Johan Simons . Paul Koek . NTGent & ZTHollandia

At his mother's deathbed a man recalls her love-affair with an Italian immigrant worker in the sixties. As his mind leaps from one thought to another, musical moments from her early years intrude. Snatches of arias from operas by Verdi fly past like wisps of sound and accompany the memory of situations in which his mother rediscovered love. In 'Sentimenti' the duo of directors, Paul Koek and Johan Simons, seek love and sentiment and to this end take a close look at the operas of Verdi, with the dramaturgical assistance of Gerard Mortier. Several musical and theatrical layers are superimposed on one another in a single great composition, with the aim of touching upon those moments when the true emotion in both the music and the theatre become tangible. Thanks to deSingel, this large-scale production, first performed in the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum during the Ruhrfestspiele in 2003, is being given new life in an adaptation for the large stage, and is only on at deSingel.