Annelies Van Parys, one of the resident composers at Muziektheater Transparant, writes Private View, her first opera, for the Opera XXI festival. With the suspense of a thriller, the tension of a whodunit and a good dose of humour, she weaves a subtle web with references to Hitchcock’s visual idiom. Following her composition for the successful production Ruhe, performed by Collegium Vocale Gent, and the impressive Een Oresteia, she is continuing her artistic course in musical theatre. This time she is collaborating with the Scottish poet Jen Hadfield, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Irish director Tom Creed. The Dutch 33 ⅓ Collective is responsible for the video and set design. The audience is drawn in and shares the view of a voyeur who shamelessly penetrates into other peoples’ lives. Private View confronts us with the ambiguity of watching and being watched, an issue that seems more relevant today than in the past: Big Brother is watching you, more than ever. Private View was awarded the FEDORA - Rolf Liebermann Prize for Opera 2014.