‘Opera newcomers will also like this’

Using  the drama bèfore a premiere to create an opera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart did it! In the brilliant comedy Der Schauspieldirektor, the composer ridicules the opera world. Everything comes to pass, from rival singers, big egos and hectic rehearsals to arguments on stage.

Mozart was able to draw abundantly from his own experiences for Der Schauspieldirektor, as did director, author and opera singer Christopher Gillett. He wrote the new play text and directs Der Schauspieldirektor at Opera Zuid, with a wealth of his own hilarious experiences. ‘Opera bounces back and forth between the ridiculous and the sublime and in this piece I want to poke fun at the ridiculous.’ So all-rounder Gillett gives a behind the scenes look and follows up Mozart in his loving satire on the opera business. A bit of a sneak peek; The curtain rises on a beautiful, seventeenth-century Dutch merchant house in the early nineteenth century. What happens next…I’ll keep that a secret for now, because that’s part of the fun.’

In this new Opera Zuid performance in collaboration with the South Netherlands Philharmonic, Gillett, together with conductor Enrico Delamboye and a top cast of young talent, brings out the sparkling light-footedness from this funny and inventive score. And of course Mozart’s fantastic music is central!  The comedy with music, as Mozart himself called the work, shows his genius on both a dramatic and psychological level with theatrical style.