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Moderation: Prof. Dr. Lena van der Hoven

The librettist Gaea Schoeters and the composer Annelies Van Parys are guests in Bern as part of the event series ‘MUSIC THEATRE - POWER - SOCIETY’, which was conceived by the Professorship for Music Theatre at the University of Bern in collaboration with the Swiss Musicological Society.

Over the last ten years, composer Annelies Van Parys and librettist Gaea Schoeters have created several music-theatre pieces together, ranging from smaller vocal works to operas. Through an ongoing dialogue with the (musical and literary) canon, they explore the power of opera in a contemporary context. Their work is situated between formal experiment and social engagement. A returning focus point is creating interesting female characters: multidimensional women with agency, that do not merely react upon what happens to them, but have a narrative arc of their own — a blind spot in the operatic tradition, where most stories fail the Bechdel test.

Our panel discussion will focus on questions such as: what female characters do we see on stage, and more importantly: which perspectives are missing? Can opera influence the image of women, and/or does the lack of interesting female characters mainly reflect the inequalities in society (past and present)? How do we get beyond the stereotypes of virgin and whore, mother, mistress and murderer? Can focalization be a gaze (and game) changer in this process? And how does all this relate to the creative process? Is a different way of making opera necessary — and possible? Would it change the story? And what is the position of female makers? Food for thought!