Cultural Compass: An in-depth look at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen's new season

11 May 2025

Every Sunday, Belga English picks its favourite events from the cultural agenda. This week: Which operas and ballets stand out in Opera Ballet Vlaanderen's daring new season?

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (OBV) may be preparing for summer vacation, but the company did not leave audiences hanging with the announcement of their 2025/2026 season. It would not be a night at the opera or ballet without a little bit of chaos, a little bit of romance and a little bit of murder. This week, Belga English takes an in-depth look at OBV’s exciting new season.

^{© Opera Ballet Vlaanderen}

Parsifal

The season opens with Wagner’s Parsifal, a work deeply intertwined with OBV’s history. “Opera Ballet Vlaanderen has a long history with Parsifal,” says artistic director Jan Vandenhouwe. “The opera in Antwerp is one of the first places where the work was performed outside of Bayreuth.”

Wagner’s final opera follows the journey of a naïve young man who initially fails to show empathy to a suffering king and is punished for his indifference. His journey through the external world mirrors an inner transformation, culminating in a state of compassionate awareness.

“Parsifal is Wagner's last opera, his musical testament, in which he achieves absolute mastery. At the same time, it is one of his most controversial works, and so you are never finished with it,” concludes Vandenhouwe.

Carmen

Recognisable to anyone and everyone, the music from Bizet's Carmen is culturally iconic. The Habanera has been featured in pasta commercials, on episodes of The Muppets and even inspired a Beyoncé movie musical. While the melodies from the opera have been co-opted for lighter fare, the story itself is dark and violent.

“Carmen is much more than a simple love drama and is about a psychological struggle,” says director and choreographer Wim Vandekeybus. “It is about the lack of love. Love is extremely complex. What do you call the opposite of love? Jealousy? Greed? Power? Love is simply a mix of all of those things. Carmen is an investigation into the complex play of desire, power and ego.”

Lead characters Carmen and Don José embody complete opposites, with the former striving for freedom at all costs, including at the expense of her own life and the latter grappling with obsession and possession.

Vandekeybus presents Carmen as a timeless myth and keeps himself far away from Spanish folklore. He goes back to the archetypal roots of the story relying heavily on the bullfighting narrative and with a particular focus on riutal and initiation.

Carmen will be the largest production OBV has ever presented, with the choir, children's choir, ballet and orchestra working together.

Don Giovanni

“Don Giovanni is about debauchery, sin, the flesh"

Director Tom Goossens investigates Mozart’s controversial story in the era of #MeToo and cancel culture. The opera opens in a flurry as a masked Don Giovanni rapes Donna Anna and then murders her father. It is impossible to garner sympathy for such a character, and yet, the story portrays him as seductive and highly sought after by women from all over the world. Even with these dark themes, Don Giovanni is considered a comedic opera and delivers humour in spades with its lineup of wide-ranging characters and upbeat melodies.

While the finale sees the title character get his comeuppance as he is physically dragged into a flaming hell, Goossens questions whether there could ever be redemption for Don Giovanni and what that would look like in a modern societal context.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Romeo and Juliet levels of forbidden love, encounters with ghosts and a finale that leaves the stage dripping with blood, Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is a spine-tingling opera and mainstay in the repertoire.

Much more than a ghost story, Lucia centres on the title character’s struggle for autonomy in the midst of family politics. Pushed from all sides, but most violently by her brother into a strategic marriage, Lucia’s slow decline into justified madness provides a bloody and brutal finale that ends literally on a high note with one of the most famous “mad scenes” in all of opera.

RITES

The ballet programme is equally bold for the 2025/2026 season. OBV presents a powerful triptych: Maurice Ravel’s La Valse and Bolero alongside Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps in Pina Bausch’s raw, ritualistic choreography.

“The most famous ritual in ballet history is without a doubt Le Sacre du printemps,” says Vandenhouwe. “We present it in the phenomenal version by Pina Bausch. It is a hard and merciless performance in which themes such as peer pressure, sacrifice and violence against women are lifted to an existential level.”

There’s a local twist to Ravel’s La Valse, too: “It was long thought that the ballet La Valse was created in Paris, but letters from Ravel have recently revealed that a choreographer from the then ballet of the opera in Antwerp first choreographed it here exactly one hundred years ago," Vandenhouwe confirms.

Also on the programme is Greek choreographer Christos Papadopoulos' Opus, a vibrant group work set to Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge. Bach’s music reappears in the second ballet triple bill Love & Loss, which features Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s reinterpretation of her Mitten wir im Leben sind and William Forsythe’s moving Quintett, created as a final love letter to his dying wife.

Concerts and outreach

Beyond staged works, the season also includes an array of concerts and educational offerings. OBV’s outreach division VONK presents a standout project: queerPassion, a reinterpretation of Bach’s St. John Passion centered on queer histories.

In this poignant adaptation, the stories of LGBTQ+ individuals—ranging from 18th-century executions to modern hate crimes—are told with newly written lyrics, while preserving the integrity of Bach’s music. Events such as the 1721 execution of a trans person in Halberstadt and the 1730–31 persecution of gay men in Utrecht are juxtaposed with contemporary tragedies like the Pulse nightclub shooting and violence against lesbian women in Mexico. queerPassion stands as a bold call for equality, diversity, and solidarity.

The curtain falls in Ghent...for now

In addition to the new season lineup, Ghent Opera House has an announcement of its own. Much like the changing of sets and costumes, Ghent Opera House will undergo a long-overdue makeover.

Built in 1840, the building will undergo major upgrades beginning next year, a project two decades in the making. The renovation will take at least four years, but performances will continue at alternate venues including Capitole, MIRY Concert Hall, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke and NTGent. A shuttle bus will also be provided for patrons.

The upgrades will include improvements to the theatre hall and orchestra pit, restoration of the chandelier and a revival of the original colour scheme. The opera house’s trio of majestic ballrooms will be carefully restored and refreshed.

With a season that spans ritual, resistance, madness, myth and transformation, OBV’s upcoming programme is poised to leave a lasting impact on audiences in Flanders.

(MOH)

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Ongoing events

Antwerp
Hans Op De Beeck: Nocturnal Journey, KMSKA
COMPASSION, MAS
Exhibitions at FOMU
Fashion and Interiors: A Gendered Affair, MoMu
While We Count Our Earthquakes

Brussels
Berlinde De Bruyckere: Khorós, Bozar
When We See Us, Bozar
Steve McCurry: Icons
Skateboard: A Design Story

Ghent
Jules De Bruyckner, MSK
Michiel Hendryckx: Beauty as Resistance
Art Against Violence

Hasselt
Modelling Life, Z33
Rococo Reboot!

Kortrijk
F**klore. Reinventing Tradition, Abby

Leuven
Grace Schwindt: A History of Touch, Museum M
Sigefride Bruna Hautman, Museum M

Ypres
Shoot Me a Bird