About
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (OBV) presents opera, ballet, concerts, and music theater as contemporary and living art, from its home bases in Ghent and Antwerp. Moreover, through its Vonk productions, the house provides a platform for young creators to experiment and innovate, focusing on participation and co-creation. OBV is the largest cultural institution in Flanders. The organization has a symphony orchestra, a choir and children's choir, and a ballet company.
Annually, OBV merges opera and ballet into unique hybrid productions such as Alain Platel's C(H)ŒURS 2022 (Verdi, Wagner), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Satyagraha (Philip Glass), and Alan Lucien Øyen's Rusalka (Dvořák). Other notable opera productions recently staged by the house include Franz Schreker's Der Schmied von Gent by Ersan Mondtag, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde by Philippe Grandrieux, Schumann's Szenen aus Goethes Faust by video artist Julian Rosefeldt and choreographer Femke Gyselinck, and the world premieres of Les Bienveillantes (Hèctor Parra) and De bekeerlinge (Wim Henderickx). The Ballet's associate artists are Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Jermaine Maurice Spivey, and Jan Martens, whose FUTUR PROCHE premiered in 2021 at the Cour d'honneur in Avignon. Other successful ballet productions in recent years include Mozart / Concert Arias by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Creature by Akram Khan, and the double bill New Ballet mécanique / Half Life by Richard Siegal and Sharon Eyal.
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen - OBV - is based on three pillars: Opera, Ballet, and VONK. Together, they present opera, ballet, concerts, and music theater as contemporary and living art forms.
Over the seasons, Opera and Ballet focus on:
- major works from opera and ballet history;
- discovering small and large works from a distant and recent past; contemporary creations;
- hybrid projects in which opera and ballet can come together in a new, synergistic way.
VONK specifically focuses on:
- artistic education for children, youth, and adults;
- connecting art and society through participatory projects; innovative research on the future of our genres;
- supporting, developing, and training artistic talent.
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen does this:
- from the urban identity of Antwerp and Ghent;
- in active collaboration with the Flemish and international cultural field; and for the most diversified audience possible.