“The Shell Trial,” produced by Dutch National Opera (DNO), has been nominated for the Fedora Opera Prize.

The Fedora Opera Prize was created to support pioneering artistic projects that promote international collaboration, creativity, social inclusion and intercultural dialogue, as well as digital innovation on and off stage.

The prize awarded Opéra de Lille’s opera “Like Flesh,” €100,000 in 2021 and this year, DNO has a chance to win the same prize, with “The Shell Trial” premiering at DNO’s Opera Forward Festival in 2024.

“The Shell Trial” is a new opera that delves into the context of a game-changing court case in which the oil company giant, Shell, was confronted with its legal responsibility for climate change. In collaboration with co-producers Gable Roelofsen and Romy Roelofsen, founders of Het Geluid Maastricht, DNO hopes this opera will spark conversation about the climate crisis and the responsibility we all share for the current and future health of our planet.

Ellen Reid will be the composer and while Roxie Perkins will write the libretto. Conductor and theatre maker Manoj Kamps will lead the work with American soprano Julia Bullock co-creating and performing in the production.