no one ever told me we should have already been here (2024)
organ player, singer/performer, composer.
a 35-minute site-specific performance presented at the @nationaleoperaballet for @opera_forward festival in 2024. The starting point for the performance was the concept of instruction scores, a method of working that balances the improvisational skills of the performer and rehearsed sequences. For the performance, various visual scores were created by the collective and used as a starting point for dramaturgy. In the end, the performance dealt with the loss and learning of language, both word-based and otherwise, and the collective versus the individual through the use of sung echos, movement repetition, humour, and an absurdist scenography, inspired by the emergency exit space of the Dutch National Opera that the work was performed in and commissioned for.
re:master opera is a group of makers graduated from the eponymous temporary master’s degree at the Sandberg Instituut.
The core of our research is to develop a non-hierarchical, collective approach to the making of new experimental forms for music theatre and opera.
Photos by Ben Van Duin