Ophelia

Music theatre
How does a first love affect a person? What do you do when you are eradicated by love for the first time?

Director Inne Goris seeks answers from Ophelia, the famous dead girl from Shakespeare's "Hamlet", floating in a pond full of flowers.

Being in love = a tickling in your toes
waiting for that one question
searching for the most beautiful words
doubting everything
chaos in your head
practising saying 'yes'
pain
going crazy
starting anew
giggling helplessly

Twelve girls. They don't know much about love yet. But one thing is certain: one thing they don't want is to be driven crazy by love and end up in a pond full of flowers, like Shakespeare's Ophelia. There must be other ways to tame love, to cherish longing and to care for grief.

Ophelia is an intimate film installation. The audience is immersed in the emotional world of twelve young Ophelias.
By means of still images, fragments of text and music, they pass on their lessons about that one huge emotion: love. Passionate, compelling, funny and sometimes a bit sad.

hetpaleis, LOD music theater and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen present twelve young Ophelias, three string players and a percussionist on stage. Hundreds of love stories from Ghent and Antwerp provided inspiration for Ophelia, a compelling music theater performance for everyone from 8 years old who is, was or wants to be in love.

Thomas Smetryns and SPECTRA first worked together in 2003: old love does not rust.

Programme & credits

Programme

Thomas Smetryns
Ophelia

CREDITS

concept & stage direction
Inne Goris

composition
Thomas Smetryns

libretto
Dounia Mahammed

music performed by
SPECTRA

musical accompaniment and dramaturgy
Romain Bischoff & Els Mondelaers

scenography and light
Stef Stessel

costumes
Lotte Boonstra

production
LOD muziektheater, hetpaleis & Opera Ballet Vlaanderen

coproduction
Silbersee, SPECTRA

with the support of the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian federal government.

Calendar

Wednesday 29 September 2021, 19:00
Antwerpen, hetpaleis
PREMIERE
Thursday 30 September 2021, 10:30
Antwerpen, hetpaleis
Thursday 30 September 2021, 13:30
Antwerpen, hetpaleis
Friday 01 October 2021, 13:30
Antwerpen, hetpaleis
Friday 01 October 2021, 19:00
Antwerpen, hetpaleis
Saturday 02 October 2021, 19:00
Antwerpen, hetpaleis
Sunday 03 October 2021, 15:00
Antwerpen, hetpaleis
Thursday 28 October 2021, 10:30
Gent, Opera
Thursday 28 October 2021, 13:30
Gent, Opera
Friday 29 October 2021, 19:00
Gent, Opera
Saturday 30 October 2021, 19:00
Gent, Opera
Sunday 31 October 2021, 15:00
Gent, Opera
Tuesday 02 November 2021, 15:00
Gent, Opera
Wednesday 03 November 2021, 15:00
Gent, Opera
Wednesday 03 November 2021, 19:00
Gent, Opera
Wednesday 03 November 2021, 19:00
Gent, Opera

Media