Visitors programme All Arias

26-27 Apr 2023
Visitors programme Ghent and Antwerp
Meet new talent from Flanders during our visitors programme for music theatre professionals

Laila Soliman

ALL ARIAS is the start of a new tradition, a biennial festival for music theatre from Belgium and abroad. LOD muziektheater, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Concertgebouw Brugge, De Singel and Muziektheater Transparant join forces for a packed and varied programme that takes place simultaneously in several cities. During this festival, Flanders Arts Institute organises a visitors programme for programmers and artists.

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.

The festival opens with the Belgian premiere of LOD’s Woman at Point Zero, by Laila Soliman, Bushra El-Turk and Stacy Hardy, 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 have its world premiere at the festival, and so will Figurine by Lieselot De Wilde.

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. Muziektheater Transparant will present Untold, a Chinese precursor to Cinderella, in a contemporary transcultural production by Alex Ho en Julia Cheng. 

Programme

Wednesday 26th of April

Vooruit Ghent, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23, 9000 Ghent

20:00 Woman at Point Zero (Vooruit Ghent)
After the event we travel to Antwerp by train together

Thursday 27th of April

Antwerp Opera, Frankrijklei 1, 2000 Antwerp10:00: welcome & coffee
10:30: plenary session: pitches and presentations of Flemish artists
12:30: lunch
13:30: breakout sessions: 3 double dates with programmers and artists
16:30: reception
18:00 diner (location to be determined)
20:00 The Golden Stool (Bourlaschouwburg Antwerp, Komedieplaats 18, 2000 Antwerpen)

More information?

Contact Ward Bosmans at Flanders Arts Institute.