O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre. is an international festival with a programme full of surprises: from international top to primal Rotterdam and adventurous location projects. During O. 2024, more than 60 performances and concerts can be seen at 30 locations throughout Rotterdam. From works in progress to world premieres by young and more established names. O. runs from Thursday 16 May to Sunday 26 May.
The festival brings more than 60 productions to special locations in Rotterdam: from the heart of the city centre to the Kaap and across the Hofbogen. Visitors can once again visit ten full festival days of the most diverse performances with the narrative power of the singing voice as the guiding principle. The festival starts with the world premiere of Opera Aperta’s GAIA-24 from Ukraine, followed by First Night: a programme of sneak peeks of productions to be seen during the festival.
“O. is in the starting blocks and we are extremely proud of our programme. In addition to the world premiere of our opening performance, we will present artists from USA, Switzerland, Türkiye, Poland, among others, and have premieres by Dutch makers, including Club Gewalt and Steef de Jong. Of course, we also dive back into the city where O. lets residents and visitors discover Rotterdam in a new way,” says artistic director Guy Coolen.
Highlights at O. Festival
Over de Bogen will be a 2-kilometre-long walking concert on the Hofbogen, in collaboration with Rotterdam Rooftop Days. Artist duo Strijbos & Van Rijswijk will compose new music and songs with stories of the residents around the Hofbogen, written by Merel Smitt and translated into text by Corinne Heyrman;
In the Koopgoot Hooligan Art Community takes over an empty store with pop-up performances. In the intriguing interplay of film and live vocals of Black Lodge by David T. Little and Timur Bekbosunov, a tormented writer confronts demons of his own making in search of escape.
There is an intensive collaboration at the Kaap with Theatre Walhalla. Six productions can be visited here, including the premieres of In het Oog van de Oorkaan (De Amazones), Kaatje Kooij’s Stand-up Show: De Musical (Kaatje Kooij) and Animal Farm (Flip Noorman). On Saturday 25 May, new musical theatre makers will unveil their work and a diverse group of makers will gather for a day of creativity.
O. further presents (Dutch) premieres including DEEP/END by Club Gewalt and De Dansers (NL), ZUAM by Futurists Foundation / Jerzy Bielski (PL/NL), Fledermaus Forever with Ma’Ma Queen as special guest by Les Âmes Perdues, Tom Goossens, DESCHONECOMPANIE (BE/NL) and The Inner Circle by Rajiv Bhagwanbali (NL).
