Sammy Van den Heuvel — scenography

Each space grows within a specific frame that is formed through conversations; with the director, with the choreographer, with the text, the music, the material, with the dramaturg, with the production team, with the artists and builders in the workshops, with the stage technicians. Ultimately, the built space engages in a conversation with the performers, and, through them, in a conversation with the audience.
Wozzeck
Seraphim
No yogurt for the dead
Tipping point
Angel's bone
Le nozze di Figaro
The man who fell from the sky
A safe space for male bodies
Szenen aus Goethes Faust
The world’s wife
Vanishing point
Die Vorüberlaufenden
The future is not what it used to be
Solitary dialogues
Solitude
Each time we fall a city rises
Quartett
A requiem for lost things
Als niemand me ziet
Totentanz
#truth: ein sokratischer Abend
Ich rufe meine Brüder
3000 Euro
Ich bin wie ihr, ich liebe Äpfel


sammyvandenheuvel@gmail.com

Szenen aus Goethes Faust

Faust is a disillusioned scholar, fruitlessly searching for the deepest truth. In exchange for his soul, the devil promises him a life of pleasure, culminating in one moment of perfect happiness. What follows is a rollercoaster of striving, falling, and picking himself up again, driven by a desire for love and a relentless drive for progress.

In the moment of his death he outwits the devil, is forgiven and allowed to enter heaven. It is the ambiguity of striving that saves Faust. For despite negative consequences, ever striving also connects us in the search for meaning in life. Judging someone else for their desires is hypocritical, because in reality we all cherish our desires. We are all Faust.

Composer Robert Schumann leafed through Goethe's masterpiece and captured its essence in seven iconic scenes, oscillating between opera and oratorio. Under an overwhelming video screen, the seemingly endless stage is populated by a community of singers: soloists, Collegium Vocale Gent and the Choir and Children's Choir of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.


musical directionPhilippe Herreweeghe 

direction and video designJulian Rosefeldt

choreographyFemke Gyselinck 

dramaturgyKatherina Lindekens and Tobias Staab 

scenographySammy Van den Heuvel

costume design    Birgitt Killian

light designMatthias Singer

/Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and Philippe Herreweghe/Collegium Vocale 2022