A love between devotion and abyss: Missy Mazzoli's opera "Breaking the Waves" tells the story of Bess and Jan with relentless intensity - a moving musical drama about faith, sacrifice and the destructive power of moral narrowness.
The free-spirited Bess lives under strict surveillance and control in a deeply religious community on the coast of Scotland. When she marries Jan, a stranger from the area, a worker from the oil rigs and the opposite of a devout Calvinist, she feels happiness for the first time in her life. A happiness that ends abruptly when Jan becomes irreversibly paraplegic as a result of an accident at work. In order to remain close to her, indeed to be able to continue living, Bess is told to sleep with other men and then tell him about it. Bess, who had begged God to bring her husband home earlier than planned shortly before Jan's accident, feels guilty and decides to fulfill Jan's wish - with terrible consequences.
Lars von Trier's multi-award-winning film of the same name was released in 1996. Exactly twenty years later, it was discovered for the opera stage and premiered in Philadelphia. The highly renowned American composer Missy Mazzoli wrote the impressive music for it, which gives the strong characters as much space as the critical view of a bigoted society.
Premiere January 18
Further performances: January 23, 29 and 31, February 11, March 6, 2026
