Dutch National Opera Puts On Special Programme For International Gala

Dutch National Opera will put on a special programme during the OperaVision Summer Gala, an event in which eight prestigious European opera houses come together to celebrate World Music Day on 21 June 2020.

This is the first time that European opera houses will join forces to organise a gala that will première for free online. Given the coronavirus measures currently in place, each theatre will film its particular programme in its own empty auditorium.

The other opera houses participating in the gala are Komische Oper (Berlin), Glyndebourne (UK), Teatro Real (Madrid), Opéra Comique (Paris), Teatro dell'Opera (Rome), the Royal Swedish Opera (Stockholm) and the Polish National Opera (Warsaw).

The DNO contribution will consist of a special programme sung by top performers Eva-Maria Westbroek and Thomas Oliemans, conveying a nostalgic love story via pieces by Strauss, Weill, Lehár and Piazzolla and Gardel. The DNO programme is included too: Lehár's The Merry Widow is a look ahead to what audiences can expect in the next season, while the works of Strauss and Weill are a nod to the operas that the coronavirus forced DNO to cancel. Eva-Maria Westbroek and Thomas Oliemans were originally supposed to have graced the DNO stage in the spring of this year. The performers are accompanied by Ernst Munneke on the piano. Featuring a musical contribution by Vadim Tsibulevski, concertmaster of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, DNO's long-term orchestra partner is involved in the gala as well.

Director Sophie de Lint comments as follows about the gala: 'We didn't want Dutch National Opera's contribution to the gala to be a standard opera repertoire, so we went for a programme with a twist. We set to work to achieve this with the help of these wonderful artists and the audiovisual expertise available to us in-house, in compliance with the coronavirus protocols. It is a great honour for DNO to be able to celebrate World Music Day together with these artists and an international audience!'

The OperaVision Summer Gala will première online at 7 pm on Sunday 21 June 2020, after which it will be free to watch online for a month via the OperaVision website and the Dutch National Opera & Ballet online platform.

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