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esperanza spalding / Wayne Shorter – … (​IPHIGENIA​)

Sunday 22 November 2026, 20:00

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Muziek

(…) IPHIGENIA by Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding reimagines the classical myth as a radical opera. Jazz and orchestra merge in a moving score, in which Iphigenia appears as a collective voice and the genre itself is redrawn. With … (IPHIGENIA) Wayne Shorter (1933-2023) and esperanza spalding rewrote one of the oldest stories from the Western canon. Shorter was described by The New York Times as 'jazz's greatest living composer'. Together with spalding he created not a classical adaptation, but an intervention - in the myth, in music, in opera itself. Jazz and classical music flow together in an orchestral score that is continuously in motion. Shorter's symphonic improvisation takes centre stage: music as something that emerges, shifts and eludes fixed forms. Iphigenia does not appear as a single character, but as a multiplicity. Her voice is shared, fragmented and carried by a choir of bodies on stage. Not an isolated heroine, but a collective that talks back. This opera looks directly at the history of the genre - and refuses to repeat it. No aesthetics of suffering. No women dying in perfect harmony. At the end, Shorter and spalding direct their gaze outward, beyond the stage. What are we making today, at this precise moment, now that other stories are needed?

Performers

Octopus Theatricals, productie | Claron McFadden, Usher | Paolo Szot, Menelaos | Sharmay Musacchio, Iphigenia the Elder | NN, Kalchas | Phillip Golub, muzikale dramaturgie | Arnold Livingston Geis, Agamemnon | Kelly Guerra, Iphigenia Unbound, Opera Broadcast Host | Sophia Byrd, Iphigenia of the Sea | Clark Rundell, muzikale leiding, orkestratie, arrangementen | Sunder Ganglani, dramaturgie | Mikaela Bennett, Iphigenia the Younger | Kristin Renee Young, Iphigenia of the Light | Danilo Pérez, piano | Wayne Shorter, compositie, orkestratie | Caroline Shaw, a capella vocale arrengementen | esperanza spalding, libretto, Iphigenia of the Open Tense | Joy Harjo, bijkomende teksten | Real Magic, productie | Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, co-commissie | Ford Foundation (New York), met steun van | John Patitucci, contrabas | Wayne Shorter Trio, muzikale uitvoering | Safiya Sinclair, bijkomende teksten | The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC), co-commissie | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (New York), met steun van | NFM Choir, muzikale uitvoering | Ganavya Doraiswamy, bijkomende teksten | Cath Brittan, productie | The Broad Stage (Los Angeles), co-commissie | Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (New York), met steun van | Mara Isaacs, productie | NFM Orchestra, muzikale uitvoering | ArtsEmerson (Boston), co-commissie | Alexander Leff, met steun van | Carolina Performing Arts (Chapel Hill, NC), co-commissie | Thomas M. Neff, met steun van | Jeff Tang, productie | MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), co-commissie | Stavros Niarchos Foundation (Kallithea), met steun van | New Music USA (New York), met steun van | ...(Iphigenia) crowdfunding campaign, met steun van

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