Photo: Hugo Thomassen Staged world premiere Libretto Meriç Artaç Musical direction Sora Elisabeth Lee Stage direction Silvia Costa Video design Lorem AI / Francesco D’Abbraccio Collaboration to set design Davis Hart Dramaturgy Jasmijn van Wijnen New European Ensemble Chorus of Dutch National Opera Chorus master Edward Ananian-Cooper In collaboration with November Music In this new work by Meriç Artaç, the main protagonist Mariza suddenly finds herself in an unfamiliar liminal space, in a shadowland between the life she knew and an inscrutable future. Together with her strange companion Ra, she goes on a journey to revisit her most important memories. Collaborating festivals The requiem started as a church mass, sung for the dead. Many composers wrote music for this ritual, marking the transition between life and death. Over time, the requiem evolved into a music genre in its own right. Every year, the November Music Festival in Den Bosch invites a contemporary composer to write a Bosch Requiem inspired by this musical tradition. To celebrate OFF’s tenth anniversary, this year the two festivals have jointly commissioned the composer Meriç Artaç. Her new work will have its premiere in concert form during the November Music Festival, followed by a music theatre production at OFF, featuring the Chorus of Dutch National Opera. Poetic and layered Meriç Artaç has a great love of multidisciplinary work and has already composed various operas and works of music theatre, including Madam Koo and The Arrival of Mr. Z. As a lecturer at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, she has been supervising composition students for years in writing their short operas for the Opera Forward Festival. With Requiem, she will be making her composition debut at Dutch National Opera. The stage direction is in the hands of Silvia Costa, who has rapidly built an impressive career in the international opera world. Her talent for creating poetic and multi-layered productions has made her one of the most sought-after young directors of the moment. The New European Ensemble will be led by Sora Elisabeth Lee, who is making an international breakthrough as a conductor and will make her debut at Dutch National Opera with Requiem. On the threshold of the unknown What happens in the last few seconds before you are gone for good? Meriç Artaç took this intriguing question as the starting point for a new work of music theatre offering a modern take on the centuries-old genre of the requiem. Premiere 13/3/2026 Subsequent performances: 15*, 19, 21 March 2026 | Curtain-up: 20:00 / *14:00 | Ticket sales start on: 28 August 2025 | Prices: TBA | Location: Main Stage, Dutch National Opera & Ballet “Artaç’s music alternates between the lyrical, powerfully visual and atmospheric” NRC Since its founding in 2009, the New European Ensemble from The Hague has grown into a leading Dutch collective for contemporary music. The ensemble aims to tell modern stories through the communicative power of music and collaborates with various artists, cultural institutions, and social organisations. 49
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