La Monnaie / De Munt LA MONNAIE / DE MUNT
© Antonin Waterkeyn / Midjourney
Opera

Bovary
Harold Noben
Debora Waldman, Michael de Cock & Carme Portaceli

Presentation
Opera

Michael De Cock and Harold Noben create a new opera based on Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary 

We know this woman, we know her story: to fill the void of her existence, Emma Bovary seeks attention and lovers. A first, all-consuming but illusory love affair is the start of a chronicle marked by repressed desires, fleeting moments of feverish happiness and lies meant to cover up reality – until they no longer can.

With Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert revolutionized literature in 1856. The story of the adulterous doctor’s wife taking her own life sent such a shock wave through France that it resulted in a court case. To this day, Emma Bovary continues to fascinate and we sympathize with her inevitable downfall. Perhaps there lurks in each of us the feeling ‘Madame Bovary, c’est moi.’  

Driven by their shared love of this nineteenth-century cult novel, Harold Noben and Michael De Cock will now work together for the first time on a contemporary opera version: Bovary. The director of the KVS wrote the libretto as a dramatic quasi-monologue, following up for the opera his theatre adaptation with director Carme Portaceli. Harold Noben, one of Belgium’s leading up-and-coming composers, already displayed his literary sensitivity at La Monnaie in À l'extrême bord du monde (2020), an opera about the last days of Stefan Zweig. Again, he delivers a richly varied and accessible score that, following Flaubert, is about nothing yet contains everything. 

Dates & tickets

 – 

Location

Théâtre National

Running time

2h30 (including one interval)

Prices

€ 65
-30 & +65 years: € 34

Language

Sung in French
Surtitles in Dutch and French

Presentation

Introductory talks 45' before the start of the performance: in Dutch and French by Pieter Mannaerts

More info

Aftertalk with Harold Noben and Michael De Cock after the performance of 16 April

Gallery

Gallery

Dates & tickets

Dates

Cast
Cast

Opéra en un acte
Livret de Michael De Cock
d’après le roman Madame Bovary de Gustave Flaubert
Musique de Harold Noben

World Premiere
Commissioned by La Monnaie

ConductorDEBORA WALDMAN Directors
Assistant-directorCARME PORTACELI
RICARD SOLER MALLOL

Set & Costume Designer
ChoreographerMARIE SZERSNOVICZ
FERRAN CARVAJAL Dramaturge
Light DesignMARIE MERGEAY
DIMITRY STUYVEN Chorus MasterJORI KLOMP

Emma BovaryANA NAQE Charles BovaryOLEG VOLKOV BertheBLANDINE COULON°

° MM Laureate

La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

CoproductionDE MUNT / LA MONNAIE, KVS, THÉÂTRE NATIONAL WALLONIE-BRUXELLES & TEATRE NACIONAL DE CATALUNYA

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