ATMAN! Comes to the Dutch National Opera in December
Performances run 21 December - 4 January.
By: Stephi Wild Oct. 27, 2025
This Christmas holiday, Dutch National Opera will present Atman!, a musical tale that verges on the incredible.
Nine-year-old Atman gets lost in his own city. He has the key to his home in his pocket but can no longer remember where he lives. He asks people in the street for help. A man has no time (“Ask me again tomorrow”). A woman takes him with her (“Boys like you make good sailors”). But Atman wants to go home, not sail across the ocean. What starts as a simple question (“Do you know which way I should go?”) turns into a journey full of detours and obstacles that, for a nine-year-old boy, sometimes seem— and indeed are—insurmountable. Composer Leonard Evers and writer Bart Moeyaert bring this journey to life through music and language.
Leonard Evers, known for the successful youth operas Goud! and Kriebel, loves theatre and has previously written youth operas for companies including Dutch National Opera and Zurich Opera House. His opera Goud! has been performed across Europe since 2012 and has been staged multiple times at Dutch National Opera. In Atman!, he explores all the possibilities of the accordion: the ultimate one-person orchestra and the perfect instrument to be played on the move.
For this production, he collaborates with acclaimed writer Bart Moeyaert, known for novels such as Broere and Een ander leven. His literary work has received international acclaim, earning him awards including the Flemish Culture Prize, the Woutertje Pieterse Prize and the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the highest honour in children’s literature. The production is directed by Annemiek van Elst, who previously created Eternal Road for Opera Zuid.
Ontvang Broadway-nieuws op WhatsApp
Ontvang de laatste updates, nieuws en exclusieve inhoud rechtstreeks in de app.
Netherlands Awards - Live Stats
Best Musical - Top 3
1.
HEATHERS (Happily Ever After Productions)
76.7% of votes
2.
ONCE UPON A MATTRESS (Het Amsterdams Theaterhuis-Happily Ever After Productions)
13.8% of votes
3.
A CHORUS LINE (Happily Ever After productions, Zonnehuis Theaterhuis)
9.4% of votes
Videos