NEWS

NOMINATION FOR LOHENGRIN
Michiel Dijkema has been nominated for the Estonian Music Prize 2024 for his sensational production of Wagner’s Lohengrin. After Rossini’s La Cenerentola, a production that won the Eesti Teatrikunsti Muusikalavastuste Award, and a controversial production of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Michiel Dijkema returned to the Estonian National Opera Tallinn last season as director and set designer for Lohengrin (premiere 25 May 2023, conductor: Arvo Volmer / costumes: Jula Reindell). The production was greeted with enormous enthusiasm by the audience and press and the performances are completely sold out. 
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IL VIAGGIO A REIMS
Die Premiere (13 January 2024) of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims at the Theater Aachen was an enormous success with audience and press: “a fast-seller at the Theater Aachen 2024! […] the line for the remaining tickets goes all the way out the door. [...] I haven't seen a theater this full in a long time. Everything comes together perfectly. […] Opera can be great fun. In any case, this Rossini is really good!” (Klassik Favori) “Dijkema modernizes the story with lots of humor, creates the necessary drive with his exciting staging of the characters - which in a traffic jam, mind you, is a true achievement - and exaggerates without becoming too platitudinous. […] Michiel Dijkema has scored a big hit, this evening is pure entertainment.” (Der Opernfreund) „Dijkema has a very good name in the scene for his original productions and stage designs. [...] one can only recommend attending the performance twice, because one joke follows the next [...] outstanding production“ (Kulturcram) “If you want to see a sparkling, inspiring and true-to-life comedy, you should go to the Theater Aachen. […] Il viaggio a Reims is a thoroughly entertaining production that highlights what we Europeans really are like. A must-see!“ (Opernmagazin) “three amusing hours of great entertainment, that makes the time fly by” (OMM) “a very, very, very enjoyable evening […] the audience is laughing their heads off […] Definitely go see it.” (Aachener Zeitung)
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PREMIÈRE MADAMA BUTTERFLY IN REYKJAVÍK
The new production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (première: 4th of March 2023, conductor: Levente Török) by the Icelandic Opera in Reykjavík was a overwhelming success. The performances are sold out and receive standing ovations. Due to the huge demand for tickets the Icelandic Opera announced an additional show. In the press:“The production by Michiel Dijkema was a window into another world. His staging was lively and powerful, sharp and balanced, with exactly the right amount of humor for such a sad subject. […] one of the best productions of the Icelandic Opera ever.” (Fréttablaðið) “At the fiercely hailed Butterfly premiere, the enormous hall is almost full of people of all ages […] smart spatial art […] optically overwhelming […] Artistically, and even more so socially, the Íslenska Óperan is on a remarkable path.” (Opernwelt)“Michiel Dijkema presented a Butterfly full of heart and humanity, with a staging that opened in a mood of sunshine and happiness and ended with an act of shocking violence. […] Dijkema produced a coup de théâtre for the closing moments” (Opera)
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HAYDN/KREKEK TRIPLE BILL
The premieres of the Haydn/Krenek triptych Arianna a Naxos/What Price Confidence/L'isola disabitata on January 18 and 19, 2023 by the Dutch National Opera Academy (DNOA) in collaboration with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century conducted by maestro Kenneth Montgomery in Amare The Hague were a great success. The press about this dynamic new production: “exciting theatre […] very creative” (Place de l’opéra) “Deep despair and loneliness beautifully expressed in a stylish, simple staging by a great talent.“ (operamagazine.nl) “Dijkema’s direction was expertly crafted to bring out convincing performances from the singers while ensuring that each work was dramatically strong […] in Dijkema’s hands, this was turned into a riotously funny piece, that kept the audience fully entertained. The time flew by!” (Opera Wire) “the more risks the young opera singers take, the more fun it is to watch them […] a joyous opera party” (NRC) “a wonderful performance […] directed by Michiel Dijkema with great imagination” (Trouw)
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REVIVAL TURANDOT IN MAGDEBURG
The revival of Puccini’s Turandot at the Theater Magdeburg (conductor: Svetoslav Borisov) was an overwhelming success. All seven performances were sold out and received standing ovations. The press: “hurricanes of jubilation and sold out performances […] theatrically overwhelming” (NMZ) “wild pictures on the stage, storms of applause for the première - truly great opera” (Volksstimme) “the ending surprises and is consistently executed” (Opernfreund) “touching […] a credible interpretation” (Opernglas)
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NOMINATION INTERNATIONAL OPERA AWARDS
The festival WAGNER22 of the opera house in Leipzig was nominated as best festival for the International Opera Awards 2022. In the birthplace of Richard Wagner, all thirteen of the composer’s operas were performed during a three week festival. Michiel Dijkema’s new production of Der fliegende Holländer was part of WAGNER22.

(photo © Siim Vahur, rehearsal in Tallinn, May 2023)

BIOGRAPHY

The Dutch opera stage director and set designer Michiel Dijkema studied classical piano at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Danièle Dechenne and at the Utrecht School of Arts with Alexander Warenberg and Alwin Bär. Subsequently he studied opera stage directing at the Academy of Music “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. He was active as a song accompanist and studied interpretation of song with Thom Bollen in Utrecht and with Wolfram Rieger in Berlin.

Michiel Dijkema directed and designed, among others, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (Dutch National Touring Opera), Bizet’s Carmen (Eisenach and Meiningen), Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Dutch National Touring Opera), Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Stockholm), Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (Rotterdam), Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Eisenach, Moscow and Tallinn), Marschner’s Der Vampyr (Amsterdam), Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia (Leipzig), Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Gelsenkirchen), Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Tallinn and Dutch National Touring Opera), Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel (Gelsenkirchen), Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Wiesbaden and Antibes), Puccini’s Tosca (Leipzig), Thomas’ Hamlet (Zagreb), Gassmann’s L’Opera Seria (Hannover), Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (Wiesbaden), Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (Darmstadt), Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer (Wiesbaden), Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers (Kiel), Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hannover), Gounod’s Faust (Leipzig and Bolzano), Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne (Volksoper Vienna), Strauss’ Salome (Wuppertal), the world première of Isidora Žebeljan’s Nahod Simon (Gelsenkirchen), Lehár’s Die Lustige Witwe (Linz), Kálmán’s Die Herzogin von Chicago (Koblenz), Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Semperoper Dresden), Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Gelsenkirchen), Dvorák’s Rusalka (Leipzig), Haydn’s Il mondo della luna (HfM Berlin), Stephan Peiffer’s Vom Ende der Unschuld (Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden), Louis Spohr’s Faust (Koblenz), Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer (Leipzig), Weinberger’s Svanda Dudák (Gelsenkirchen), Puccini’s Turandot (Magdeburg), Prokofiev’s L’amour des trois oranges (Koblenz), Haydn’s L’isola disabitata, in triple-bill with Krenek’s What Price Confidence and Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos (Amsterdam/Den Haag), Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Reykjavík), Wagner’s Lohengrin (Tallinn) and Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims (Aachen).

Michiel Dijkema won several international opera directing prizes: the second European Opera-directing Prize, the first Peter-Konwitschny-Nachwuchsregiepreis for his concept of Carmen and the Eesti Teatrikunsti Muusikalavastuste Award for his production of La Cenerentola. This award is the most important Estonian music-theatre prize. The set design of Il Barbiere di Siviglia won the first Wizard-Award in Berlin. His production of Der fliegende Holländer as part of the festival WAGNER22 in Leipzig has been nominated for the International Opera Awards 2022 in Madrid. His production of Lohengrin at the Estonian National Opera in Tallinn was nominated for the Estonian Music Prize 2024.

He worked with the opera class of the ArtEZ Academy of Music and taught singing students and opera stage directing students as a guest-professor at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”  Berlin. Furthermore he lectured in the context of a multidisciplinary initiative at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn. He also worked at the Dutch National Opera Academy (a cooperation of the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatory The Hague).

Future new productions and revivals among others at the Theater Aachen, the Theater Krefeld und Mönchengladbach, the Theater Münster, the Estonian National Opera in Tallinn, the Oper Leipzig, the Staatsoper Hannover, the Theater Magdeburg and the Semperoper Dresden.

Michiel Dijkema lives with his wife and son near Amsterdam. He rode on his bicycle from Amsterdam to Rome, Santiago de Compostela, Venice, Vienna, London, Barcelona, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and other destinations. In the spring of 2022 he cycled with his then 7-year-old son from Amsterdam to Paris. In the summer of 2023 they cycled from Amsterdam via Bayreuth to Budapest.

(updated: 27 March 2024)

CONTACT

info@michieldijkema.com
+31 6 50 46 13 82