Art Happens

Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe (be)

tour datesinfo
© Eva Donckers

Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe (°Eine, Brussels, 1995) is a countertenor, performer and director of operatic sound and visual performances. For him, the theater is an echo chamber in which old and new times can be brought together. He is fascinated by the future, and the evolutions and revolutions yet to come. Without wishing to oppose the preservation of the existing repertoire, Meirhaeghe sees it as a challenge to combine classical fragments with new symbols and radical sounds. He makes mysterious and contemporary rituals that can reconnect with the life he knows, with real emotions, with our experiences and the political thinking of today.

His thinking about music theater and performance and letting a vision resonate in his work, originated within Toneelacademie Maastricht. He graduated in 2018 with The Ballet (in collaboration with Vooruit, Opera Vlaanderen, De Munt and NTGent), a performance he created together with dancer and muze Emiel Vandenberghe (Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe). The work shows the suffering and the separation of two lovers and performers.He found his way into opera, not coincidentally the medium where both art forms come together. At Opera Ballet Vlaanderen he created A Revue in 2020, a visually stunning spectacle show which was selected for FlemishTheaterFestival 2021.

In 2021 Meirhaeghe made the ritual concert Spectacles, where he turns, together with producer Laurens Mariën and dancer Hanako Hayakawa, a concert into a theatrical experience. 

MADRIGALS premiered on January 21, 2022. Meirhaeghe molds Claudio Monteverdi’s Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi, and he dares to mix it with the experimental pop of Jesse Kanda, who collaborates with Björk, Arca and FKA Twigs. 

In September 2021, Meirhaeghe opened the opening show of Berlin Fashion Week directed by Etienne Rosso. He also gave the MOMU exhibition E/MOTION a performative character. 

Meirhaeghe is has been part of the artistic direction of Toneelhuis since season 22-23. His first creation for Toneelhuis was Ode to a Love Lost (2023). This production, based on Meirhaeghe’s own personal love story, is set in the deep crater of a heart.

In the fall of 2023, at the invitation of Volksbϋhne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to make his own version of the creation story, Meirhaeghe came up with the overwhelming Death Drive – Everything Everyone Ever Did.

In the beginning of 2024 at Toneelhuis, he made Shelly Shonk Fiffit, featuring a replica of the James Webb space telescope, the music of Caterina Barbieri and picturesque movements.

In December of 2024 in Schauspielhaus Bochum, Give Up die alten Geister will have its premiere. In this piece, Meirhaeghe teams up with Fumiyo Ikeda to perform a four-hands piano version of Mozart’s famous Requiem.

In the spring of 2025 at Toneelhuis, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe will be directing Mantike, an evocative monologue written by Louise Van den Eede and performed by Marjan De Schutter, about the art of prophecy in the face of an approaching apocalypse.

As of 2022, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe is co-artistic director of Toneelhuis, together with Lisaboa Houbrechts, Gorges Ocloo, FC Bergman and Olympique Dramatique.

DatePerformanceCity CountryOrganisation/Venue
13.06.2025A Revue Antwerp (be)Toneelhuis
14.06.2025A Revue Antwerp (be)Toneelhuis
13.11.2025Chapters of Celebration  (world premiere)Antwerp (be)DE SINGEL
14.11.2025Chapters of Celebration  (world premiere)Antwerp (be)DE SINGEL
18.11.2025Chapters of Celebration Charleroi (be)PBA
20.11.2025Chapters of Celebration Ghent (be)VIERNULVIER
04.03.2026a rite of spring  (world premiere)Ghent (be)NTGent
05.03.2026a rite of spring  (world premiere)Ghent (be)NTGent
06.03.2026a rite of spring  (world premiere)Ghent (be)NTGent
07.03.2026a rite of spring  (world premiere)Ghent (be)NTGent
11.03.2026a rite of spring Antwerp (be)Toneelhuis
12.03.2026a rite of spring Antwerp (be)Toneelhuis
14.03.2026a rite of spring Antwerp (be)Toneelhuis
15.03.2026a rite of spring Antwerp (be)Toneelhuis
25.01.2025MADRIGALSPorto (pt)Teatro Municipal do Porto
24.01.2025MADRIGALSPorto (pt)Teatro Municipal do Porto
02.06.2024A RevueHannover (de)KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen
01.06.2024A RevueHannover (de)KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen
09.04.2024MADRIGALSBreda (nl)Chassé Theater
26.07.2023MADRIGALSVienna (at)ImPulsTanz
24.07.2023MADRIGALSVienna (at)ImPulsTanz
30.06.2023A RevueParis (fr)La Villette
29.06.2023A RevueParis (fr)La Villette
28.06.2023A RevueParis (fr)La Villette
12.05.2023MADRIGALSStrasbourg (fr)Le Maillon
11.05.2023MADRIGALSStrasbourg (fr)Le Maillon
15.04.2023MADRIGALSParis (fr)La Villette
14.04.2023MADRIGALSParis (fr)La Villette
05.04.2023MADRIGALSDouai (fr)TANDEM scène national Arras-Douai
04.04.2023MADRIGALSDouai (fr)TANDEM scène national Arras-Douai
30.10.2022MADRIGALSAntwerp (be)Toneelhuis
29.10.2022MADRIGALSAntwerp (be)Toneelhuis
26.10.2022A RevueAntwerp (be)Toneelhuis
25.10.2022A RevueAntwerp (be)Toneelhuis
27.09.2022MADRIGALSRome (it)Romaeuropa Festival
28.05.2022MADRIGALSRotterdam (nl)O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre.
27.05.2022MADRIGALSRotterdam (nl)O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre.
19.03.2022MADRIGALSBruges (be)Concertgebouw
21.01.2022MADRIGALSAntwerp (be)DE SINGEL
09.10.2021A RevueRotterdam (nl)Theater Rotterdam
12.09.2021A RevueAntwerp (be)Het TheaterFestival/DE SINGEL
26.06.2021A RevueAntwerp (be)DE SINGEL
25.06.2021A RevueAntwerp (be)DE SINGEL
15.10.2020A Revue  (premiere)Ghent (be)VIERNULVIER/Opera Gent
14.10.2020A Revue  (premiere)Ghent (be)VIERNULVIER/Opera Gent