Operadagen (Opera Days) Rotterdam 2017 Announces New Four-Year Festival Theme And First Performances

The 12th edition of Operadagen Rotterdam takes place from 12 through 21 May 2017 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It is the contemporary festival for opera and music theatre. More than 100 performances will be staged at Rotterdam's major theatres. There are also various exciting indoor and outdoor venues across the city. Operadagen Rotterdam will develop a brand-new theme in the course of four years, Lost & Found. The initial sub-theme is Departures. Operadagen Rotterdam challenges audience and makers to lose and find themselves with 2017 as the point of departure. It is now known what the first highlights are from the bumper programme.

Overall festival theme Lost & Found
Operadagen Rotterdam is evidence of the relevance and diversity of opera/music theatre. These traditions are alive and kicking, offering plenty of opportunities to meet for artists and audiences from various countries and cultures. Lost & Found is the overall festival theme for the next four years. Operadagen Rotterdam tracks the heroic stories of people who leave their familiar world, cross literal and symbolic boundaries, and undergo great change in hopes of (re)finding their identity. This narrative is topical today and of all time. The festival will have a different focus in each consecutive year. The sub-theme for 2017 is Departures.

Top international productions
Operadagen Rotterdam 2017 presents several international highlights, which include fresh interpretations of classical works as well as newly minted performances. Ivo Van Hove directs the opening performance, Diary of one who disappeared, Czech composer Leoš Janá?ek's famous song cycle to which the composer Annelies Van Parys has added a new finale. Ensemble Cappella Mediterranea, led by the celebrated conductor Leonardo García Alarcón, performs one of the earliest operas in existence, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. Equally special is Nachtschade: Aubergine which presents a combination of music theatre, documentary, and culinary delights as the renowned soprano Claron McFadden traces the communal cultural roots of the Mediterranean, based on the aubergine (or eggplant), a vegetable that loves going places. Directly afterwards a night-time walk that incorporates mini-performances in various venues, restaurants, and other exciting locations in Rotterdam-Zuid.

Unexpected locations
Operadagen Rotterdam uses the city of Rotterdam as a backdrop while staging opera and music theatre in remarkable locations. The crowd-puller Freddie was inspired by Farrokh Bulsara aka Freddie Mercury. It premieres in an old factory hangar in north Rotterdam. Liebesleid is a performance about people who cope with a broken heart by working themselves into a sweat on fitness equipment in the gym.

Young makers
Operadagen Rotterdam introduces audiences to tomorrow's sounds. The Ragazze Quartet's youthful stars shine in Shorelines, an international multimedia production about the disastrous 1953 North Sea flood. The up and coming Rotterdam collective CLUB GEWALT also performs a new production.

About Operadagen Rotterdam
Operadagen (Opera Days) Rotterdam is an international opera and music theatre festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, that attracted over 23,000 visitors in 2016. The festival presents contemporary, innovative, and ground-breaking productions by leading international makers as well as young adventurous talent. Please see www.operadagenrotterdam.nl/en for more information about the upcoming edition of the festival and some of the featured performances.

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