Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg

Nighttown

3, 4, 6, 7. February 2026

an operatic reimagining of James Joyce’s Ulysses

Libretto by the composer



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Synopsis

A married couple in bed: one asleep, the other awake and thinking—and as she thinks, her imagination runs wild. This daring, visceral new opera accessibly retells one of the most monumental novels in the English language through the consciousness of women and nonbinary characters still finding their voices 100 years after its publication. The narrative of Homer’s Odyssey— as retold through James Joyce’s earthy modernist portrayal of a single day in Dublin, Ulysses—is infused into the interior lives of interconnected characters rocked by grief. Nighttown presents the raucous “Circe” chapter of Joyce’s book through the perspective of opera singer Molly Bloom’s (Joyce’s “Penelope” character) famous closing soliloquy. The opera portrays the events of this episode as Molly’s own odyssey—rife with contemporary angles and themes that resonate strongly in our present world—launching from dreamy musings in bed next to her sleeping husband into a wild world of her own imagination. Through dramatic forays into sexuality, sedition, collision, confrontation, transgression, and ultimately, profound loss, Nighttown shows us how to lose, and then once again find, a sense of home—not where, but who, that is.

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Information

Dates:

Tuesday 03. February 2026 | 19:30
Wednesday 04. February 2026 | 19:30
Friday 06. February 2026 | 19.30
Saturday 07. February 2026 | 14:15

Performance venue:
Conservatoriumzaal, Amare, The Hague.

A collaboration with the Classical Department, Royal Conservatoire The Hague.

Booking opens early December 2025.

Creative team

Benjamin Wenzelberg (03, 04, & 07.02)
conductor

Buğra Yüzügüldü  (06.02)
assistant conductor

Robert Chevara
director & design

Sara Europaeus
choreography

Lidewij Merckx 
costume design

Jasper Nijholt
lighting design

Ivet Serra
assistant director

Cast

Madeline Lee (03. & 06.02) / Aimee Kearney (04. & 07.02)  
Molly Bloom (Penelope)

Clarisse Planchais (03. & 06.02) / Mathilde Guedj (04. & 07.02)
The Nymph

Román Bordón (03. & 06.02)/ Jaap van der Wel (04. & 07.02)
Leopold Bloom (Odysseus)

Salvador Simão
Stephen Dedalus (Telemachus)

Milan de Korte
Bell Cohen

Cathal McCabe
Buck Mulligan

Pavel Zelenev
Mentes/ Blazes Boylan

Kasia Mandla
Calypso/ Stephen’s mother’s ghost

Maura Wesseling
Nausicaa

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Booking opens early December 2026.

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The closing date for applications to join the programme in Autumn 2026 is Sunday 11. January 2026.

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