Quarantine Island

to see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, to die

Quarantine Island premiered on 23 August 2021 on site at the Quarantine Station Heijplaat.

From 23 to 29 August 2021, O. Festival (the new name of Operadagen Rotterdam) and OPERA2DAY presented a very special on site performance on the Quarantine Island close to Rotterdam. On this unique location in the open air stories and songs about pandemics in the past and present, from far away and from nearby, came to life in a touching and hopeful way.

Press quotes: "Extraordinarily appropriate to nowadays' situation"

‘OPERA2DAY is well known for their original, surprising, unusual opera productions’, announced the Groene Amsterdammer. The local Heijplaat Post mentioned ‘the history of the location, which plays a very important role’. The website of the Water Taxi – which transported visitors from the meeting point to the island – noted: “Between barracks such as the Chlorine House and the Morgue, the laments made an especially striking impression. The light blue hospital uniforms and the sinister silence in which the members of OPERA2DAY appeared among the bushes, also contributed to a very special experience.’ The Schiedammer Online described the location as ‘a particularly idyllic spot on the Nieuwe Maas river, with the only natural beach of Rotterdam. You could imagine yourself in various places in the world, while hearing the thumping of the harbour in the background, the passing of ships, the waves on the quay. An hour of musical encounters that were also very moving.’ The Theaterkrant described the quarantine terrain as a mysterious place with a painful, emotionally charged history and used words such as ‘hushed beauty, intensely unadorned, grand and interesting, gripping and penetrating, brilliant inventions, unparalleled’ to describe the performance. The headline of their review stated: ‘Extraordinarily appropriate to nowadays is this great Quarantine Island.’

O. Festival and OPERA2DAY presented a site specific performance in a green oasis in the port area of Rotterdam. In small groups, visitors strolled over the terrain of the National Monument Quarantine Station Heijplaat. Along the route stories about pandemics in bygone days and present times were told and sung. With music from many corners of the earth, interwoven with music styles from Western music history, and with musicians from a Turkish, Chinese and Afro-American background. Quarantine Island was musically developed by Hernán Schvartsman (OPERA2DAY). Tobias Kokkelmans (O. Festival) wrote the script. Davy Pieters directed the performance, in which the history of the location played an important role: in the 1930's, the area was designed to quarantine seamen. Later it housed Jewish refugees, typhoid sufferers and psychiatric patients.

Quarantine Island was performed 8 times a day, from 25 through 29 August 2021. The first tour started at 11:00; the last one at 19:00.

Quarantine Island was coproduced by Festival O. & OPERA2DAY

ARTISTIC TEAM

Stage director Davy Pieters

Musical concept Hernán Schvartzman

Script and dramaturgy Tobias Kokkelmans

Costume design Sara Hakkenberg

MUSIC

Robby Alberga (vocals and guitar): Influenza Blues

Michal Bitan (vocals), Oleg Fateev (bayan): Mentshn Fresn

Lies Sommer (hurdy-gurdy): Bourrée

Klaartje van Veldhoven (vocals), Regina Albanez (lute): Dowland – Come Again

Klaartje van Veldhoven (vocals), Regina Albanez (lute): Strozzi – Cosi na non voglio

Burak Savas (vocals and violin), Erhan Karagös (baglama): Callin Davullari

Zheng Sun (erhan)

And our participants in the role of guides and nurses.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With permission from the authors, some passages in this performance were quoted from the book 'Heijplaat in Verzet' (Heijplaat in Resistance) by J.P. van der Zwaluw and J.M. van der Hor, Hilversum Verloren 2010

We would like to thank Frits Bareman, Barbaros Bozkir, Joop van der Hor, Addie de Vogel-Engelen and Menno Wester, who generously shared their stories during the research phase of Quarantine Island.

Trailer Quarantine Island

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Stage photos Quarantine Island

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No current calendar dates found for this production.