A Brief Draft of Human Desires

Desire is the essence of human existence. It is not so much the fulfilment of the desire that enriches us as the desire itself. Together with the young singers of the International Opera Academy, the French theatre maker Maëlle Dequiedt explores the essence of this wonderful drive, the origin of many phantasms and delusions, in an infectious semi-staged production.

A Brief Draft of Human Desires is the playful title of a semi-staged production realized by the young French theater maker Maëlle Dequiedt with singers and instrumentalists from the International Opera Academy Gent. "It's a title with a wink and humor, as desire is such a complex and immense subject," Maëlle explains. It is the perfect culmination of the season theme of "desire" in Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. In a varied musical program, where the singers demonstrate their stylistic versatility, there is so much more than romantic Sehnsucht. Dequiedt says, "Desire can refer to love, but for me, the word is also connected to curiosity, yearning for freedom, and wishes for the future. Desire holds power and the potential for transformation and evolution. It is something strong and joyful, movement, an opening, the power to change things, fuel for action." Baroque music by Monteverdi, Purcell, and Handel stands alongside romantic Lieder by Schubert, Clara Schumann, and Grieg, as well as 20th-century lyricism by composers such as Olivier Messiaen and Judith Weir. A Brief Draft of Human Desires guarantees a playful and contrasting exploration of all the gradations of human desire: idealistic, erotic, power-hungry, light, and dark.