Castor et Pollux: scenography and image for Rameau's opera
Jean-Philippe Rameau · Oper Graz, Austria · Premiere 11 April 2026, performances through the summer of 2026
In our staging of Rameau's Castor et Pollux for Oper Graz, the myth leaves the palaces and temples behind. It unfolds in a living landscape. Nature becomes the emotional world of the opera: a place of birth and death, mourning and renewal, memory and transformation. Through light, earth, water and air, the inner journeys of the characters become visible.
The twin brothers, one mortal and one divine, face a question that belongs to everyone: what do you give up for someone you love? The set serves that question rather than answering it. A rotating stage, a dark reflective floor like water, sculptural rocks, mirrors at the sides and transparent scrims together form one space in which singers, dancers and image continuously influence one another.
Movement is the dramaturgical starting point. We see it in bodies, rocks, light, colour and video. Against it stands stillness. The tension between the two speaks of time and eternity, and of our longing for something that lasts.
The video does not show locations. Grief, longing, fear and hope become landscapes that freeze, break, melt, vanish, drown and fly. In this production the underworld has no fire but a deep sea: uninhabitable for humans, yet eerily beautiful. The piece ends in bioluminescent light, perhaps a fragile sign that death is not the end.
The ancient myth thus returns to the present. What do you see when you truly look at the fragile moment we share in this life? What disappears, and what remains?
Credits
Director / choreography: Nanine Linning
Scenography: Van Veen & Mus
Visual art: Van Veen & Mus with Jip Mus
VFX: Alfred Martinez
Costume design: Irina Shaposhnikova
Light design: Sebastian Alphons
Dramaturgy: Christin Hagemann
Musical director: Bernhard Forck
Grazer Philharmoniker, Chor der Oper Graz
Director / choreography: Nanine Linning
Scenography: Van Veen & Mus
Visual art: Van Veen & Mus with Jip Mus
VFX: Alfred Martinez
Costume design: Irina Shaposhnikova
Light design: Sebastian Alphons
Dramaturgy: Christin Hagemann
Musical director: Bernhard Forck
Grazer Philharmoniker, Chor der Oper Graz
Singers: Sébastian Monti, Nikita Ivasechko, Sieglinde Feldhofer, Sofia Vinnik, Daeho Kim, Franz Gürtelschmied, Will Frost, Marlin Miller, Ekaterina Solunya, Jianwei Liu
Dancers: Laura Sophie Heise, Ann-Kathrin Adam, Alex Vazquez Gala, Filippo Cosso
Assistant director: Florian Kutey
Costume assistant: Thomas Van der Jeught
Scenography assistant: Nora Peierl
Costume assistant: Thomas Van der Jeught
Scenography assistant: Nora Peierl