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

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.

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.

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.