FEDORA - Between Two Lights

FEDORA
Opera Prize 2025
Nominee

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Between Two Lights

Netherlands
Netherlands Chamber Choir

Crowdfunding Results

€2,735
collected

€20
Matched

€10,000
target

Number of donors

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With your donation, Between Two Lights will receive € thanks to the matching of Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.

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For €20

Receive a personal thank-you note from the artistic team of Between Two Lights, expressing our appreciation for your support.

With your donation, Between Two Lights will receive €40 thanks to the matching of Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.

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For €50

Enter our exclusive raffle to win 2 tickets for a performance of Between Two Lights in Utrecht (8 June 2025 at TivoliVredenburg) or Antwerp (4 June 2025 at De Singel). Immerse yourself in this extraordinary production firsthand!

With your donation, Between Two Lights will receive €100 thanks to the matching of Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.

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For €100

Gain special access to an online interview and Q&A session with composer Huang Ruo, artistic director Tido Visser, and stage director Aïda Gabriëls. Delve into the creative process behind Between Two Lights and engage with the brilliant minds driving the production.

With your donation, Between Two Lights will receive €200 thanks to the matching of Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.

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For €250

Join us for a rehearsal on Wednesday, 15 January 2025 in Utrecht, led by composer and conductor Huang Ruo. Enjoy an afternoon of conversation and insights, alongside fellow supporters.

With your donation, Between Two Lights will receive €500 thanks to the matching of Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.

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For €1,000

Experience the world premiere of Between Two Lights on Thursday, 22 May 2025 at the prestigious Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam. This package includes 2 premiere tickets and an exclusive meet and greet with composer and conductor Huang Ruo after the show.

With your donation, Between Two Lights will receive €2,000 thanks to the matching of Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.

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Between Two Lights © Wim Piqueur i

Between Two Lights - by Chinese composer Huang Ruo - is more than just a performance—it's a profound exploration of life’s ultimate truth: death. The project is a transformative artistic experience that blurs the lines between theater, visual arts, and human storytelling. Join us in breaking the silence. Let's talk. About death.

About the Project

With the opera Between Two Lights, the Netherlands Chamber Choir and Muziektheater Transparant present a new work by Chinese composer Huang Ruo about the transition from one life to another. A ritual of dying.

The work (for choir, percussion and dancer) is based upon recent events in Huang Ruo's own life. When his mother passed away not long ago, Huang Ruo - living in the USA - went back to China for a ceremony of seven weeks. During this time, he realized he had become detached from his Chinese past, and was fascinated by the way of looking at dying in China. As a moment of emptiness, but also of passage.

In Western society, death remains a challenging subject to discuss. In an era where death is often denied and the pursuit of immortality takes center stage, we are reminded of the one thing that quietly connects us all: death. Between Two Lights is here to open up the conversation.

With Between Two Lights, conducted by the composer himself, Huang Ruo not only wants to bridge the musical worlds of the West and Asia, but also has the explicit desire to give the performance a universal human character. Young Flemish director Aïda Gabriëls and the artistic director of the Netherlands Chamber Choir Tido Visser have devised a unique concept, in which the boundaries between the auditorium, foyer, and the extension of the foyer, social media, blur. The main characters in Between Two Lights are not the singers; they are ordinary people like you and me. Between Two Lights is not about saying goodbye, but about that overwhelming moment itself, when you come face to face with death. That step, that emptiness. Do we dare to imagine that? People from various cultures talk about death. Their texts counterpoint the abstract texts of the Heart Sutra (the basis for the libretto of this work) and make the emptiness tangible.

The staging resembles more of an installation than a concert. More like a ritual than a drama. We follow Indonesian dancer Grace Ellen Barkey (66), who acts as the leader of this ritual about seeing our impermanence to ultimately confront our own dying. With each stage of the performance, we move further from the outside to the inside.

Why should you support us?

Between Two Lights is more than just a performance—it's a profound exploration of life’s ultimate truth: death. By supporting this project, you contribute to a transformative artistic experience that blurs the lines between theater, visual arts, and human storytelling and puts a bright light on the one thing that connects us all. We need your help to bring this vision to life and maximize its impact. Let's talk. About death.

What Your Support Enables:

1. Innovative Set Design & Audiovisual Elements 

Your contribution will help us create an immersive stage design and video installation that are essential to making Between Two Lights not just a performance, but an all-encompassing experience. These visual and auditory elements allow audiences to step into the transitional space between life and death, making the narrative all the more powerful. The Netherlands Chamber Choir has been developing staged and semi-staged productions for years to explore the boundaries of the genre. However, we are not a fully equipped opera house, and therefore need additional (financial) support to make these kinds of ambitious productions possible. 

2. Expanding the Conversation on Death 

In many cultures, especially in the West, death remains a taboo. Between Two Lights confronts this head-on, sparking conversations that transcend the stage. Beyond the performances, we will engage communities through pre- and post-performance discussions, educational activities, and media campaigns. Your support will help us facilitate these critical conversations, promoting a deeper understanding of death across cultures, and offering solace and clarity in a world where discussing death is often avoided.

How You Can Help Us Create a Lasting Impact?

Your contribution will directly enable us to:

- Achieve the desired artistic vision with high-quality set design and video that transform the stage into a meditative, spiritual space.

- Ensure we have the time and resources to develop the audiovisual content necessary to evoke the emotional depth of the work.

- Amplify the societal impact of Between Two Lights by promoting meaningful discussions about death, reducing cultural taboos, and providing tools for healing and reflection.

By joining us on this journey, you are not just funding a performance—you are helping create a space where art, death, and life intersect to inspire change, comfort, and reflection for everyone who experiences it.

Join us in bringing Between Two Lights to the world. Together, we can make this bold and necessary artistic endeavor a reality.

Donate today, and be a part of this transformative journey.

Who are we?

A collaborative approach

The Netherlands Chamber Choir are blending individual voices in perfect harmony. A community of artists coming together in choral singing at the highest level. We push the boundaries of the genre with innovative, urgent projects, examining its intersections with musical theater and opera.

We often address societal themes, and collaborate with artists from various disciplines such as actors, dancers, VJs, and poets. We also collaborate with individuals from the fields of healthcare, education, and science. This way, we enrich the perspective on society for both our audience and ourselves.

The composition of the team for Between Two Lights is in line with this approach: one of encounters. Between generations: emerging directorial talent Aïda Gabriëls and Indonesian dancer Grace Ellen Barkey (66). Between the directors from Western origin and the Chinese dramaturge Shuang Zou. Between Flemish Muziektheater Transparant and the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Between the European members of this choir who welcome Asian colleagues for this project. Between the videographic art of Lise Bruyneel and the lighting design of Peter Quasters. Between Huang Ruo as a conductor and the Flemish percussionists of the HERMESensemble. Between grief psychologist Barbara Raes and the people 'from the streets' she interviews about death. Even in the person of Huang Ruo himself, encounters take place: between the country where he was born and the New York where he grew up. This encounter is the inspiration for this work.

The main producers are the Netherlands Chamber Choir and Muziektheater Transparant, supported by HERMESensemble and Needcompany, who provide their artists. The participation of Huang Ruo as composer and conductor, dramaturge Shuang Zou, video artist Lise Bruyneel, Indonesian dancer Grace Ellen Barkey, the Asian singers of the Netherlands Chamber Choir, and the diversity of 'ordinary' people appearing on video make this project a kaleidoscope of encounters. A fertile ground for a work of universally human quality.

The co-financing by De Singel Antwerp and Concertgebouw Bruges, as well as the substantive input of their artistic directors Hendrik Storme and Jeroen Vanacker, are of paramount importance for the realization of this project.