Features

Opera is an art form replete with tales. Find your way through narratives, adventures, and biographies. Find out how opera brings many streams of the arts together.

The Rake's Progress
The devil’s in the details

Costume designer Christina Lovery creates a distorted reality in The Rake’s Progress.

Fidelio
Strong Women in Opera: Leonore

Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio - also called Leonore in its first two versions - is the assumed name of a woman, Leonore, who disguises herself as a man to free her husband Florestan, a political prisoner who has been arbitrarily detained. 

Leonardo Sánchez
A Young Artist's Journey – Tenor Leonardo Sánchez

In this two part short documentary, we follow the young tenor Leonardo Sánchez on his very personal journey to the stage, supported along the way by OperaVision-partner Opera for Peace who commissioned this fascinating insight in his influences, highs, lows and big breaks.

Surrogate Cities
Surrogate Cities (Excerpts)

Surrogate Cities is the latest creation by Demis Volpi, ballet director and chief choreographer of Ballett am Rhein. Set to Heiner Goebbels's visceral and hypnotic composition of the same name, Volpi has set out to create an evening-length abstract ballet, inspired by the multicoloured sound world of Goebbels. In the days before 29 April 2024, Ballett am Rhein have recorded specially this excerpt for OperaVision’s International Dance Day celebrations. Be prepared for something new, abstract and urban, echoing the metropolis as a space of extreme contradictions.

Romanian Folk Dances
Rumänische Volkstänze

Romanian Folk Dances is a joyful choreography for 3 dancers, set to Béla Bartók’s music by Antonio Lanzo, a young member of Polish National Ballet. The work is part of Creations 16, the 16th Choreographic Workshop of Polish National Ballet, performed on stage from 13 to 16 March 2024.

Iustitia
Our Nature, Iustitia, Pie Jesu

Two dancers, yearning for human contact, face the impossibility of coming together. A personification of justice tries to free herself from her stone slumber. An intimate duet unfolds in Antwerp Cathedral. Our Nature, Iustitia and Pie Jesu are three poetic works choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and produced by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen during lockdown, as part of their #verbeeldingleeft (Imagination Lives) series. International Dance Day is an opportunity to rediscover these short and moving pieces on timeless themes.

Ariadne auf Naxos
Strauss, Hofmannsthal and Ariadne

Ariadne holds a historical place in the legacy of the Strauss-Hofmannsthal collaboration. The composer and the librettist wanted to redefine a Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) for the twentieth century.

Totality in Parts
Totality in Parts

First created for Royal Swedish Ballet in 2018, Totality in Parts is ‘a soft, sharp, musically pulsating flow, structured with the precision of clockwork’ (according to the Swedish daily, Svenska Dagbladet). This performance was filmed in February 2024, and today OperaVision unveils the digital premiere, especially for International Dance Day. In Lukaš Timulak’s choreography after the entrance of a single soloist, the number of dancers doubles until sixteen dancers fill on stage - exploring what connects us humans, our planet and the universe.