ALL ARIAS

Music Theatre Biennial
21 April - 6 May 2023

ALL ARIAS is the start of a new tradition, a biennial festival for music theatre from Belgium and abroad. Cultural partners from Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent join forces for a packed and varied programme that takes place simultaneously in several cities.

During this first festival edition, literary classics and great stories from various continents will take centre stage. They tell about exploitation and inequality and at the same time sing the praises of a universal quest for freedom and justice. The first edition of All Arias presents a kaleidoscope of eastern and western musical traditions, of African songs and European avant-garde.

No fewer than two new LOD productions and a co-production are on the programme of All Arias 2023. The festival opens with the Belgian premiere of Woman at Point Zero, a gripping multimedia opera about exploitation and emancipation, inspired by the novel of the same name by Egyptian writer and feminist Nawal El Saadawi. The Golden Stool, or the story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa, an AfrOpera by LOD artist Gorges Ocloo, will also have its world premiere at the festival. In LOD Studio you can see Figurine by Lieselot De Wilde.

And there is more: Muziektheater Transparant, the Nederlands Kamerkoor and HERMESensemble guide you in Between Two Lights on the spiritual path between two worlds, directed by Aïda Gabriëls and Tido Visser and with new music by Huang Ruo, and Kopergietery and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen present the music theatre revival of the children's classic Crusade in Jeans (Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek) by composer Frederik Neyrinck.

A cooperation of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, DE SINGEL, Muziektheater Transparant, Concertgebouw Brugge & LOD muziektheater.