Dutch make an opera of an anti-oil lawsuit

On 4 April 2018, the environmental group Milieudefensie (part of Friends of the Earth International) announced their intention to take Shell to court to demand that it bring its business operations in line with the Climate Agreement. Thousands of Dutch citizens and a group of Non-Governmental Organisations joined as co-claimants in the lawsuit against Shell. And for once the people won: the court ruled that Shell must have reduced its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 compared with its levels in 2019. Few companies in the world have emitted more carbon dioxide than Shell but will that stop them from appealing against this landmark decision?

This is the background to The Shell Trial, Dutch National Opera’s new opera based on the play De zaak Shell by Rebekka de Wit and Anoek Nuyens, which premiered in 2020 and caused a stir on the Dutch and international stage. Presenting a range of voices and perspectives in the climate crisis, the opera shows complexity of the case. The boundaries between guilty party and innocent victim, between good and bad, and individual and collective responsibility become blurred as more and more viewpoints are expressed. Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Ellen Reid, who is artist-in-residence at the Royal Concertgebouw in 2024, has composed the music for Roxie Perkins’ libretto. The Shell Trial is co-produced, developed and directed by Gable Roelofsen and Romy Roelofsen of Het Geluid Maastricht. The opera is a collective production, an approach with which musical director and co-creator Manoj Kamps had much success in Faust (working title).
Dutch National Opera also practises what it preaches; the production has been made as sustainably as possible. Brought to our readers by Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision.

Sung in English. subtitles in Dutch and English.

Streamed on Saturday 14th December 2024 at 1900 CET /1800 London / 1300 New York