Meryem's Ballad: The Odyssey of a Guest-Worker 

A storytelling performance by Babelfis and Mert Akbal 

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on special two shows in ausland: 

07.11.25 and 08.11.25

starting time: 20:00 precisely 

doors: 19:30

tickets on presale here: Meryem's Ballad: The Odyssey of a Guest-Worker

*Reduced tickets are available for students, trainees, the unemployed, and retirees.

*please note, there's a limited number of places. door tickets for both dates depend on vacancy

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Meryem’s Ballad reimagines Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman through the eyes of a female guest worker in 1970s West Germany.

Senta and her friend Mary are no longer at spinning wheels in a sailor’s tale — they are factory workers at Pierburg, an auto-parts plant in Neuss, on November 11, 1973. During a short break, Senta sings of her upcoming marriage and her plan to leave the factory. Meryem, a co-worker from Turkey, listens — and responds.

Her reply moves through past, present, and imagined futures, tracing a cycle of migration, labor, and emancipation. Blending the music of babelfis, visuals by Mert Akbal, Meryem’s Ballad reclaims women’s narratives from Wagner’s opera and places them in a shared history of resistance.

First premiered at Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Tischlerei in 2023, the work now returns in a newly staged version created for the intimate setting of ausland.

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with babelfis / Sevda Hamzaçebi (voice), babelfis / Cem Dinler (keys, synth), Lisa Newill-Smith (soprano), David Wishart (piano), Serkan Emre Çiftçi (trumpet, synth), Penelope Gkika (violin), Emilia Lomakova (cello), Youka Snell (violin), Alexina Hawkins (viola) · concept, staging, text babelfis / Sevda Hamzaçebi · musical direction babelfis / Cem Dinler · music babelfis, Richard Wagner · video Mert Akbal · research Sevda Hamzaçebi, Selen Müldür · documentation Arda Funda · sound Bora Küçükyılmaz · graphic design Suat Can Beldek · technical direction and light design Hilà Lahav (ausland), Ruth Waldeyer (ausland)

production by babelfis in cooperation with ausland · supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion · The premiere in November 2023 was commissioned as part of the Hinterhalt Commission by Musicboard Berlin in cooperation with Deutsche Oper Berlin, with additional support from Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt

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