We Are The Lucky Ones tells the story of a generation and is based on interviews with more than seventy people from Western Europe, born between 1940 and 1949. It is the story of people who started with little, got better and better, and who now leave behind a world in which growth is no longer sustainable. Their memories form a collective time capsule of the past eighty years, told as one continuous musical-theatrical life story. The opera traces individual experiences and social changes through the decades, asking crucial questions about the relationship between the private and the political, the impact of our choices, and what really matters in the end.

Successful duo

We Are The Lucky Ones is the fourth musical-theater collaboration by composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman, their first opera for orchestra and their first collaboration with playwright Nina Segal. Previously, Denis & Katya, a chamber opera reconstructing the tragic fate of two Russian teenagers from different perspectives, was a hit at the 2022 Opera Forward Festival. Venables' and Huffman's The Faggots and their Friends between Revolutions, an adaptation of Larry Mitchell's queer fairy tale, received rave reviews after its premiere in 2023 and has been included in Holland Festival 2024 programming.

Bassem Akiki

The musical direction is in the hands of Bassem Akiki, who has already proven himself to be an inspired interpreter of new music at The National Opera with Alexander Raskatov's Animal Farm. Moreover, with the adventurous Residentie Orkest and a singers cast of high caliber as interpreters of a generation, We Are The Lucky Ones has all the ingredients for a world premiere to be eagerly awaited.