M for Metamorphosis. At the start of the 2018-19 season, La Monnaie is doubling its MMM to two totally new publications: a vamped-up paper edition and the digital magazine MMM Online.
The MM Magazine was originally produced to meet the need to share with our public the continuous flux of ideas, visions and images generated by artistic encounters at La Monnaie Opera House. This communication with our public is still a top priority. Digitalization, however, has revolutionized the way information is obtained, processed and read. And that prompted us to reflect long and hard about the status and purpose of all our communication channels, not least our printed magazine.
On the one hand, La Monnaie is looking to exploit the potential of digital communication and we are only too happy to try and satisfy the demand for more, and more in-depth online content. So on this website you will find not only all the practical information about La Monnaie and our programme, but recently also the digital magazine MMM Online. The latter provides wide-ranging interviews, introductions, portraits of artists and other dramaturgical texts in three languages. By way of preparation for our performances. Or simply as engaging reading matter for those odd moments.
On the other hand, with the paper magazine, we wanted to come up with a new and totally different sort of publication. Each issue gives one of La Monnaie’s key artists a free rein on this ink and paper stage and invites him or her to take the reader to the very core or to the far corners of their creative universe. They are given carte blanche. As a result, three times a season La Monnaie’s loyal public can expect to receive a very personal document, each with its own surprises, each with its own poetry.
Through this MM Magazine, La Monnaie season ticket-holders will come to enjoy a new and more intimate relationship with their directors, choreographers and singers. It is a publication which fosters the pleasure of active reading, which asks to be held, leafed through, put down, picked back up and collected. It is an invitation to dive rather than surf.
The guest artist for the first issue, which La Monnaie season ticket-holders can expect to find in their letterbox by September 20th, was an obvious choice. Director Romeo Castellucci is one of Europe’s highest profile, all-round artists and his previous productions at La Monnaie - Parsifal and Orphée et Eurydice - were theatrical experiences which redrew the boundaries of the medium of the opera. On September 18th he will open the new season with a production of Die Zauberflöte.
Castellucci will be very much in evidence in Brussels this autumn: he is curating the Theodoor Van Loon exhibition at BOZAR, he is working on the installation-performance La Vita Nuova for KANAL-Centre Pompidou and he will be providing his very own carte blanche film programme at CINEMATEK.
Meet Holland’s next opera star! On Sunday evening, October 20, MM Soloist Leander Carlier won ARIA, a singing competition on the Dutch TV channel NPO1. In addition to a trophy, he also secured a place at the Dutch National Opera Studio (Amsterdam).
Get out the napkins because La Monnaie is participating in The Biggest Spaghetti Fest in the World! On Saturday, November 23, at 12:30 p.m., we are offering 75 vegetarian meals, accompanied by a visit to our Workshops, in support of non-profit organisation Accolage.
Carpooling to La Monnaie with other opera lovers? Besides being more sustainable, it’s nicer and cheaper than going alone! La Monnaie is the first cultural venue in Belgium to join forces with Slinger, a simple tool which allows you to arrange a ride with another spectator from your area in just a few clicks.
