Songs often attempt to describe how we feel when we’re in love. And as they’re describing, they are also telling us how we should feel. Opera is filled with tales of violence, of great passions tragically predetermined by social inequalities that are usually more cruel and exclusionary towards women as well as minorities occupying symbolically weaker positions of power. The ‘Tragic Heroine’ was one of the key figures in the erotics of heterosexual desire that emerged alongside the invention of homosexuality as an identity. One of her fatal flaws was her attraction to catastrophe; her other fatal flaw was her fidelity in love. The real life suppression of real women led to the host culture inventing its own representation of the gender, and it was this fictional ‘woman’ who appeared on stage. De Roover is interested in subverting this fiction, and presenting a new kind of love that doesn’t have a precedent in contemporary media representation. 

Read more about the opening programme

Marijke De Roover’s opening performance will be presented at the IMPAKT Festival with the kind support of the Flemish Arts Centre de Brakke Grond.

Single ticket for this programme

Online festival pass

* Online festival passes gives you access to the entire festival programme online. An online festival pass is also included for each day pass. Read more about the ticket types here