Info
Opera meets spoken word
In the music theater performance Ändere die Welt! we see a group of people in the aftermath of a revolution. They try to build a new life while asking themselves: how do you change the world? Ändere die Welt! is a collage performance with existing music from the opera and song repertoire and spoken word artist Amara van der Elst, who guides the spectator through the performance and provides commentary in the language of 2023.
Revolutionary musical theatre Does change mean progress, if history keeps repeating itself? We shout ‘Ändere die Welt!’ (‘Change the world!’), but how do you do that? And what is change if it is based on ideas from the past? From the ashes of one rebellion arises the next counter-movement, the next call for the other, the better, the new – the call for freedom. Many revolutions passed in review on the world stage, in different guises and with varying results. In a setting of fragments of previously fought ideologies, we ask ourselves: can a new world be built only on the scrap of the old?
Emerging young artists Various revolutions have left their mark in music history. Together with conductor, arranger and pianist Pedro Beriso, the existing opera and lieder repertoire of Hanns Eisler, Weill, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Schumann, Auber, Beethoven and Wagner, in combination with the contemporary sounds of spoken word and electronic soundscapes, was used to create an idiosyncratic musical created a world that breathes rebellion, change and renewal. The young, promising theater maker Mart van Berckel brings it all together on stage. Young talents from the National Opera Studio will sing in this production, which will tour throughout the country. The performance is created and presented as part of Collective Works within the Opera Forward Festival and is a co-production of De Nationale Opera with De Nederlandse Reisopera and Opera Zuid.
Do you want to know more about the performance? Listen to the podcast with dramaturge Jasmine van Wijnen and director Mart van Berkel.
