Organization

Conductor

Filip Rathé

Stage director

Carlos Wagner

Set designer

Alexander Andujar

Costume designer

Alejandro Andújar

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen

Singer

Contralto

Oleksandra Kuzmina

Lucretia

Baritone

SoJin Yang

Tarquinius

Soprano

Eriko Hashimoto

Lucia

Agata Kowalik

Bass

Dashuai Jiao

Collatinus

Alexander Ivanov

Junius

Orchestra

Ensemble SPECTRA

Tenor

Park Kwanhee

Male chorus

Mezzo-soprano

YoonJung Kim

Bianca

Ecem Topcu

Female chorus

Ernestina Jošt

English

The Rape of Lucretia

Antwerp

Belgium

Theater 't Eilandje

Ghent

De Minardschouwburg

The Rape of Lucretia Britten

Public

Dutch

Approved

"Now no sea is deep enough to drown my shame," Lucretia voices her despair after her rape by the tyrannical Roman King Sextus Tarquinius. The married Lucretia, known for her faithfulness, refuses to continue living with the trauma of her assault, even if the tyrant is banished and a new regime is installed. Benjamin Britten wrote his stylised chamber opera The Rape of Lucretia during the Second World War, in a period that was marked not only by the horrors of war but also by a dramatic increase in crimes and sexual violence. Director Carlos Wagner takes that historical context as a starting point for a powerful new version of the opera with the young singers of the International Opera Academy. Like the composer, he reads the original ancient story as an allegory about the inability to gain power and to subjugate, and as a case study in the political exploitation of a crime, regardless of the fate of the victim.

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble