
Alain Platel brings together choir members, dancers and orchestral musicians for a new performance that puts encounters at centre stage
‘Never was a shade of a tree so lovely...’, it says in Händel’s famous aria ‘Ombra mai fu’. Alain Platel and visual artist Berlinde De Bruyckere take inspiration from the shade of a tree as a meeting place, as a place where people all over the world and throughout history come together to rest, meet or discuss problems. De Bruyckere’s poetic world of images seems to share a kinship with Platel’s universe.
After the overwhelming success of C(H)OEURS 2022, Platel once again invites the chorus members, dancers and orchestral musicians of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen to join a creative dialogue. Together with singer and performer TK Russell and guest choreographers Mélanie Lomoff and Luis Marrafa, they create the performance Ombra. Composer Steven Prengels is developing a new orchestral score in which he interweaves well-known classical masterpieces by the likes of Händel, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven into new layers of meaning.
ca. 2 hours
Free introduction (in Dutch) 60 minutes before the start of the performance.
After the performances on 14 April (Opera Antwerp) and 5 May (Opera Ghent), you can attend an afterword, 10 minutes after the end of the performance. Our dramaturges will engage in a conversation with the production team and the audience.
Coproduction with laGeste.
The creators
Alain Platel
Direction
Marc Piollet
Conductor
Steven Prengels
Musical concept and composition
Berlinde De Bruyckere
Scenography
Dotje Demuynck
Costume design
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Felice Ross
Lighting design
TK Russell
Singer
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Jan Schweiger
Chorusmaster