Animal Farm | Nationale Opera & Ballet (2024)

George Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a contemporaneous cautionary parable, highlighting how easy it was for the Russian revolution to degenerate into Stalin’s violent dictatorship. The warning in Orwell’s political satire remains relevant today. “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others” – the world news keeps offering up subtle variations on the same theme.

A dream project

Damiano Michieletto had always dreamt of adapting Animal Farm, with its powerful characterisations and surprising twists and turns, for the opera stage. In Alexander Raskatov, the perfect composer for his dream project was found.

Raskatov himself is no stranger to adapting fiction to opera. In 2010, he adapted the literary masterpiece A Dog’s Heart, creating a compelling and fiery musical piece that was unlike any other. In Animal Farm, Raskatov also incorporates his own allusions to Russia’s fraught political history.

This staging of Animal Farm will see Dutch tenor Marcel Beekman and contralto Helena Rasker return to the stage of Dutch National Opera, as well as baritone Misha Kiria (Il barbiere di Siviglia, 2018), who is an ideal fit for the grim-comic role of Napoleon – the autocratic pig. They are joined in the pit by the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of up-and-coming Lebanese-Polish conductor Bassem Akiki, who has achieved international acclaim with his interpretations of both the classical repertoire as well as contemporary operas.