Name: Festen
Start: 2025-02-11T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2025-02-27T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Royal Opera House

Admin

Royal Opera House

Stage director

Richard Jones

Set designer

Miriam Buether

Costume designer

Nicky Gillibrand

Lighting designer

Lucy Carter

Choreographer

Lucy Burge

Conductor

Edward Gardner

Chorus master

William Spaulding

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Others

Chorus of the Royal Opera House

Singer

Stéphane Degout

Michael

Gerald Finley

Helge

Eva-Maria Westbroek

Else

Natalya Romaniw

Helena

Thomas Oliemans

Helmut

Sophie Bevan

Mette

Susan Bickley

Grandma

Peter Brathwaite

Gbatokai

Marta Fontanals-Simmons

Linda

Aled Hall

Chef

Julian Hubbard

Lars

Clare Presland

John Tomlinson

Grandpa

Ailish Tynan

Christine

Kitty Whately

Michelle

Jeremy White

Poul

Ingliż

Festen

London

United Kingdom

Main Stage

Public

Sharan Allad

Approved

Decorum descends into chaos in this piercing new opera of trauma and complicity. Acclaimed contemporary composer Mark-Anthony Turnage (Anna Nicole, Coraline) and librettist Lee Hall (Billy Elliott) come together with director Richard Jones (La bohème, Samson et Dalila) to adapt Oscar-winning filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg’s (The Hunt, Another Round) 1998 film. An international cast conducted by Edward Gardner and led by Allan Clayton, Stéphane Degout, Gerald Finley and Eva-Maria Westbroek takes on this operatic world premiere.

FROM SCREEN TO STAGE
The Danish avant-garde film movement Dogme95 that became infamous within the world of cinema in the late nineties began with Festen (The Celebration), Thomas Vinterberg’s international breakthrough and the source material for composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. With fellow film director Lars von Trier (Nymphomaniac, Melancholia, Breaking the Waves – the latter two adapted into operas), Vinterberg created a manifesto that intentionally mimicked French film auteur François Truffaut’s ‘Une certaine tendance du cinema’, the Cahiers du cinéma article that had launched the French New Wave movement in 1954.   

The Dogme95 rules and their accompanying ‘vows of chastity’, as named by von Trier and Vinterberg, were to be implemented, first and foremost, to allow traditional storytelling, raw performance style and specific themes greater focus. Elaborate special effects and technology were forbidden, while shooting was to be done on location, in natural light and with hand-held cameras. With this approach, it is perhaps unsurprising that Festen – its damning emotional revelations unvarnished by the artificial devices of popular cinema – is particularly conducive to the more organic and indeed dramatic setting of the stage. In 2004, David Eldridge’s English-language stage adaptation of Vinterberg’s film premiered at the Almeida Theatre, before soon transferring to the West End and later embarking on various international tours, including a short stint on Broadway.

English

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