03.04.2025

Many premieres, special location performances, young makers and a peek into rehearsal rooms during anniversary edition

From Friday 23 May to Sunday 1 June, the twentieth edition of O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre. more than 100 performances and 50 different productions can be seen at 30 diverse locations in and around Rotterdam: from the heart of Rotterdam city centre to the Havenkerk in Schiedam and an abandoned car park in Zuid. Visitors can once again visit ten full festival days of the most diverse performances, guided by the narrative power of the singing voice. The festival kicks off with Café de Verlossing, an imaginative opera about wandering souls, by Silbersee and a choir of elderly people from Schiedam.

“O. is an important moment both in its own city, nationally and internationally for showcasing new forms of opera and musical theatre. Professionals alongside amateurs, older people alongside young people and local artists alongside top international performers. We go all over town again with location projects and in many projects we work with local choirs, because singing together connects. And that’s what O. stands for: an open festival where everyone belongs and gets ideas for hopefully a better world.’” – Guy Coolen, artistic director O.

Programme O. 2025
Some highlights from the 2025 programme include:

• The premiere of the musical thrill-drive NOT HERE, an O. production in collaboration with Annelinde Bruijs & Suze Milius (NL), about the impossibility of being able to feel through the experience of the other;
• In the new Luxor Theatre, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra i.c.w. Laurens Symfonisch (NL) present the human quest for immortality in the premiere of Anima Obscura;
• Studio Vacuüm / Mees Vervuurt (NL) premieres A Myth and provides a musical, sensory immersion in an elusive mythical world in BRUTUS;
• TR25 Schouwburg once again hosts a large and diverse programme this year, including a sizzling mix of opera, slam, house and so much more in the Dutch premieres of Hannibal by De Cock & Junior Mthombeni / KVS (BE) and a daring fusion of opera and electronic music in the immersive club experience LU OpeRAVE by Fattoria Vittadini (IT). Also here is the final part of the trilogy and the Dutch premiere of NOW WE ARE EARTH / An Orchestra, by Nicole Beutler Projects (NL). Resonate Productions (NL) invites visitors to feel what it means to be human in today’s world with Nothing Bigger Than Humanity;
• At Katendrecht, in close collaboration with Theater Walhalla, nine productions will be on view this year, including the (Dutch) premieres of 24 Italian Songs & Arias, a show about failure by two award-winning failures (Brian Lobel with Gweneth-Ann Rand and guests of honour (UK)), a ratgirl summer in Versailles with BEYOND THE BALL (Collectief Aqueerius (NL)) and a duet between a young woman and the silver screen in The Sont of Mjoezik (Maria Zandvliet (NL)).

O. further presents (Dutch) premieres of Trouble in Tahiti by Studio PBA (BE), The Phonograph Changed Meby Rotterdam Arab Film Festival, Marmoucha Orchestra (EG) and O., which is also the opening of RAFF, Dante Songbook by Silbersee and Sterre Konijn (NL), BULK by WUNDERBAUM (NL), De Reis van Stanley Clementina (NL/CW), Vier Muren by Marios Bellas (NL/GR) and ZING ONTBIJT by Collectief King Sisters (NL).

Development of new work
This edition, the festival again has an eye on the development of new work. During O. Lab, the audience will be actively involved in the creative process. Theatre-makers present research material and go into dialogue with the audience based on their questions.

New this year are the Works in Progress: performances in the making. Visitors get a look in the rehearsal room on their way to a fully-fledged performance, which will be premiered in a subsequent edition of O.

O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre.
O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre. is an international festival with a programme full of surprises: from international top to primal Rotterdam and adventurous location projects. During O. 2025, more than 100 performances, from 50 different productions, can be seen at 30 locations throughout Rotterdam. From works in progress to world premieres, made by young makers and established names from home and abroad. O. has been the new name for Operadagen Rotterdam since 2021 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Check the full programme of the festival