OperaVision, Europe’s premier free streaming platform for opera, has added Unknown, I Live With You to its collection—bringing this groundbreaking opera-installation to audiences worldwide.
The platform, which streams productions from leading opera houses across 17 countries, features the work alongside its catalogue of the world’s most celebrated operas. This marks a significant recognition of Katarzyna Głowicka and Krystian Lada’s innovative piece as essential contemporary opera.
Why This Matters
OperaVision’s decision to stream Unknown, I Live With You coincides with Opera Europa and the European Concert Hall Organisation’s Afghanistan Charter—a commitment to support the visibility of Afghan music and musicians launched on World Opera Day 2021.
The production spotlights poignant poems by contemporary Afghan writers known as Roya, Meena Z., Fattemah AH and Freshta, who participated in the Afghan Women’s Writing Project and dared to defy rules under Taliban regime. In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, writing and artistic expression were outlawed, making these anonymous testimonies a rare glimpse into unfiltered reality.
What You’ll Experience
Filmed in Brussels at Les Brigittines, a former Baroque chapel turned performing arts space, the installation allows viewers to witness an intimate, immersive performance where audience and performers share the same space. The production features:
- Polish mezzo-soprano Małgorzata Walewska
- American mezzo Raehann Bryce-Davis
- American transgender baritone Lucia Lucas
- Katarzyna Głowicka’s avant-garde score merging operatic voice with live electronics
- A string quartet and dancer in a unique triptych structure
By dismantling the convention of frontal staging, the performance urges viewers to leave behind the categories of ‘us’ and ‘them’, creating a space where Afghan women’s voices exist not as distant suffering but as immediate, undeniable presence.