OMBRA
Creation: Opera Ballet Vlaanderen - Antwerpen (Belgium)
30th March 2024
- Directed by:Alain Platel
- Musical composition:Steven Prengels
- Assistance in direction and choreography:Bérengère Bodin, Quan Bui Ngoc, Romain Guion
- Guest choreographers:Mélanie Lomoff, Luis Marrafa
- Conductor:Zachary Zhu
- Singer:TK Russell
- Dance:Zoë Ashe-Browne, Claudio Cangialosi, Morgan Cappellari, Nelson Earl, Christina Guieb, Towa Iwase, Misako Kato, Morgan Lugo, Austin Meiteen, Ester Pérez, Niharika Senapati, Louis Thuriot, Lafeet Williams
- Choir & orchestra:Opera Ballet Flanders
- Language coach sign language:Bart Verheyden
- Scenography:Berlinde De Bruyckere
- Costume design:Dotje Demuynck
- Lighting design:Felice Ross
- Chorusmaster:Jan Schweiger
- Dramaturgy:Hildegard De Vuyst, Koen Bollen
- Production:Opera Ballet Flanders in collaboration with laGeste
“With Ombra, Alain Platel seems to draw up the account of a life: the life and death of a tree, that of Gerard Mortier and, as well, his own life and work. He does it virtuosically, with powerful imagery between despair and mildness.”
De Morgen – Stephan Moens – 02.04.2024
‘Never was a shade of a tree so lovely…’, it says in Händel’s famous aria ‘Ombra mai fu’. Alain Platel and visual artist Berlinde De Bruyckere take inspiration from the shade of a tree as a meeting place, as a place where people all over the world and throughout history come together to rest, meet or discuss problems. De Bruyckere’s poetic world of images seems to share a kinship with Platel’s universe.
After the overwhelming success of C(H)OEURS 2022, Platel once again invites the chorus members, dancers and orchestral musicians of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen to join a creative dialogue. Together with singer and performer TK Russell and guest choreographers Mélanie Lomoff and Luis Marrafa, they create the performance Ombra. Composer Steven Prengels is developing a new orchestral score in which he interweaves well-known classical masterpieces by the likes of Händel, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven into new layers of meaning.
