During Marian Anderson's historic concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, a white man and a black woman fall in love. During the turbulent half-century that follows, they try to protect their three musically gifted children from prejudices they themselves have suffered.

Belgian avant-garde jazz pianist and composer Kris Defoort’s new opera is a fascinating symbiosis between jazz and classical music deeply rooted in the now. Inspired by Richard Powers' great American novel, The Time of Our Singing tells the story of a mixed-race family against the backdrop of racial segregation in the USA. In the world premiere at La Monnaie, Ted Hoffman's production lets official history and intimate stories collide to explore issues of identity, race and art.

In an unusual twist, Dutch National Opera presents the Missa in a fully staged version. Their modern interpretation reveals the flip side of the unshakeable faith that runs through every note of Haydn’s mass. What emerges is the portrait of people who suffer under the heavy burden of a new-minded ideology.

Taking Haydn’s ‘Mass in time of war’ as its centrepiece, this special performance under the baton of the DNO’s new chief conductor Lorenzo Viotti combines music theatre, dance, electronic composition and video. Choreographer Juanjo Arqués’ nine dancers give physical expression to the contrasts central to director Barbora Horáková’s vision, while electronic composer Janiv Oron counterbalances Haydn’s religious music with live sound effects.