

On June 21st, the summer solstice coincides with International Yoga Day and World Music Day. Prepare for 24 hours filled with festivities everywhere in Brussels, and our opera house is joining in with several free events around la Monnaie.
10:30 – 11:30 Yoga at la Monnaie
Enjoy a free open-air yoga session in front of our iconic building. Led by Gilles Pollet (Yyoga), this dynamic flow is designed to welcome the luminous energy of summer into every fiber of your being and features a classical music playlist curated by La Monnaie.
12:00 – 13:00 Under the table! - Lunch & Clapping
Explore your sense of rhythm with a clapping session inspired by Bizet’s opera Carmen. Take your lunch with you for the perfect musical break at the summer tables set up between the Muntpunt and La Monnaie’s artist’s entrance.
16:00 – 17:30 Concerts ‘Viva l’opéra’ and ‘Great Carmen Arias’
No World Music Day without a proper concert. The La Monnaie Brass sextuor treats you to some of the biggest hits in opera history, and mezzo-soprano Raphaële Green, accompanied on the piano by Marie Datcharry, to the immortal tunes from Bizet’s evergreen.
17:30 – 18:00 Carmen revisited
What if Carmen didn’t need to die in the end? What if the opera became a playground for questioning violence against women? The Cassandra Choir, accompanied by a Brussels One-Day Choir and Collectif Meute, will revisit Carmen’s most beautiful melodies in this grand finale, concluding a well-spent first day of summer.
VIVA L’OPERA !
Manu Mellaerts (trumpet), Pierre-Louis Marques (cornet), Rik Vercruysse (horn), Jan Smets (trombone), Geert De Vos (bass-trombone) & Stephan Vanaenrode (tuba)
CLAUDIO MONTERVERDI
Highlights from L’Orfeo
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Der Hölle Rache (aria of the Queen of the Night, from Die Zauberflöte)
GIUSEPPE VERDI
La traviata: prelude
GEORGES BIZET
Carmen Suite
- Ouverture
- Habanera
- Toreador
KURT WEILL
Kleine Dreigroschenmusik
- Ouverture
- Die Moritat von Mackie Messer
- Anstatt-dass-Song
- Kanonen-Song
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
West Side Story
- Prologue
- Something’s comin’
- Maria
- Tonight
- America
THE GREATEST ARIAS FROM CARMEN
RAPHAËLE GREEN (MM LAUREATE) & MARIE DATCHARRY (PIANO)
GEORGES BIZET
- Habanera
- Je vais danser en votre honneur
- Près des remparts de Séville
- Les tringles des sistres tintaient
10:30
Yoga
12:00
Clapping session
16:00
Concerts
17:30
Carmen revisited