Name: A Vagabond’s daydream
Start: 2026-10-02T20:00:00
Location: La Monnaie - De Munt

Simon Keenlyside

Malcolm Martineau

La Monnaie / De Munt

Under 30? Then join Young Opera for free and make sure to attend our operas on the Young Opera Nights: one date in the run when you and hundreds of other young opera lovers enjoy a personal welcome, a free drink, a free digital programme booklet and an afterevent or other suprise.

Young Opera Nights

La Monnaie - De Munt

When composer Alban Berg saw Georg Büchner’s fragmentary theatre text performed in 1914, it inspired him to create an absolute masterpiece. Raw and unfiltered, Wozzeck shows us the dehumanization of a vulnerable individual who craves recognition and connection but is systematically rejected and abused.

Wozzeck

From Scarpia in Tosca’s Rome to Sinatra’s New York, New York!, for Lucio Gallo it is all within vocal reach. Before conquering the world’s great opera stages, the Italian baritone honoured the timeless songs of ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ in smoky bars and small cafés.

Fly me to the Moon

 Jeanine De Bique, artist in residence in Brussels this season, joins the Grammy-winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire and conductor Jeannette Sorrell to explore the historical connections between Europe and the Caribbean colonies in the eighteenth century. Across the waters, tales of love, despair and resilience emerge – with surprising resonance for today.

Echoes Across the Atlantic

BOZAR

BIG BANG is landing in La Monnaie! After more than 30 years, this two-day festival has become an international reference thanks to its unique mix of daring musical theatre, intimate listening rooms, interactive installations and fantastic fanfares. On their journey of discovery, children are treated to a colourful musical programme, but they don’t just have to sit still and listen. BIG BANG is also, and above all, a festival that invites you to discover and take part – after all, there is something to experience in every corner of our opera house. Big and Bangin’, right?

Big Bang Festival

On the programme is the Glosa Sinfónica Margariteña, Venezuelan composer Inocente Carreño’s tribute to his homeland. Drawing inspiration from several traditional songs such as Margarita es una Lágrima, the Canto Del Pilón, the Canto de Velorio and Los Tiguitiguitos this impressionist work ranks among the musical masterpieces of Latin America.

Hispanic Waves

Wallonie-Bruxelles Musiques

What happens when music doesn’t aim to impress but dares to feel? The great traditions fracture, making room for something rawer and deeply personal.

Erwartung

Still looking for a babysitter so that you can go to the opera? That’s a thing of the past. During Opera Family Day, you are invited to a dress rehearsal of Rossini’s La Cenerentola while your children or grandchildren can enjoy themselves at an interactive workshop based on the show. Discover the world of Cinderella together, but separately – an enchantment that will continue to work its magic long after midnight …

Opera Family Day

Subjected to humiliations by her stepsisters, Cinderella also sees her fortune squandered by her own father. But her goodness and courage win the heart of Prince Don Ramiro, who recognizes her true worth.

La Cenerentola

This is the starting point of this wonderful one-woman cabaret in which mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti sings of the highs and lows of love in a range of musical styles: opera arias from Carmen and Samson et Dalida, songs by Maurice Ravel and Erik Satie, as well as chansons by Jacques Brel and a dash of Buena Vista Social Club. In playful interaction with the audience, she proves that the best date is still the one with music.

About Last Night

As December draws to an end, with days growing shorter and trees shedding their leaves, winter sets in with the first chills and furtive sunlight. To ease into the season gently, let yourself be transported by the Women’s Choir of La Monnaie who, under the direction of Emmanuel Trenque, present a programme of Christmas carols that is as rich as it is eclectic.

Christmas Carols

In 1926 the 28-year-old George Gershwin travelled to the French capital, determined to study under Maurice Ravel. Their meeting was warm, but lessons were out of the question – ‘Why should you be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?’ And so Gershwin crossed the pond again, taking the sound of a few Parisian taxi horns home as a souvenir. Two years later, he incorporated them into the orchestration of An American in Paris, a vibrant ode to life in the City of Light. The bustling boulevards, the tourist hotspots along the banks of the Seine, the cafés and Parisian nightlife: he translated all the impressions of his stay into a colourful and rhythmically irresistible rhapsody with a jazzy touch.

New Year’s Concert

In turn a symbol of freedom, imagination, escape and independence, the vagabond has haunted the imagination of artists and poets as well as philosophers. In the work of Robert Schumann, he takes the form of a lonely minstrel who asks his king for a simple cup of wine; in that of Gustav Mahler, that of a saint who speaks to animals. And while Richard Strauss takes you on nocturnal wanderings, Francis Poulenc gives you a taste of a painter’s Parisian ‘vie de bohème’.