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 have followed [the characters] for eight decades, as they changed the world and were left behind as it continued changing without them. All that remains, when they go, is an account ledger: the value of life.” – The New York Times, 17 March 2025

“The polyphonic ensembles are musically the strongest parts of the composition: they surge powerfully into the room and succeed completely in moving or stirring under the direction of Bassem Akiki.” – Theaterkrant, 15 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

Visit

Language

English with German and English surtitles
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.