Two women meet in prison: Fatma, a women’s rights activist who was sentenced for murder and Sama, a young, ambitious documentary film maker who wants to tell Fatma’s story. They share memories, experiences, deepest secrets. What does it mean to be free? Is it possible to have greater freedom in prison than outside? Woman at Point Zero is an enthralling multi-media opera about exploitation, emancipation and the perpetual search for freedom, inspired by the novel of the same name by Egyptian writer and feminist Nawal El Saadawi. Combining poetry, documentary evidence and cross-genre music that merges Western and Eastern music traditions, the opera raises a powerful voice of feminism – composed by Bushra El-Turk, member of the Academy Second Modernism.
Her opera Woman at Point Zero won the Fedora Prize for Opera Innovation in 2020 and the Music Theatre Now Competition in 2023.
Based on the novel Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi Direction Laila Soliman Music Bushra El-Turk Libretto Stacy Hardy Musical direction Kanako Abe Scenography Bissane Al Charif Video design Bissane Al Charif, Julia König Repetiteur, Live samples Samir Bendimered Costume Eli Verkeyn Light design Loes Schakenbos Documentary audio fragments Aida Elkashef With Dima Orsho, Carla Nahadi Babelegoto Ensemble Zar with Hyelim Kim (daegum), Miloš Milivojević (accordion), Raphaela Danksagmuller (recorders, fujara, duduk, kaval), Chatori Shimizu (shō), Faraz Eshghi Sahraei (kamānche), N.N. (cello) Stage management Patrick Vanderhaeghen Video design Johannes Ringoot Light design Jamy Hollebeke Sound design Carlo Thompson Production management Liesbet Termont Direction associate Nadia Amin Direction assistance (tour) Barbara T'Jonck Composition assistance Furkan Keçeli Audio editing Nancy Mounir Musical direction assistance Ivan Cheng
Production LOD muziektheater (Ghent) Coproduction All Arias (Brughes, Ghent, Antwerpen), Royal Opera House (London), Shubbak Festival (London), Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Britten Pears Arts (Snape Maltings), Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg Supported by enoa (European Network of Opera Academies), PRS Foundation, FEDORA, AFAC (The Arab Fund for Art and Culture), British Council, the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government Special thanks to Mariem Abutaleb, Joel Bell, Nawal El Saadawi, Nedjma Elhadj, Shady Elhusseiny, Michael Elisson, Victor Hidalgo, Rebecca Merritt, Ahmed Saaty, David Sawyer, Kathleen Venneman, Peter Wiegold, Kate Wyatt, Ruth Wyner
Premiere July 2022, Festival d‘Aix-en-Provence
