We Are The Lucky Ones

Music theatre

4.9.-7.9.2025

, Jahrhunderthalle Bochum

A song and dance of life and death.

They are „The lucky ones“: A generation born in Europe between 1940 and 1949, into the aftershocks of the Second World War and the peace, economic growth and rapid globalisation that followed. Today, many of this generation are the richest and most powerful people on earth – and, arguably, responsible for a world that is in many ways worse than the one they grew up in. A world in which the prevailing hope – next generations will always do better than the previous one – is faltering, fast. Playwright Nina Segal and director Ted Huffman have assembled a mosaic portrait of a generation, based on verbatim interviews with members of this group. Composer Philip Venables has used these to create his first grand opera with sumptuous orchestral sounds and intimate arias. He turns the most important moments of individual lives into a collective collage, finding a theatrical form for the social change of recent decades, interlacing the political and the personal. Polish-Lebanese conductor Bassem Akiki will conduct the Bochumer Symphoniker.

Co-produced and co-commissioned by Dutch National Opera and Ruhrtriennale. By permission of Opera Edition Ltd.

Press reviews

“We Are the Lucky Ones gives voice to a generation. […] What emerges is a portrait of a generation told with compassion, wisdom and artfulness. […] the creators of We Are the Lucky Ones push the boundaries of opera.” – The New York Times, 17 March 2025

“A harrowing, tender, funny, non-judgmental living portrait of a generation. […] Venables has created a huge-hearted score [...] that is entirely his own” – Bachtrack, 22 March 2025

“A sound that alternates between music of memory, wild outbursts and lyrical moments. ” – TAZ, 26 March 2025

Cast

Composition
- Philip Venables
Libretto
- Nina Segal,
- Ted Huffman
Conductor
- Bassem Akiki
Direction
- Ted Huffman
Set Design
- Ted Huffman
Costume Design
- Ted Huffman,
- Sonoko Kamimura
Lighting Design
- Bertrand Couderc
Movement
- Pim Veulings
Video Design
- Nadja Sofie Eller,
- Tobias Staab
Dramaturgy
- Nina Segal,
- Laura Roling
ONE
- Claron McFadden
TWO
- Sophia Burgos
THREE
- Nina van Essen
FOUR
- Helena Rasker
FIVE
- Steven van der Linden
SIX
- Frederick Ballentine
SEVEN
- Michael Wilmering
EIGHT
- Alex Rosen
Orchestra
- Bochumer Symphoniker

Further supporters

We Are The Lucky Ones is supported by the Performing Arts Fund NL.

Visit

Language

English with German and English surtitles
Run time

ca. 1 h 40 min.
Age guidance

Recommended from 12 years
Introduction

An introduction will take place in the upper foyer of the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum 45 minutes before the start of each event.