Wende Kicks Off Operadagen Rotterdam 2020 with THE SONG PROJECT

Tickets for Wende's international project in collaboration with Royal Court Theatre, London and other performances of Operadagen Rotterdam 2020 are on sale from Friday, December 13 12.00 PM and onward.

Multitalented Wende's new English-language programme, The Song Project, will be staged for the first time in the Netherlands at Operadagen Rotterdam 2020. Wende started working on The Song Project in the summer of 2018 at the invitation of the renowned Royal Court Theatre. The Dutch premiere takes place during Operadagen Rotterdam 2020 in the LantarenVenster theatre; an intimate setting with maximally 275 people in the audience. You can buy tickets for The Song Project (21, 22, and 23 May) as well as for six other performances of Operadagen Rotterdam 2020 from Friday, December 13 12.00 PM and onward at operadagenrotterdam.nl.

The Song Project

Royal Court Theatre has been launching the careers of numerous world-famous writers and playwrights, including Sarah Kane and Samuel Beckett, for decades. Together with the all-female artistic team, Wende explores in The Song Project what it means to be a woman in this day and age. Also, what is being passed on from generation to generation? The Song Project is running for two weeks in The Royal Court Theatre from the 7th May 2020, followed soon afterwards by the performances at Operadagen Rotterdam 2020.

Wende opted for an intimate venue for The Song Project so she could be in close contact with the audience. LantarenVenster, with its relatively limited capacity, is her theatre of choice for Operadagen Rotterdam 2020. She says this about The Song Project: 'I have wanted to perform abroad since I graduated. It is a dream come true to travel to London and meet up with other fascinating artists in such a beautiful theatre. And to create something that is exactly right.'

There is a strong connection between Wende and Operadagen Rotterdam. Wende has collaborated closely with artistic director Guy Coolen in the past, when he gave her advice regarding her celebrated earlier performance, Mens. She received the Operadagen Award 2018 for her services to opera and music theatre.

The Song Project is conceived by theatre designer Chloe Lamford and Wende and co-created by Chloe Lamford, Wende, composer Isobel Waller-Bridge and choreographer Imogen Knight. With text by playwrights EV Crowe, Sabrina Mahfouz, Somalia Seaton, Stef Smith and Debris Stevenson.

Tickets for seven other Operadagen Rotterdam 2020 performances are on sale from Friday, December 13 12.00 PM and onward. These include the Dutch premiere of prisoner of the state (Sat 30 May, de Doelen) a production that the well-known New York composer David Lang has been working for over 10 years. It was inspired by the libretto of Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera. Mozart and Da Ponte fans are in for a treat with the Mozart/Da Ponte Trilogy (Sat 23 and Sun 24 May, Theater Rotterdam Witte de With) as the young Flemish director Tom Goossens and pianist Wouter Deltour put the great opera classics, Don Juan, Così and Le Nozze in an entirely new and humoristic light. Other performances for which you can buy tickets from Friday, December 13 12.00 PM and onward are Musik für das Ende (Mon 25 May, Theater Rotterdam Schouwburg), Claude Vivier's uncontested masterpiece A midsummer night's dream (Sat 23 May, Theater Rotterdam Schouwburg), director Ola Mafaalanu's opera debut with Opera Zuid, and Usher, Claude Debussy's horror opera, performed by Opera Vlaanderen (Wed 27 May, Theater Rotterdam Schouwburg).

The 15th edition of Operadagen Rotterdam runs from 21 through 26 May 2020. (New) makers and audiences go on adventures with the latest opera formats during the internationally lauded festival, which takes place in Theater Rotterdam, Nieuwe Luxor, de Doelen and various surprising locations across the city of Rotterdam.