The five shows you must see in May

Dutch Travel Opera, Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice (opera), 1 May to 6 June

Crushing debut by director Floris Visser at the Nederlandse Reisopera. He does not show a centuries-old opera about an even much older myth, but lays bare the core of Gluck's opera. It results in a heartbreaking performance On grief and the inability to accept that your loved one is gone. playlist

Toneelgroep Oostpool / Introdans: The badly guarded girl (youth/dance), 8 to 17 May

Director Timothy de Gilde and choreographer Adriaan Luteijn adapted the ballet classic La fille malgardée. In the world of Ritalin, 'likes', 'hashtags', selfies, plastic surgery, CITO training and avatars, this Fille Mal Gardée is a poorly guarded girl who shows that you don't always have to be perfect in everything. With chicken dance. playlist

The National Opera, Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini (opera), 9 to 28 May

The British press was short of superlatives from former Monty Phyton Terry Gilliam's second opera direction. Berlioz's grand opera about 16th-century sculptor is transformed by Gilliam into a true spectacle, complete with fire-eaters, giant carnival masks and stilt-walkers. playlist

Company Marius, Figaro (stage): 21 to 24 May

Over four hours of outdoor performance during Opera Days Rotterdam in which Waas Gramser and Kris Van Trier return to the piece on which both Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro as Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia based. Beaumarchais' play offers a veritable "tsunami of intrigue" full of guile, deception and the insatiable hunger for love.

fABULEUS, The Metsiers (youth): Festival Havenwerk, 30 May

During one of our country's most enjoyable youth theatre festivals, Festival Havenwerk in Deventer, you can see dozens of performances, shows and presentations for two days at a bargain price. Including the Dutch premiere of The Metsiers from the Flemish fABULEUS. Hugo Claus was nineteen when he wrote his debut novel The Metsiers wrote. In this theatrical adaptation, the six actresses are as young as Claus was then. Director Carl von Winckelmann reworked the novel into a sober but intense performance, in which the actors have no other hold than the text and each other.