The prestigious Melbourne International Arts Festival will open on 11 October 2012 with Michel van der Aa’s first full-length opera After Life.
Original cast members Roderick Williams (Aiden), Richard Suart (Mr. Walter), Helena Rasker (Bryna), and Yvette Bonner (Sarah) and Margriet van Reisen (Ilana) will be flying to Melbourne, alongside Yannick Muriel Noah as Chief. Wouter Padberg will conduct the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in three semi-staged performances on 11, 12 and 13 October at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre.
Adapted from the film of the same name by Hirokazu Kore-Eda, ‘After Life’ presents a group of characters who are about to trade their earthly existence for perpetuity in heaven. They are allowed to relive a key moment in their life one last time in the form of a film, which they will take with them into eternity.
“Van der Aa, stage director and mastermind as well as composer, pushes the boundaries of all of his media. This is the Gesamtkunst of the future.” (Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times)
This will be the opera’s third revival, following its premiere at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam that opened the 2006 Holland Festival, and revised productions at Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, Opéra de Lyon and the Barbican, London in the 2009–10 season.
For more details, please visit the Melbourne Festival website