Somer & Winter
Hans Vercauteren & Lente Verelst
What if two seasons had an argument? What if they each spoke their own language and couldn’t understand each other anymore?
In Somer & Winter, a new creation by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, we meet two characters who clash, much like a brother and sister sometimes do. Somer and Winter are both convinced that they are the best season. They don’t listen to each other, each speak their own (musical) language, and gradually drift further apart.
Through this playful, multi-layered story, children are introduced to opera as a storytelling art form in a natural way. Not through grand arias or complex conventions, but through a clear narrative carried by music, singing and theatre.
A narrator guides the young audience through the story in an accessible and humorous way, while seven musicians from the SPECTRA Ensemble bring a new composition to life. The music, created with instruments and surprising materials such as paper sounds, gives voice to the characters’ inner worlds.
A particularly special element of this production is the children’s choir of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.
Somer & Winter is a theatre concert that invites audiences to listen, watch and reflect. The performance breathes new life into an age-old story and shows how connection is created by truly listening and by realising that we need one another.
With Dutch surtitles.
A coproduction from Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and SPECTRA.
With the support of the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government.
The creators
Team
Kenza Koutchoukali
Direction
Hans Vercauteren
Composition and libretto
Lente Verelst
Composition and libretto
Hans Vercauteren
Conductor
Cast
Lissa Meyvis
Somer
Kris Belligh
Winter
Imke Mol
Cockijn/Venus
Millo Devroede
Kleine Cockijn