Opera Ballet Vlaanderen Will Present Four Innovative Opera and Dance Performances Online

As we await the reopening of our theatres, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen will continue its virtual world tour of all living rooms. From today, the audience can join us for an adventure with four world premieres: Chaya Czernowin's opera Infinite Now and three short dance pieces from the acclaimed Choreolab series.

Infinite Now (2017)

In 2017, Infinite Now was voted the season's best world premiere by the authoritative trade magazine Opernwelt. And The New Yorker called it 'one of the key works of the decade'. Composer Chaya Czernowin and director Luk Perceval delivered a challenging and completely innovative opera experience.

The work is based on the play Front by Luk Perceval - about the First World War - and the novella Homecoming by the Chinese author Can Xue. In it, the horrors on the Yser Front are intertwined with the story of a woman who comes home to a house that balances on an abyss.

Chaya Czernowin takes a radical approach in her quest for a new sound language of her own. She pushes the search for what lies behind speaking, singing and acting to its furthest extreme, as it were. Luk Perceval supplies an austere visual language and portrays the worldwide disaster of 1914-1918 as it rushes towards us in slow-motion. For Infinite Now, he was named Opera Director of the Year.

The production, a co-production with Nationaltheater Mannheim and the renowned IRCAM in Paris, was also a technical feat in which digital sounds had to blend seamlessly with the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen Symphony Orchestra conducted by Titus Engel.

In the principal roles you will see Karen Vourc'h, Kai Rüütel, Noa Frenkel, Terry Wey, Vincenzo Neri and many others.

You can also watch Infinite Now on www.operavision.eu.

Three times Choreolab

For many, the Choreolab series by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen remains a beloved exploration of the wealth of talent that our dance company has to offer. In Choreolab, the dancers are allowed to create a choreography themselves. The results are performed by fellow dancers and for technical support, the choreographers can count on the skilled costume and set workshops of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.

Mounted for the fourteenth time this season, Choreolab always guarantees an original and refreshing programme. Three creations from the series will be made available online.

Ladylike (2018)

In Ladylike, Shelby Williams plays with the classic gender roles and expectations within male-female relationships.

Choreography: Shelby Williams
Costume and set design: Shelby Williams
Lighting design: Shelby Williams, Marc Thiron
Music: Artifact 3 - Ryan Teague
Dancers: Shelby Williams, Viktor Banka

in situ (2019)

in situ is an exploration of identity and the self, viewed through the lens of relationships to culture, histories and place. Our identity is not fixed; we float along on old and new waves, on internal and external forces and we are all at the mercy of time.

The Indonesian-Australian Juliet Burnett invites the Franco-Belgian Victor Polster-Ketelslegers to engage in a dialogue between the real and the imagined, the personal and the performative, imposed cultural expectations and binary definitions.

Music: Will Guthrie
Dance: Victor Polster-Ketelslegers
Costumes: Veerle Van Den Wouwer
Set design: Juliet Burnett

Mad Scene (2019)

In Mad Scene, Drew Jacoby plays with the idea of the 'mad scene' from the world of opera, which often serves to showcase virtuosity. She is fascinated by the intersection between absurdity in ballet and the immense skill required to perform it. At the same time there are the refined embellishments, created purely for the pleasure of the movement itself and the enjoyment of the viewer. She enlarges the sometimes exaggerated mannerisms and stylisation of the ballet in this celebration of the craft.

Choreography: Drew Jacoby
Music: Scena Della Pazzia (Lucia Di Lammermoor) - Gaetano Donizetti / Commodetto (Kleine Tonstucke) - Karl Leopold Rollig
Costume and lighting design: Drew Jacoby

All of these productions are now available online for free at www.operaballet.be