Oct 16, 2026 · Arter, Istanbul

Language: Turkish, German with English & Turkish surtitles

Tickets: TBA

with babelfis / Sevda Hamzaçebi (voice), babelfis / Cem Dinler (keys, synth), Serkan Emre Çiftçi (trumpet), Korhan Erel (electronics), Penelope Gkika (violin), Philine Metzger (viola), Emilia Lomakova (cello) · concept, text babelfis / Sevda Hamzaçebi · musical direction babelfis / Cem Dinler · music babelfis · video Mert Akbal · research Sevda Hamzaçebi, Selen Müldür · photography, trailer Arda Funda · sound Bora Küçükyılmaz · graphic design Suat Can Beldek · direction Seçil Honeywill · light design Utku Kara · production babelfis

Premiered November 2023, commissioned by Musicboard Berlin as part of the Hinterhalt Commission, in cooperation with Deutsche Oper Berlin, with additional support from Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt.

Istanbul premiere in cooperation with Arter, supported by the Goethe-Institut

thanks
Ali Kemal Gün, Beate Riple, Dieter Braeg, Edith Marcello, Elif Miral-Oktay, Gerhard Grosche, Görkem Akgöz, Gülçin Şahin, Hıdır Çelik, Irma Wittenberg, Joachim Gester, Laura Bielau, Pieter Verstraete, DOMiD Dokumentationszentrum und Museum über die Migration in Deutschland e.V., FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum, Michael Schmidt Archive

Meryem’s Ballad is a staged music work set during a night shift in a factory in West Germany, November 1973.

A Turkish migrant worker writes a letter home. Between what she can say and what she can’t, something else opens. A radio plays, and something in it surfaces. Told through spoken ballads, original songs, and live music, the piece moves across past, present, and future without linear narration – personal memory and collective history overlapping.

Performed by a single performer with live musicians, video, and sound, Meryem’s Ballad sits between concert and theatre: a letter, and everything it takes to write one.

Commissioned by Musicboard Berlin. Meryem’s Ballad premiered at Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Tischlerei in 2023.

Nov 11, 2023 – Premiere Deutsche Oper Berlin, Tischlerei (extended version: The Flying Dutchman)

May 25 – 26, 2024 – O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theater, Rotterdam (NL)

June 7, 2024 – fringify Festival, Hamburg (DE)

Nov 7-8, 2025 – ausland, Berlin (DE)