Re:master Dance Opera

Who’s afraid of opera in the 21st century? You shouldn’t be, that’s for sure. Just try to forget everything you think you know about opera and free yourself from clichés such as “Until the Fat Lady Sings”. Open up and unravel the hidden spaces between music, image and text. Join us in and discover how the combination of electronic music, the human voice and theatrical imagination can elevate us to new consciousness.

Supported by the Opera Forward Festival, a group of 15 master students from the Re:master Opera department at the Sandberg Institute will create a new short operatic performance in which they examine what opera means for them and what it could mean for you. The departure-point for this new creation is the music of COUSIN (aka Daan Couzijn) – a Paris based electronic artist whose music is influenced by many different genres and artists like Björk, James Blake and Sevdaliza. His electronic sounds dip into minimalistic trip-hop styles balanced out by catchy pop melodies, experimental key changes and a playful use of soft vocals.

Re:master Opera is a new temporary master department at the Sandberg Institute that revolves around opera and music-theatre. 15 students from a variety of different art-disciplines will work in a laboratory context and will examine opera as a concept, as practice, and as a recurring and shared point of reference. The program aims at finding original artistic strategies that can imbue this historic artform with fresh impulses and new experimental forms.

Opera Forward Festival by the Dutch National Opera is the platform and engine for innovation in opera. Since its first edition in 2016, OFF has been looking for the power of opera today, in a world that is changing at a rapid pace. OFF is the place where we give ample space to new ways of making opera, with new artistic and social impulses, with new narratives and voices.

Tempel Amsterdam is a unique modernist building from the 1929 that has been dedicated to reflection and development for almost a century, creative minds are now given the space to develop themselves. Previously, Tempel served as a theosophical temple, later as synagogue and as mosque. Now it no longer has a religious function but is a place where artists experiment and create together, where people and ideas come together and where every corner of the monumental building is filled with creativity.

This event is sold-out, thanks for your support!

This program is initiated by Sandberg Institute, ADE Foundation and Opera Forward Festival.

Image by Kevin Bray