Mark-Anthony Turnage and Lee Hall's opera from Vinterberg's film Festen had its world premiere at Covent Garden and won the Olivier for best new opera production.
The Royal Opera gave the world premiere of Festen, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera from Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 film, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on Tuesday 11 February 2025. Allan Clayton sang the lead, Christian.
Vinterberg’s film, The Celebration, won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998. It launched Dogme 95, the movement whose rules forbade special effects and required natural light and hand-held cameras.
Lee Hall, who wrote the screenplay for Billy Elliot, made the English libretto, and Turnage, the composer of Anna Nicole, set it. At a Danish country hotel in 1989, Christian toasts his father Helge on his sixtieth birthday and accuses him of abusing Christian and his late twin sister. The opera is sung without an interval.
Richard Jones directed and Edward Gardner conducted, in a production shared with Finnish National Opera and Ballet. Festen won the Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production in 2025, and Clayton won for outstanding achievement in opera. That November it took the World Premiere Award at the International Opera Awards.
Stéphane Degout sang Christian’s brother Michael, Gerald Finley sang Helge and Natalya Romaniw their sister Helena. John Tomlinson played Grandpa.