe the attraction of the muse-like figure of Eurydice to the singing artist Orpheus, to describe the love between Orpheus and Eurydice as the love between word and sound, between artistry and inspiration.

More than ten years after his successful Orest, Manfred Trojahn, one of today’s most important German composers, returns to Dutch National Opera. With a composition marked by a gripping French atmosphere and style, Trojahn reveals the emotional essence of opera as an art form. For this world premiere, Dutch National Opera welcomes back director Pierre Audi, who has brought this well-known myth to our stage before.

Baritone André Schuen and soprano Julia Kleiter make their DNO debut as the mythical couple. As the rulers of the Underworld, we welcome back baritone Thomas Oliemans and mezzo-soprano Katia Ledoux. Celebrated conductor Erik Nielsen, who conducted Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins last season, returns to bring Trojahn’s rich score to life with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dates
5, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 17 March 2022

WORLD PREMIERE