Stardust and Sixpence
Will there still be singing in dark times? – this is the question posed by Bertolt Brecht in his moving poem To Those Born After (An die Nachgeborenen).
Ultimately, the answer rings out, loud and full of life: YES!
That is also the answer Opera Zuid sings out with passion: there will be singing, about the dark times! And through that song, we once again see glimmers in the sky, sparks and stardust of inspiration, hope, humanity, and harmony.
Season ’25/’26
With pride and joy, we warmly invite you to the sparkling, star-studded performances of our coming season. Provocative titles, surprising interpretations, bold new creations, unique collaborations, and breathtaking artists all contribute to the light Brecht’s answer evokes. And you, dear audience, are part of that light!
The connection between humour and gravity, friction and folly, poetry and pain, social critique and shared humanity – all with a light touch in facing heavy themes – defines this new season. Beauty and playfulness illuminate the dark.
Each in its own sublime and singular way, The Threepenny Opera by Weill and Brecht and Chabrier’s L’Étoile (the star) hold up a satirical mirror to a society in decline. On the operastage, they probe the absurdity of the worldstage – not least by casting a critical eye on the (often absurd) conventions of opera itself.
It’s breathtaking how much new relevance these two works – both born in times of deep democratic struggle and uncertainty – continue to gain with each passing day…
Die Dreigroschenoper – theatre that moves, stirs, and lingers
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, or ‘beggars’ opera’, poses the question what value does morality hold in a world of poverty and hopelessness, at the margins of society? Classical music, cabaret, jazz and chanson blend into a visceral, intoxicating performance, with Maarten Heijmans as the dangerous and seductive gangster Mackie Messer.
L’Étoile – painfully familiar, full of surprises
In Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Étoile, the world is turned upside down: the powerful are exposed in all their ridiculousness. The opera might well bear the subtitle: ‘Stupidity reigns.’ King Ouf – an anagram of fou: ‘madman’ – rules with grotesque unpredictability. L’Étoile is both a satire on the madness of power and a celebration of the mad power of love. And in that love, a new star of hope is born.
Atman! – finding home
Love is also the driving force in Atman!, the new familyopera (8+) by star composer Leonard Evers and master of poetic imagination, author Bart Moeyaert. Like a modern-day Odysseus, Atman wanders the city in search of home. The work gently yet powerfully asks: what, or where, is home? Is it the place of our birth, where we ‘belong’, or can the whole world seem strange and mysterious? Atman! reminds us that the boundaries of our existence are only as narrow as our imagination.
Les Enfants Terribles – hypnotic, philosophical, poetic, with a dark, frayed edge
This fantastical dimension is also the terrain of Philip Glass’s chamber opera Les Enfants Terribles. How do we connect trauma and dream, delusion and truth, in a world where fantasy and reality are indistinguishable?
Happy End – Buurt Opera Malpertuis
Our community opera Buurt Opera Malpertuis (BOM) explores all these themes in its own distinctive way, starting with Weill and Brecht. The result: Happy End, with a question mark, and several exclamation points.
Three pennies: a fortune
Thanks to unique, loving and innovative partnerships with Philzuid, Toneelgroep Maastricht, Theater aan het Vrijthof, PLT, Parktheater Eindhoven and, nationwide, with Dutch National Opera and the Nederlandse Reisopera, our threepenny pieces are transformed into a priceless, boundless treasure.
Scatter stardust
Yes, ‘we are stardust’ – not only in Shakespeare’s poetic phrase (‘the stuff that dreams are made of’), but also as a physical and social reality. A reality shaped and sustained through listening to one another. This complex yet wondrous polyphony, this unruly harmony, creates empathy. We call it: democracy.
Yes, there will be singing in dark times – and yes, with you there, that song will scatter stardust into the world.
Waut Koeken
Artistic and general director Opera Zuid
In tribute to the much-too-soon departed Pierre Audi (1957–2025), tireless advocate of the renewal of opera.
