Holland Festival: Qaqnas Huba de Graaf, Naaz

Research into the boundary between speech and music

Composer Huba de Graaff primarily writes experimental operas and explores the boundary between speech and music in Qaqnas: what music do you get when you sing in a forbidden language? Naaz Mohammad, or simply Naaz, is a Dutch-Kurdish singer-songwriter with strong personal lyrics, often with an emotional layer.

An energetic, all-female Kurdish opera about freedom

The performance takes place in a kitchen that is also an electronic music studio. Here, an all-female cast operates the equipment themselves. They sing in Kurdish: a language that was forbidden for a long time and now sounds loud, proud, and uninhibited. The opera is based on a poem by the Kurdish poet Tarza Jaff and tells of women who dare to leave, who take wings – and pay a price for it.

Qaqnas connects do-it-yourself kitchen electronics with opera, poetry, rebellious women, and extravagant costumes: in this musical kitchen, an energetic, all-female Kurdish opera about freedom emerges. A thrilling performance about power and claiming space.

Meet the artist

On Saturday, June 13 at 10:00 PM, there will be a follow-up discussion with Huba de Graaff.