oester is a laboratory for performative arts, aiming to research and challenge the opera/music theatre stage as a transdisciplinary playground, dismantling the heritage of the genre and its relevance to exist in the now. They seize upon timeless narratives to ask recurring questions about cultivated structures like gender, power and the relationship with the Self and the other.

oester is stage director Aïda Gabriëls & dramaturge Tessa Vannieuwenhuyze

Soldering together contemporary and classical music, visual arts, movement, literature, and fashion, Aïda Gabriëls navigates her way through the performing arts. A diverse cast, whimsical interactions between image and sound, and a sensible way of interweaving various disciplines have been fundamental to her work from the early days onward. In 2018, she debuted with the soundscape opera 'Medeamaterial,' in which a soprano and double bassist grapple with Heiner Müller’s stubborn dilemma in the form of a poem. Later, in 'I am the enemy you killed, my friend' (2018), she had two dancers, live video, and a percussionist explore the question of guilt, taking Benjamin Britten’s 'War Requiem' as its starting point. With 'Vacuum' (2020), she dissected the concept of Chaoskampf through a landscape of sound, movement, and light art. Similarly transdisciplinary, her reflection on the historical figure of Salomé in 'Dance of the Seven Veils' (2021) aimed to subvert entrenched male-gaze assumptions and existing ideas. Loosely inspired by the motif of the dream city Mahagonny from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's opera, 'The Wild Stage' (2022) delves into the need to escape: from our confusing times, from the need to understand everything when chaos reigns. Singers and musicians become dancers and vice versa, constantly meeting and searching for commonality. Together, they create a stream of soundscapes and imagery, inviting you into a universe oscillating between pop, baroque, and electronica, between contemporary and classical. In 2024, she begins a residency at KMSKA in Antwerp and the creation of 'Passages.' 'Passages' echoes the fleeting encounter between life and death, the past and the present, reality and imagination. It represents a no-man's land where contrasting worlds meet. Unfolding in the heart of museums and art galleries, 'Passages' showcases an interplay of dance, voice, light, visual arts, electronics, and classical music. 'Ethereal Realms – all Fiction is Metaphor,' premiering in the same year, is based on Ursula K. Le Guin's 1969 feminist science fiction novel, 'The Left Hand of Darkness.' This performative installation, reminiscent of a Baroque opera, features a soundscape blending sounds from undefined times and spaces. The audience is invited to lose themselves in a labyrinth of signs and sounds, mirrors and moments, reflecting on the complexities of identity, connection, and belonging. Alongside Marie Delprat’s music and Ursula Le Guin’s deconstructed language, it forms a post-human playground for contemporary reflections on the science fiction metaphor. Recently, she has been involved as an artistic coordinator at Music Theatre Now, an international network for new opera and music theatre."

Tessa Vannieuwenhuyze is a PhD researcher focusing on the theatrical appearance of music artists, especially in our current context where new technologies and social media reign supreme. She brings this theoretical background into the company's tangible quest for the unruly medium of opera in times of social media. She holds a Master's degree in Art History, Musicology and Theatre Science (UGent) and an advanced Master's degree in Literature (KU Leuven). She also connects her dramaturgical eye and writing skills to various artistic projects and platforms. 

© Anton Coene

get in touch

Aïda Gabriëls (artistic director)

Tessa Vannieuwenhuyze (dramaturge — researcher)

Sebastiaan Peeters (production & tour management)

Dieter Craeye (Toutpartout — diffusion)

Maja Lozic (Muziektheater Transparant — diffusion)

Kati Van de Velde (Red Cat Artists — diffusion VACUUM)

artist-in-residence at

Ancienne Belgique (Brussels), Muziektheater Transparant (Antwerp), Motel Mozaïque (Rotterdam), KMSKA (Antwerp), NKK NXT (Utrecht), Concertgebouw (Bruges) & Needcompany (Brussels)

associated artist at

Music Theatre NOW

board of members

Bert Van der Auwera, Katrin Swartenbroux, Pieter D’Hooghe, Veerle Mans & Ines Adam

official information

oester vzw

Sint-Janvest 1, bus 301

9000 Gent — BELGIUM

TAV BE 0746.757.468