Little women

Little Women is an opera by American composer Marc Adamo, inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s celebrated novel. In 2026, marking the opera’s 30th anniversary, the International Opera Academy in Ghent (Belgium) presented a new production in collaboration with the SPECTRA and HERMES ensembles.

The story follows the four March sisters as they come of age in 19th-century America. At its heart is Jo March, a young woman who dreams of becoming a writer and struggles to find her place in a world that seems to have other plans for her. Caught between family ties, desire, love and loss, Jo faces an essential question: how can you grow up without giving up who you are? As her sisters set out on their own paths, she searches for a balance between freedom and the bonds that define her. Through memories and encounters with the people who have shaped her life, she discovers that growing up also means learning to let go, embracing change and daring to imagine a future of her own.

The stage production transposes Louisa May Alcott’s world to 1970s New York, a decade of profound social change and cultural ferment, shaped by the rise of feminist and LGBTQ+ movements. This shift in time brings Jo’s struggles — her search for identity, artistic freedom and independence — into dialogue with the struggles and contradictions of our own time. Conceived as a journey through the protagonist’s memories, the production unfolds like a living, fragmented photo album, in which images, scenes and traces of the past overlap, revealing how our lived experiences transform us and shape who we become. A story about growing up, desire, loss and finding the courage to write your own future.