At the La Monnaie / De Munt Theater

In this Daphne – the ‘bucolic tragedy’ about the beautiful Daphne, who is loved both by the simple shepherd Leukippos and the god Apollo – director Guy Joosten sets the world of an ecologically-inspired ‘hipster’ on the fringes of the mainstream against a hard economic reality. Apollo kills his rival and leaves Daphne inconsolable, after which he immortalises her in the form of a laurel tree. Daphne’s sad story, as described by Ovid and given shape to by Bernini and Chassériau in the plastic arts, inspired Richard Strauss to write his thirteenth opera, which quite possibly contains his finest music. ‘ The metamorphosis of Daphne is set in a total union with the music, whereby the words become superfluous and Daphne becomes just a voice that resounds out of the moonlit treetop’ – this is how the librettist Joseph Gregor characterised the ultimate moment in the opera.

New production Production La Monnaie / De Munt With the support of Belfius

Daphne: CAST

Music direction ¦ Lothar Koenigs
Director ¦ Guy Joosten
Set design ¦ Alfons Flores
Costumes ¦ Moritz Junge
Lighting ¦ Manfred Voss
Video ¦ Franc Aleu
Choreography ¦ Aline David
Chorus direction ¦ Martino Faggiani
Peneios ¦ Iain Paterson
Gaea ¦ Birgit Remmert
Daphne ¦ Sally Matthews
Leukippos ¦ Peter Lodahl
Apollo ¦ Eric Cutler
Erste Magd ¦ Tineke Van Ingelgem
Zweite Magd ¦ Maria Fiselier
Schäfer ¦ Matt Boehler
Gijs Van der Linden
Kris Belligh
Justin Hopkins

Orchestra & chorus ¦ La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra & Men’s Chorus

09, 11, 14, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, 27 & 30 September

Sung in German
Surtitles in French / Dutch

Approximate running time: 1hour 45′ (no interval)

Pre-performance talks half an hour before the start of the performances by Jacqueline Guisset (in French) in the Grand Foyer and by Reinder Pols (in Dutch) in the Foyer Alechinsky.