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

In public and private spaces where their voices are silenced, composers and librettists find ways to persist and resist. Soprano Jeanine De Bique, who opens La Monnaie's opera season in the female title role of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, captures and decodes their journeys in a recital that celebrates the power of expression.

Silent Stories: A Grain of Light

 G G G, E flat … This short motif, among the most memorable in the history of music, opens Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Often associated, apocryphally, with the image of ‘fate knocking at the door’, these four notes became, for the composer, the driving force behind countless dramatic effects, by turns tempestuous, lyrical, playful or triumphant.

Beethoven Freedom & Fate

BOZAR

When two young people in Verona first set eyes on each other, their lives are changed forever. They know they are destined for each other, even though their families are sworn enemies due to a blood feud. Their tragic fate is therefore inevitable.

Roméo et Juliette

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’.

A Vagabond’s daydream

Vienna, early twentieth century. Under pressure from industrialization, the rise of psychoanalysis and growing social tensions, familiar world views are losing their footing and the refined styles of the fin de siècle their lustre. In music, literature and the visual arts, the boundaries of expression are being radically pushed back. Composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alexander von Zemlinsky each sought, in their own way, a new sound idiom, rooted in late Romanticism but unmistakably turned towards the future. During this concert, Alain Altinoglu will showcase three of their masterpieces, all written at this turning point in European cultural history.

Vienna

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

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.