WHEN: September 23 – October 22, 2025.
WHERE: Opera Ghent, Schouwburgstraat 3, 9000 Ghent
Opera Antwerpen, Frankrijklei 3, 2000 Antwerp
MORE & TICKETS: operaballet.be/en/programme/season-2025-2026/parsifal
Susanne Kennedy and Markus Selg present a brand-new production of Wagner's last music drama Parsifal, which has a special connection with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. They place the ritual dimension in the foreground and promise us an immersive viewing and listening experience. A religious community unites around the Grail – a mysterious object that provides spiritual and material nourishment and inspires good deeds. The group has been in a deep crisis since the moral fall of its leader Amfortas. His incurable wound, caused by the Holy Spear, can only be healed by 'a pure fool, through compassion knowing'. In the child of nature Parsifal they recognise the redeemer. Kennedy and Selg invite the audience to take the same journey as the main character – a path of growing empathy and inner transformation. This new, visually stunning Parsifal connects with the authentic core of the age-old story on which Wagner based his work, and does so in a resolutely contemporary language.
Team:
Conductor: Alejo Pérez
Direction: Susanne Kennedy
Set and video design: Markus Selg
Costume design: Andra Dumitrascu
Lighting design: Sascha Zauner
Movement director: Dominic Santia
Collaborator video: Warja Rybakova
Dramaturgy: Tobias Staab
Music dramaturgy: Piet De Volder
With the support of the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government.
Supported by: DOCK 11 / DOCKdigital
Cast:
Parsifal: Christopher Sokolowski
Kundry: Dshamilja Kaiser
Amfortas: Kartal Karagedik
Gurnemanz: Albert Dohmen
Klingsor: Werner Van Mechelen
Titurel: Tijl Faveyts
23, 26, 28 Sep 2025
Raimund Nolte
01, 11, 14, 16, 19, 22 Oct 2025
Erster Gralsritter: Lulama Taifasi
Zweiter Gralsritter: Lucas Cortoos
Erster Knappe: Sawako Kayaki
Zweiter Knappe: Jessica Stakenburg
Dritter Knappe: Emanuel Tomljenović
Vierter Knappe: Timothy Veryser
Blumenmädchen: Maria Chabounia, Ondelwa Martins, Idunnu Münch, Sawako Kayaki, Zofia Hanna, Jessica Stakenburg
Performers: Suzan Boogaerdt, Bianca Van der Schoot, Melyn Chow, Sjaid Foncé, Max Krause, Anna Maria Sturm
Orchestra: Symfonisch Orkest Opera Ballet Vlaanderen
Chorus: Koor Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Kinderkoor Opera Ballet Vlaanderen