Upcoming Performance

Nov 7-8, 2025 · ausland, Berlin · 20:30

Languages: Turkish, German with English & German surtitles

>>> tickets – SOLD OUT (Ausverkauft)

About 

Meryem’s Ballad reimagines Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman through the eyes of a female guest worker in 1970s West Germany.

Senta and her friend Mary are no longer at spinning wheels in a sailor’s tale — they are factory workers at Pierburg, an auto-parts plant in Neuss, on November 11, 1973. During a short break, Senta sings of her upcoming marriage and her plan to leave the factory. Meryem, a co-worker from Turkey, listens — and responds.

Her reply moves through past, present, and imagined futures, tracing a cycle of migration, labor, and emancipation. Blending the music of babelfis, visuals by Mert Akbal, Meryem’s Ballad reclaims women’s narratives from Wagner’s opera and places them in a shared history of resistance.

First premiered at Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Tischlerei in 2023, the work now returns in a newly staged version created for the intimate setting of ausland.

Past Performances

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

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

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

Credits

with babelfis / Sevda Hamzaçebi (voice), babelfis / Cem Dinler (keys, synth), Lisa Newill-Smith (soprano), David Wishart (piano), Serkan Emre Çiftçi (trumpet, synth), Penelope Gkika (violin), Youka Snell (violin), Philine Höhnisch (viola), Emilia Lomakova (cello) · concept, staging, text babelfis / Sevda Hamzaçebi · musical direction babelfis / Cem Dinler · music babelfis, Richard Wagner · video Mert Akbal · research Sevda Hamzaçebi, Selen Müldür · video documentation Arda Funda · sound Bora Küçükyılmaz · subtitle Süheyla Yılmaz · inner voice Ela Cosen · graphic design Suat Can Beldek · technical direction and light design Hilà Lahav (ausland), Ruth Waldeyer (ausland)

production by babelfis in cooperation with ausland · supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion · The premiere in November 2023 was commissioned as part of the Hinterhalt Commission by Musicboard Berlin in cooperation with Deutsche Oper Berlin, with additional support from Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt.

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

Contact
info@meryemsballad.com

Instagram
instagram.com/babelfis

Impressum