Holland Festival presents the world premiere of Otemba – Daring Women, the music theatre performance by composer Misato Mochizuki, librettist Janine Brogt and director Jan van den Berg, featuring soloists Ryoko Aoki and Bernadeta Astari. The piece is based on the painting Portrait of Pieter Cnoll, Cornelia van Nijenrode, their daughters and two enslaved servants (Batavia, 1665) by Jacob Coeman, which hangs in the Rijksmuseum. Otemba – Daring Women sheds light on the colonial history of the Netherlands, but also on the international character of the city of Amsterdam by showing different, sometimes opposing, perspectives – both of the characters and the international creators. Mochizuki (Tokyo, 1969) weaves elements from various musical traditions of Japan and the West into her music. Otemba – Daring Women will have its world premiere on 19 June at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. Ticket sales start on 28 November 2024.

‘Otemba’ is not only the title of the performance, but also one of over 160 words the Japanese language borrowed from Dutch. It means ‘untameable’ and is specifically used to describe independent (rebellious) girls and women who refuse to conform and choose their own path.

Otemba – Daring Women is inspired by the remarkable life story of the woman depicted in the painting: Cornelia van Nijenroode. She was the daughter of the Japanese woman Surishira and Cornelis van Nijenroode, a Dutch merchant in Hirado, the first VOC trading post in Japan. At the age of 23, Cornelia married Pieter Cnoll, a wealthy senior merchant in Batavia. Four years after Cnoll’s death, Cornelia remarried — a disastrous decision, as her second husband, Joan Bitter, was mainly interested in her money. The marriage quickly and irreparably deteriorated. In a highly unusual move for her time, Cornelia filed for divorce. She pursued her case all the way to the Supreme Court in what became the first divorce case in Dutch legal history in which a woman claimed legal control over her own assets.

Remarkably, the painting also features Untung Surapati, who would later become an Indonesian freedom fighter.Since 1975 — thirty years after the founding of the Republic of Indonesia — he has been honoured as a national hero.

In Otemba – Daring Women, Cornelia van Nijenroode steps out of her frame and out of her time, entering the 21st century and another continent. There, she meets Kirana Diah, the Indonesian restorer working on the painting. Kirana is initially mainly drawn to the work because of Untung Surapati. But Cornelia challenges her to a nocturnal conversation — about female untameability, their views on self and other, on decolonisation and agency. Because how do you view each other’s cultural reality across centuries? It’s a magical moment in the restoration process, a one-night-only encounter that defies the limitations of time and space; between painting and reality, then and now, East and West.

The meeting results in a confrontation between two life stories that are radically different, yet reveal surprising similarities. A scanning robot is also present — artificial intelligence meant to neutrally analyse data, but which turns out to have a voice of its own.

The performance premieres during the 78th Holland Festival on 19 June 2025 at the Muziekgebouw, and will later tour nationally and internationally.

Credits:

Composer: Misato Mochizuki (J) works across three continents and has over 60 compositions to her name, combining Western and Japanese traditions in a uniquely personal way.

Libretto: Janine Brogt (NL) is a playwright, dramaturg, librettist and translator for theatre, opera and dance. Her versatile body of work often centres around extraordinary women.

Ensemble: New European Ensemble (EU) was founded in 2009 and frequently combines music with film, dance, theatre and visual art. The ensemble uses the communicative power of music to tell stories that challenge, inspire and deepen our understanding of human experience and our environment.

Artistic Direction & Stage Direction: Jan van den Berg (NL) is a filmmaker and theatre maker working at the intersection of science and performing arts. He is founder and artistic director of Theater Adhoc.

Cast:

Cornelia van Nijenroode: Ryoko Aoki (J) holds a unique position as a Noh singer in a traditionally all-male artform. Above all, she is the pioneer and inspiration for a new artistic form that combines utai — traditional Noh chanting — with contemporary music.

Kirana Diah: Bernadeta Astari (ID/NL) is a vocal artist with an expressive voice. During her studies, she won the Dutch Classical Talent Award and the Princess Christina Competition. She graduated cum laude from the Utrecht Conservatory in 2012.

Lighting: Gé Wegman was co-founder and resident lighting designer of the Veem Theater, the production house for mime and physical theatre. As an independent lighting designer, he collaborates with a wide variety of Dutch directors, companies and theatre labs.

Costumes: Lisa Konno is a distinctive interdisciplinary artist and designer from Amsterdam. In 2018, she won the Dutch Design Award.

This production was made possible with the generous support of the Marinus Plantema Foundation, Performing Arts Fund NL, Ammodo Foundation, Isaac Alfred Ailion Foundation, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Berg & van Dalen Foundation, and Rabo ClubSupport.
The performance includes an introduction by Janine Brogt.

Tickets: OTEMBA – Daring Women | World Premiere 19 – 21 June | Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam

New European Ensemble

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