Nighttown - an operatic reimagining of James Joyce's Ulysses
Schedule
Tue, 03 Feb, 2026 at 07:30 pm to Sat, 07 Feb, 2026 at 07:30 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag - Royal Conservatoire The Hague | The Hague, ZH
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The Dutch National Opera Academy presents a daring new opera by Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg. In cooperation with student ensembles from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and Conservatorium of Amsterdam, four chances to see this 'operatic reimagining of James Joyce's Ulysses'. SYNOPSIS:
A married couple in bed: one asleep, the other awake and thinking—and as she thinks, her imagination runs wild. This daring, visceral new opera accessibly retells one of the most monumental novels in the English language through the consciousness of women and nonbinary characters still finding their voices 100 years after its publication. The narrative of Homer’s Odyssey— as retold through James Joyce’s earthy modernist portrayal of a single day in Dublin, Ulysses—is infused into the interior lives of interconnected characters rocked by grief. Nighttown presents the raucous “Circe” chapter of Joyce’s book through the perspective of opera singer Molly Bloom’s (Joyce’s “Penelope” character) famous closing soliloquy. The opera portrays the events of this episode as Molly’s own odyssey—rife with contemporary angles and themes that resonate strongly in our present world—launching from dreamy musings in bed next to her sleeping husband into a wild world of her own imagination. Through dramatic forays into sexuality, sedition, collision, confrontation, transgression, and ultimately, profound loss, Nighttown shows us how to lose, and then once again find, a sense of home—not where, but who, that is.
DATES:
Tuesday 03. February 2026 | 19:30
Wednesday 04. February 2026 | 19:30
Friday 06. February 2026 | 19.30
Saturday 07. February 2026 | 14:15 (matinee)
CAST & MUSICAL TEAM:
Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg, dirigent
Aimee Kearney / Madeline Lee, sopraan/mezzo sopraan – Molly Bloom (Penelope)
Mathilde Guedj / Clarisse Planchais – De Nymph
Román Bordón / Jaap van der Wel – Leopold Bloom (Odysseus)
Salvador Simão – Stephen Dedalus (Telemachus)
Milan de Korte – Bell* Cohen (tenor)
Cathal McCabe – Buck Mulligan
Pavel Zelenev – Mentes / Blazes Boylan
Kasia Mandla – Calypso / geest van Stephens moeder
Maura Wesseling – Nausicaa
Robert Chevara, regie & vormgeving
Mattijs van Bergen, kostuumontwerpen
Bugra Yüzügüldü, assistent-dirigent
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Where is it happening?
Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag - Royal Conservatoire The Hague, Spuiplein 154, 2511 Den Haag, Nederland, The Hague, NetherlandsEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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