After Thomas Verstraeten had swapped the locations of two Ghent façades in a festive parade, he places them on stage as the backdrop for a new performance. He invites the city’s residents to bring the façades to life through sound. From hurdy-gurdies and homemade instruments to a DJ set: a colourful group of people and instruments forms the newly assembled city orchestra that takes up the challenge.

What music do they associate with which type of façade? What echoes behind the façade? The musicians draw inspiration from their own experiences and from stories of the past and present, but also from the opera repertoire: during the period when many ‘historic’ façades in the city centre acquired their final form, Flemish composers wrote operas set against the backdrop of those very same façades. A city opera is taking shape – created for, by and with the people of Ghent.

Thomas Verstraeten featured in

The uprising of the facades - The opera