← All Bio's

Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe

Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe (1995, Eine) is a performer and director of operatic and visual performances. In his work he reshuffles classical repertoire, contemporary (pop-)music and scenography. Performers are challenged, dancers become singers, singers become performers. This puts perfection and virtuosity into question. Meirhaeghe wants the theater to be an echo chamber, a time machine in which old and new times can be brought together. He is very curious about the idea of 'future', about evolutions and even revolutions to come. Without wishing to oppose the preservation of the existing repertoire, Meirhaeghe finds it a great challenge to combine classical fragments with new symbols and radical sounds.

In 2018 Meirhaeghe graduated with ‘The Ballet’ at Kunstencentrum Vooruit. In 2019 he made NACHTEN/ Ballet de la Nuit (in collaboration with d e t h e a t e r m a k e r and Muziektheater Transparant) based on Ballet de la Nuit that Louis XIV performed in Versailles. He directed several projects such as Tisch und hihi Tranen (in collaboration with Nationale Theater Den Haag) and performed as a singer-performer in Small Town Boy (in collaboration with Toneelgroep Oostpool and ITA) and in Das Ende = Das Beginning with Jan Decorte and Sigrid Vinks at Pukkelpop. In 2020 he made A Revue with 17 performers. Here he assumed a retro-futuristic cabaret in which aliens excavate the lost artifacts of the opera. (in collaboration with d e t h e a t e r m a k e r, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, LOD, Vooruit, deSingel and production house Rotterdam).

In addition to his directing work, he performs as a self-taught countertenor. Together with Laurens Mariën he made My Inner Songs, 2016. Mea Big Culpa, 2017, My Protest, 2018. Recently they created the ritual concert Spectacles, 2021 (in collaboration with Ancienne Belgique, Muziektheater Transparant, STUK, detheatermaker, De Studio , Pilar, C-stroke). In 2021 he made a solo with Kim Karssen De Grap in Frascati Amsterdam, in collaboration with. De Warme Winkel, KC NONA and d e t h e a t e r m a k e r). In September 2021, the MOMU exhibition E/MOTION opened which Meirhaeghe gave a performative character. Meirhaeghe opent Berlin Fashion Week 2021 in a show directed by Etienne Rosso.

In 2022 Meirhaeghe starts as a member of the artistic board of TONEELHUIS. There he will create ‘Ode to A Lost Love’ as his first production.

A highly optimized image