Bernd Uhlig

The Time Of Our Singing

De Munt & LOD / Kris Defoort, Richard Powers & Ted Huffman
Tue 14 Sep - Sun 23 Apr
14 Sep
-
23 Apr

"SINGING MIGHT MAKE MORE SENSE OF LIFE THAN LIVING HAD TO START WITH."— RICHARD POWERS (THE TIME OF OUR SINGING)

Black Lives Matter, police brutality, rigged elections... these themes were constantly to be seen in the news this last year. In The Time of our Singing, based on the eponymous book by Richard Powers, recent American history finds an unusual sounding board. The work tells the story, set against the background of post-war segregation in the USA, of a racially mixed family, both connected and driven apart by music.

Together with librettist Peter van Kraaij, conductor Kwamé Ryan and director Ted Huffman, LOD composer Kris Defoort opens up an imaginary place in which big and small history meet, where people come together to tell a story and where jazz and classical music enrich each other.
"As far as I know, it doesn't happen very often that a contemporary opera is so strongly anchored in the present and yet raises so many universal themes." (Kris Defoort)

Credits

composition Kris Defoort  libretto Peter Van Kraaij  based on the eponymous book by Richard Powers musical director Kwamé Ryan director Ted Huffman set Johannes Schütz costumes Astrid Klein lighting Bernd Purkrabek video Pierre Martin movement direction Alan Barnes dramaturgy Peter Van Kraaij  and Antonio Cuenca Ruiz Delia Daley Claron McFadden William Daley MarkS. Doss David Strom Simon Bailey Jonah Levy SekgapaneJoey Peter Brathwaite Ruth Abigail Abraham Lisette Soer Lilly Jørstad music performed by De Munt Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble (Mark Turner, Lander Gyselinck, Nicolas Thys, Hendrik Lasure), De Munt children's and youth choirs and other Brussels children and young people under the direction of Benoît Giaux production de Munt co-production LOD muziektheater & Theater St. Gallen in co-production with Shelter Prod and Prospero MM Productions, with the support of Taxshelter.be and ING Bank with the support of the tax shelter of the Belgian federal government