Nationale Reisopera: Second Love

Studium Generale and The Vrijthof Theatre are teaming up to offer students a unique opportunity to go to the opera – at a quarter of the normal price!

Composers Gerald Barry and Jan-Peter de Graaff explore love and betrayal from two different angles: The Stronger and Hagar. 

In The Stronger, we meet two women in a restaurant. Madame X finds out that Mademoiselle Y may have had an affair with her husband. Madame X feels powerless, but realises that she is still the stronger of the two women. In Hagar, the story moves to the kitchen. Waitress Hagar tells chef and secret lover Abram that she is pregnant by him. Abram is excited, but fears his wife Sarai will find out. Sarai, who runs the restaurant, discovers the news. Tension in the kitchen runs high - with dramatic consequences. 

The Stronger, Barry's adaptation of August Strindberg's monodrama Den Starkare, is cast in the form of a conversation between two women: an opera singer and a silent actress. For Hagar, De Graaff teams up with librettist Eleanor Barlow to tell a modern story in which the characters make us reflect on our own complicated lives. 

The opera will be performed in English with Dutch and English surtitles. 

In cooperation with Theater aan het Vrijthof.