Before I Die

For the Rotterdam O. Festival in 2017 Mart directed Before I Die, after a musical concept by Lies Colman. In the performance, characters from the opera’s Madame Butterfly by Puccini and Norma by Bellini meet each other in a hallucinative reliving of their romantic past. Colman adapted arias from both operas for a chamber music ensemble and Anna Maria Versloot wrote a new tekst for the male antagonist. Through song, fights and heated conversation, the characters search for reconciliation with the cruel fate that brought them love as well as death.

Before I Die was coproduced by I Solisti Belgian Wind Ensemble Antwerp.