Philip Venables

New opera announced: We Are The Lucky Ones

20 March 2024 - news

I’m delighted to announce our next opera, We Are The Lucky Ones.

The opera is commissioned by Dutch National Opera, and it will premiere at the Opera Forward Festival in Amsterdam on 14th March 2025. I am writing it with Ted Huffman and playwright Nina Segal. It will be my first opera with orchestra, conducted by Bassem Akiki. We have a stellar cast: Claron McFadden, Jacquelyn Stucker, Nina van Essen, Helena Rasker, Miles Mykkanen, Frederick Ballentine, Germán Olvera and Alex Rosen.

The press release says: “We Are The Lucky Ones tells the story of a generation. It is based on interviews with more than 70 people in Western Europe who were born in between 1940 and 1949. It is the story of people who started out life with little, who experienced ever-improving living standards and are now leaving behind a world where such growth is no longer sustainable. Their memories form a collective time capsule of the past eighty years, told as one continuous life story in music theatre form. Following individual experiences and societal changes over the decade, the opera raises crucial about the relationship between the private and the political, the impact of our choices and what truly matters in the end.”

Tickets will be available in August.

› tags: 2024/25 Season / Alex Rosen / Bassem Akiki / Claron McFadden / Dutch National Opera / Frederick Ballentine / Germán Olvera / Helena Rasker / Jacquelyn Stucker / Miles Mykkanen / News / Nina Segal / Nina van Essen / Opera & Music Theatre / Ted Huffman / We Are The Lucky Ones /