Photo Credit: Hugo Thomassen/Nationale Opera & Ballet

Striking a balance between innovation and tradition, the genre of opera films often toes the fine line between two ways of viewing both art-forms. When opera is treated as the subject it comes to life, playing the leading role, whereas when opera is perceived as the object its role becomes supportive, and life itself is the subject that stands at the forefront. Usually blending these two approaches, opera in film often reconceptualizes what it means to be and experience life as a human. While many traditional films used opera to provide a background for their stories, from “Champagne Waltz” (1937) and “For the First Time” (1959) to the celebrated “Melba” (1953), over the course of the 20th century the specific genre of ‘opera film’ also took shape.

From early works like Edwin S. Porter’s film “Parsifal” (1904) to Carmine Gallone’s 1950 hit “The Force of Destiny,”  once the genre took its first steps in 1898 with the two-minute silent film adaptation of Donizetti’s “La fille du régiment” there was no telling where it would go next.

In the 21st century one can find a plethora of examples that give new meaning to the notion of opera film. Previously explored examples include “The Opera!” (2024), “9/10: Love Before the Fall” (2024), and the groundbreaking opera music video “À vos jeux, mes amis” (2023). Numerous other examples exist, but today I wish to explore an important new work, the premiere of which is slated for March next year. 

A New Work in His Oeuvre

The third opera film by the Dutch multimedia composer Michel van der Aa, “Theory of Flames” foregrounds the themes of science fiction, disinformation, post-truth, complicated relationships, and family, creating a novel experience where cinema not only extends but integrates with the operatic medium. A collaborative co-commission by the Dutch National Opera, doubleA Foundation (Amsterdam), The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and the Bregenz Festival, van der Aa’s “Theory of Flames” represents the normalization of a new era of opera.

Considering other recent opera films, including “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (2021) and ‘“Tanau’r Lloer /  Fires of the Moon” (2025), this burgeoning new era of opera seems to be one where technological innovation, multimodality, and multimedia combine to reinvent ways one can see life’s many facets. Debuting March 6, 2026, at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Netherlands, “Theory of Flames” is symptomatic of a new normal when it comes to experiencing opera. As expressed above, opera meeting film is hardly a new phenomenon, but what is novel here is the progressive manner of their mixture.

Michel van der Aa and His Style

For those unfamiliar with van der Aa, his creative orientation is that of a human-posthuman hybridity with digital and non-digital aspects, combining traditional and non-traditional compositional styles and techniques to create new forms of expression. Regarding opera, his works have incorporated some of today’s most ‘in-vogue’ technologies, including virtual reality (“From Dust,” 2023/2024) and cinematic integration (“Upload,” 2021/2022). “Upload,” van der Aa’s second film opera, focused on “the possibility of eternal life through an upload of a digital version of ourselves. Investigating what this means for our ‘humanness,’ our identity, and our relationship with others.” This work tackled notions of consciousness and the ways memory and life are extended. Featuring motion-capture work, it was a daring expression of opera’s new life.

With “Theory of Flames” van der Aa sought to continue his study of idealizations of self through the perspective of a dialectic of truth: “how to deal with the situation when someone else’s idea of what’s true, and what isn’t, starts to diverge from your own views.” An aspect of his style is the Gesamtkunstwerk of sound, picture, and movement, the cinema-opera amalgam being a natural extension of his creative practice. In his first film opera, “Sunken Garden” (2011-2013), described as an “occult-mystery film-opera,” life and death, sound and music, now and later, the stage and the world, all whimsically yet fantastically combine to create a reinvented sense of art. The opera centered around a three-dimensional garden and mirrored portal, with the musical score resembling a fragmented pastiche of classical and non-classical elements.

Another attribute worth exploring within van der Aa’s oeuvre is his use of the term ‘music theater’ when describing works that include vocal attributes but are not themselves operatic. While describing some of his works as ‘opera,’ van der Aa takes a similar approach to John Cage in that his compositions often include sound, but as a worldly element within a larger theatrical ecosystem. Van der Aa’s music theater work, “Vuur” (2001), meaning ‘fire’ in Dutch, is a soundtrack-chamber work following the mythologies of Epimetheus and Prometheus. He followed this with “The Book of Disquiet” (2008), a work combining film, actors, and a chamber orchestra, and centered around the life of poet Fernando Pessoa and his ponderings on self. 

A Historically-Rooted Mission

With “Theory of Flames,” van der Aa’s creative orientation — multi-dimensional ruminations on the human experience — matures into ruminations on how interpersonal relationships are confounded when in the midst of defining our world. As he writes, “The opera explores how differing perceptions of truth can create profound barriers between people who care deeply for one another.” Asking the audience to “consider what happens when our fundamental understanding of reality no longer aligns with those we love,” van der Aa’s new film opera follows thematic trajectories found in earlier operas like “Salome” (1905) and “Madama Butterfly” (1904).

Dissonance in how we view our world, perceive ourselves within that world, and the relationships forged out of shared perspectives, provides opera with contemporary foundations built on historical roots. Complex concepts like belief perseverance, confirmation bias, and the oft-discussed concepts of group think and herd behavior, all risk cutting us off from the world and alienating ourselves from our own place within it. With “Theory of Flames,” the incongruousness of disparate perspectives concerning truth and life are presented using numerous art-forms that themselves are combined without robbing each of their features. In this opera film, life will be turned upside down.

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