De Materie - Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (2026/27) - De Materie - Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (2026/27), Phia Ménard

Description

A new production of Louis Andriessen’s contemporary opera De Materie, directed by Phia Ménard at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.
Co-produced with Opéra de Lille.

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen opens its 2026/27 season with a new production of the lesser-known opera De Materie (1989) by Louis Andriessen, arguably one of the most significant Dutch composers of the 20th century.

Described variously as a “philosophical opera” or an “ultra-theatrical symphony,” the work takes on the character of a total experience: a scenic poem in which music (drawing inspiration from Stravinsky, Bach, and Steve Reich, as well as disco and boogie-woogie), movement, and matter confront and transform one another. Structured in four "movements" (rather than acts), De Materie takes the audience on a journey: the work spans four eras, from the 13th century to modern times; explores four themes (alienation and emancipation, spirituality, mathematics, and science); and features four historical figures (the philosopher Gorlaeus, the mystic Hadewijch of Antwerp, the abstract painter Mondrian, and the scientist Marie Curie) to delve into the concepts of the material and the immaterial. The opera thus reveals the composer’s obsessions: how the material world can be permeated, shifted, and metamorphosed by the human spirit.

To stage this unconventional work, which breaks with operatic norms, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen has entrusted the production to Phia Ménard (responsible for the concept, staging, and set design), working alongside choreographers Antonio De Rosa and Mattia Russo from the KOR’SIA company. The production centers on a single material (wood) which held a special fascination for the composer due to its capacity to be shaped in myriad ways to create vastly different objects through the power of the human spirit: a musical instrument, for instance, or a boat (shipbuilding lies at the heart of the opera’s first movement).

Sung in Dutch with dialogue in English and French, the work unfolds across four movements, brought to life by a cast and creative team led by soprano Katrien Baerts as the mystic Hadewijch and tenor Elmar Gilbertsson as the philosopher Gorlaeus. They are joined by two narrators (dancers Samantha Hines and Ausia Jones), an eight-voice choir, and a large ensemble under the baton of conductor Bas Wiegers.

Following Robert Carsen, who directed the 1989 premiere, and Heiner Goebbels, who revived the work in 2014 with a grand-scale staging, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen invites audiences to rediscover a rare work that is at once intellectual and visceral, austere and flamboyant. This new production promises a meeting of thought and sensation, of sonic architecture and scenic transformation—where matter itself becomes theatre?

Further information is available on the Opera’s official website.