Skip to main content
Nederlands

World premiere

Eight

Michel van der Aa

Music theatre, virtual reality and visual arts come together in Eight. After Holland Festival productions such as the operas After Life and Sunken Garden and the digital song cycle The Book of Sand, Michel van der Aa has taken another step in applying ‘mixed reality’ to this new, innovative work. Eight tells a woman’s poignant life story in reverse chronological order. Visitors, equipped with VR glasses and headphones, move one by one through an installation. They can manipulate physical and virtual objects, and meet the woman at various crucial moments in her life. Together with singer and actress Kate Miller-Heidke, the Nederlands Kamerkoor, set designer Theun Mosk and a technical team responsible for the breath-taking VR experience, Van der Aa shows once again why he is one of the world’s most inventive composers.

dates

June 4 - June 23

information

  • English

  • Duration of performance unknown

You’re surrounded by darkness – a path on the floor is the only thing you can make out. You hear footsteps; an old woman comes walking towards you. Her hand reaches into the black space. A wall appears;

You’re surrounded by darkness – a path on the floor is the only thing you can make out. You hear footsteps; an old woman comes walking towards you. Her hand reaches into the black space. A wall appears;

it bends with her touch and stretches out into a curved hallway. When you follow the woman, around the corner, you suddenly find yourself face to face with her younger self.

With the monodrama One, the cello concerto Up-close – part concert, part film, part theatre – and the operas After Life and Blank Out, Michel van der Aa has proved his incontestable mastery of multimedia musical theatre. After previous productions at the Holland Festival, such as 3D opera Sunken Garden and the digital song cycle Book of Sand, this year sees him taking things one step further. In the ‘mixed-reality’ song cycle Eight, written for actress-singer Kate Miller-Heidke and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, music, poetry, new media and installation art all blend together into a powerful virtual-reality experience. The music that plays throughout the installation forms the centrepiece of a new album that is to be released prior to Eight’s world premiere. 

Eight tells a woman’s life story in reverse chronological order. Equipped with VR goggles and headphones, visitors move one by one through a physical installation created by set designer Theun Mosk, in which actual hallways merge almost imperceptibly with virtual hallways, creating an infinite space. Meanwhile the woman’s memories are spread out all across the flexible walls in the form of interactive hieroglyphs, ready to be activated.

A touch causes the walls to start vibrating to the music. They pulsate more and more powerfully – until they explode outwards.

Read less

credits

composition Michel van der Aa direction Michel van der Aa script Michel van der Aa set design Theun Mosk set, VR design Theun Mosk mezzo-soprano Kate Miller-Heidke soprano Livia Kolk actress Vakil Eelman, Kate Miller-Heidke, Livia Kolk choir Nederlands Kamerkoor, Boudewijn Jansen VR Virtual Dutch Men 3D modelling Human Alloy dramaturges Madelon Kooijman, Niels Nuijten music producers Thijs de Vlieger (Noisia), Michel van der Aa costumes Esmée Thomassen styling Esmée Thomassen executive producer Ellen van Bunnik ('n More) technical manager Siemen van der Werf general manager Rosita Wouda (doubleA Foundation) commissioned by Holland Festival, Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence/Château La Coste, Beijing Music Festival, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen with the support of Fonds Podiumkunsten, The Creative Industries Fund NL, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds, Ammodo, Nederlands Kamerkoor and doubleA Foundation

This performance is made possible by