21-year-old Halit Yozgat was assassinated in broad daylight, in his immigrant parents’ internet cafe on April 6, 2006 in Kassel, Germany. Five witnesses were present in the 77 square metre space when Halit was shot twice in the head. With his unconventional combination of sound art, electronics, and dark metal, Frost brilliantly and sensitively musicalizes the structural racism and institutional blindness that affects the country’s immigrant communities.In the middle of the rehearsal process, work on the world premiere of The Murder of Halit Yozgat had to be suspended due to COVID-19. Instead, Ben Frost, with Trevor Tweeten, resumed rehearsal and released a film about the project. The result is a unique cinematic portrait on the borderline between documentation and fiction – a chilling opera film about the reconstruction of a murder case.

Garin Nugroho’s brand new staged Song Cycle, The Planet – A Lament, merges film with live dance and a 14-voice choir accompanied by Papuan Soloist to impart a moving story of creation set against the backdrop of environmental disaster.Nugroho, expands his canvas to portray a destroyed community struggling in the aftermath of a devastating tsunami. He again performs his alchemical mix of striking cinematics, haunting song, wild dance and ancient ritual to concoct a new myth that speaks to our complex times.For this new work, Nugroho collaborates with the outstanding Mazmur Chorale from Kupang and an artistic team from across the Indonesian archipelago of composers, choreographers and Papuan dancers alongside Australian dramaturg Michael Kantor and designer Anna Tregloan. Grounded in lament traditions of Melanesia, the thru composed Song Cycle is born from the visionary research of Papuan composer and soloist Septina Layan. The Planet – A Lament is an act of catharsis that mourns a world lost, while offering hope for another that may yet be nurtured in its wake.