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Huang Ruo Conducts The World Premiere of Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos) in Amsterdam

May. 29, 2025

Huang Ruo conducted the world premiere of his latest opera, Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos), at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam on May 22. Between Two Lights, directed by Aïda Gabriëls and Tido Visser, is a co-production by the Muziektheater Transparant, HERMESensemble and Needcompany. 

Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos) was inspired by a personal story. During the pandemic, Huang Ruo lost his mother. He returned to his birthplace and took part in a traditional seven-day mourning ritual, followed by six weeks of bardo – a time of transition. Of silence. Of searching. From that personal loss, the first notes of this composition emerged. The work is built on musical mantras: patterns that are not only heard, but physically felt using sound as a carrier of rhythm, breath, and memory. Sixteen singers of the Netherlands Chamber Choir, performer Grace Ellen Barkey, and Huang Ruo moved through the space together, their voices and bodies resonating, amplified by silence. This is the place where voice becomes movement and emptiness takes form. In Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos), the audience is not a spectator but a participant, guided not toward an answer, but toward an experience. We move from the outside in, from the personal to the universal, and back to what that means for each of us, here and now. The question remains: Are we willing to face the moment when everything falls silent, the not-knowing, the emptiness, that which connects us all, but is rarely named?

Following the opening of Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos) in Amsterdam, the production was performed on tour in Belgium and The Netherlands: in Brugge, Den Haag, Antwerp, Tilburg, Alkmaar, and Utrecht.

Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos) was created in collaboration with De Singel Antwerp, Concertgebouw Bruges, and with the support of the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter. Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos) is made possible by the Elise Mathilde Fund and the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. 


Trailer: Huang Ruo's Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos)

To learn more about Huang Ruo, visit schott-music.com.

Huang Ruo
Between Two Lights (Opera in Six Bardos) (2025)
opera in one act
for 12-16 singers and 2 percussionists
marimba, Tibetan Finger-Cymbals (small), Large Indonesian Button Gong,
Medium Indonesian Button Gong, Crotales, High-pitch Wood-Block (small),
Bullroarer, Tibetan Singing Bowl
text adapted from the Heart Sutra by Huang Ruo
80'

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