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Izmir State Opera and Ballet (IZDOB), based in the Aegean port city of Izmir in western Türkiye, returns “W. A. Mozart Requiem” to the stage for the 2026-2027 season.
The production, which premiered on April 22, 2026, retells Mozart’s “Requiem” through contemporary dance.
Behind the production stands choreographer Emrecan Tanis, who shapes the one-act work around the bond a person forms with their own existence. Choreography assistant Katariina Luukas works alongside him as the movement takes its place on stage.
The visual world of the production comes from two designers. Kaan Guresci creates the set, while Gulay Korkut Dinc designs the costumes. Their work gives the performance its physical setting and its clothing as a single act unfolds across five sections.
Light and image complete the technical side of the staging. Oguz Murat Yilmaz handles the lighting design, and Ahmet Seren is responsible for the video production.
Their contributions accompany the dancers through a work that places the self, time and change at the center of its movement.
The score at the heart of the piece carries its own history. Mozart began work on the “Requiem” shortly before his death and died without completing it.
The work has since become one of the most frequently performed pieces in music history and is traditionally regarded as an elegy on death.
In this staging, that tradition meets the expressive means of contemporary dance.
The one-act work is divided into five sections titled “Ego,” “Innocence” (“Masumiyet”), “Time” (“Zaman”), “Moment” (“An”) and “Essence” (“Oz”), each named for a theme the choreography explores.
The sequence opens with “Ego” and “Innocence.” Through movement alone, the production brings the layers of the self to the stage, giving physical form to ideas that a score and a title can only suggest.
At the center of the sequence, “Time” and “Moment” turn to the way a person relates to time. Dancers carry that relationship across the stage, linking the opening sections to the work’s closing chapter.
The final section, “Essence,” completes the five. Throughout the work, Tanis treats death not only as a physical end but as a process of unravelling and change, a reading that sets a new perspective beside the requiem’s traditional role as a lament.
The new season opens on Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. Further performances follow on Oct. 10 at 3 p.m. and Oct. 12 at 8 p.m. All take place on the Necdet Aydin Stage at Bornova Culture and Art Center (“Bornova Kultur ve Sanat Merkezi”) in Izmir.
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