You can enjoy even more music just across the border at our Belgian partners’ venues! A free shuttle is available from Lille.

Louis Andriessen is undoubtedly the most important Dutch composer of the past few centuries. He completed his masterpiece, De Materie (Matter), in 1988. Some critics have called it a philosohpical opera; others, a theatrical ultra-symphony. For them all, De Materie is a resolutely contemporary masterpiece.

Echoes of Stravinsky, Bach and Steve Reich resonate in striking percussions, rousing boogie-woogie fugues, and spellbinding minimalism. The text transports us to the dawn of the modern era – a period characterized by shipbuilding and rebellion against the Spanish – but also to the 13^th century for a marvelous vision of Hadewijch, and to the 20^th century of Mondrian and Marie Curie.

In each of the four parts, matter is transformed through its interaction with the human spirit. French director Phia Ménard and choreographers Antonio De Rosa and Mattia Russo extend this concept into a total experience where the set, dance and music are in constant motion.