FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES
World Opera Lab
National Network
Netherlands
Address
Hoofdweg 244-2 Amsterdam NetherlandsCountry
NetherlandsCity
AmsterdamStreet address 2
Hoofdweg 244-2Telephone
0031-613205156Website
Click HereYear of Establishment
2008Contact Person1
Miranda LakerveldJob Title 1
artistic directorOrganisation Type
Non-Governmental OrganizationFields of Activity
ArtsGeneral Information
World Opera Lab is a small NGO based in Amsterdam-west, with a flexible staff. It has two staff members, and at the hight of production perdiod around 30 people are invloved in projects. The budget per year is around 100.000 coming from diverse funds, like the municiplaity, art foundations, and private funds. At the moment, we establish around 20 perfromances per year, one big open air intercultural opera in the centre of Amsterdam-west, one or two crirical theatre/debate pieces on issues in the Middle East, several pre-views and discussion in communitiy centres. Next to that we provide dutch classes to migrant women, and chorus classes. Research into forms of music-drama for outside Europe is an important part of our work, for example in Iran, in which we usually also exchange knowledge with local artsists on work-methods. The make our work sustainalbe in the future, we would like to work with partners in European cities with a similar dynamics as Amsterdam, and countries in the MENA region to do research into the heritage of migrant communities. Main current partmers are: municipality of Amsterdam-west, local social organizations, Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra, art funds, University of Amsterdam, De Balie debate centre, Citizen Artist Incubator. For specific projects we worked with local partners; for example Darpana perfromance group in Gujurat, The Banyan mental health clinic in Chennai, and theatre groups in Teheran.Mission and Objectives
World Opera Lab creates opera-performances that reflect the diversity of European society today. It aims to create opera that transcends cultures and borders. An intercultural form of opera could function as a tool for dialogue between cultures, and celebrate diversity. As a foundation for this work, artistic director Miranda Lakerveld studies traditional music drama in Mexico, Guatemala, India, Iran, Japan, the Tibetan community in exile, and music and rituals from the MENA-region. She is developing a unique work method based on her findings, through which artists from different traditions can have a dialogue. In the present year we aim to adress religious conflicts thorugh our work, about perspectives on veiling and beauty in 'Dance of the seven veils', and a new interreligious ceremony about sacrifice around the story of Abraham & Isaac/Ibrahim & Ishmael. Our goals are: • To explore new ways of working, and create new artistic forms to address social issues with opera, specifically those that result from migration and living in diaspora. • To explore and apply traditional methods to support communities from rituals like Zar and music-drama’s like Ta’ziye, to opera. • To create a dialogue between artists, community-members, social institutions and academics. • Find collaborating partners to exchange visions on opera in an intercultural context. • To examine and test social applications of opera. • To develop the work-method of intercultural opera in which heritage and oral traditions are equally important as the opera-repertoire.Main Projects / Activities
Video's: Majnun & Leyla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u5VtovOCN8&app=desktop The homecoming of Ulysses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-3pvV5JIRs Future projects: The sacrifice (Abraham and Isaac-Ibrahim & Ismael)/performances around Eid in September 2017 Dance of the seven veils/ Straus & Aftab Darvishi/ Municiplaity of Amsterdam-west/ December 2016 My heart drowns in blood/ Bach & Aftab Darvishi/ with the Middle East Report on Iran/ November 2016 Winterreise/Schubert-Massih Hutak/with the Middle East report on Afghanistan/ October 2016 Past projects: Majnun & Leyla/ Arabic-Indian-Turkish-Persian traditional music/June 2016 Why Yemen matters/ Händel & traditional Yemeni music/ With The Middle East report/ Amsterdam/ april 2016 Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria/Monteverdi-Al Andalus/ Amsterdam/May 2015 Baarsjes Odyssey/Monteverdi-Al Andalus/Amsterdam/ December 2014 Dafne/ Chennai-India/ with the Banyan/ January 2014 Erda- The Earth/ Tsoupaki/ Dutch National Opera/ Amsterdam/ November 2013 Map of down below, an opera-installation/Monteverdi / with Kosmopolis The Hague 2011 Orfeo in India / Monteverdi /with Darpana performance group / India 2010 In angustiis..I & II / Lorca-Macmillan-Crumb / 2008 Krapp's Last Tape / Beckett-Bach-Stravinsky / with Nederlands Kamerorkest /2007 We provide Dutch classes to migrant women twice a week and organize activities, workshops and conversations in the community.How can you contribute to the Network in your country?
We can contribute with our knowhow on working with migrant communities in diffrent contexts and the importance of heritage. We specialize in working with interreligious symbols and stories. Over the last years we have built a knowhow and workmethods on how to fuse art-forms and heritage from different traditions. This approach seems fruitful in the places we have worked so far, providing a space for intercultural and interreligious dialogue. We are part of a growing a network of like-minded organizations, artists and funds, and take part in the dialogue around art, social impact and policymaking via this network. Research forms the basis of our work, and we love to be part of a larger movement that thinks about how to built communities through art in the future. Through our work with heritage we gain interesting insight in underlying dynamics in conflicts, which can be interesting to other stakeholders.Why do you want to join the ALF Network?
During the Citizen Artist Incubator in Vienna several faculty-members suggested to connect to the Anna Lindh Foundation as a wonderful network. We want to be part of a larger network of organizations that create social and political impact. Now that our work has proved succesful locally, we would like to reach out to other organsiations and develop these ideas, and exchange methods in other contexts with simular social dynamics. We would like to connect to organsiations in the MENA region, for research purpuses, exchange of ideas, and possibly future collaborations.