Is This The End? A pop requiem by Jean-Luc Fafchamps

Belgian composer Jean-Luc Fafchamps opens the new season at the La Monnaie opera house in Brussels with his “pop requiem” Is This The End?

The year 2020 has been very different. Belgian composer Jean-Luc Fafchamps opens the new season at the La Monnaie opera house in Brussels with his so-called pop requiem “Is This The End?”. Combining opera with cinema, the project was conceived for those watching at home, unable to attend live performances on stage.

Éric Bruchler’s libretto turns on a young woman caught in a twilight zone between life and death. There she meets other people in a kind of transitional state, all of whom are acutely conscious of taking their leave of the world. Thus, Bruchler references the corona crisis that has forced many families to bid farewell to their loved-ones amid the very limited possibilities afforded by the pandemic.

The staging of this pop requiem is the work of Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski, who contrasts the live action on stage with film sequences shot inside the theatre and then integrated into the live performance.

During a rehearsal for “Is This The End?” just a few days before the premiere, the Belgian conductor Patrick Davin suffered a fatal heart attack. With the consent of his family, La Monnaie is to dedicate its production to the memory of this internationally acclaimed musician. His place at the rostrum will be taken by the Israeli conductor, Ouri Bronchti.

Production year 2020