Festival 'STROOM' in the Scheldevallei 21.06-14.07.2023

Last year, the first edition of 'STROOM' was launched. Creative minds don't sit still easily. Veerle Simoens, artistic director of the Festival van Vlaanderen OdeGand and her team, wanted to unlock not only the unique spots in the city center of Gent, but also the many beautiful locations in East Flanders, which is rich in magnificent castles, with music. A bullseye. STROOM meanders the audience along on a musical discovery tour. Every day there is a large outdoor concert, intimate musical experience or sustainable discourse to pick up in a different city or municipality in the Scheldevallei. With its second edition, the youngest festival offspring of the Festival van Vlaanderen lets culture and nature flow into each other and delves into the themes of climate, ecology and sustainability. The program carries all the qualifications to be exceptional with a spectrum from serious to playful, analytical versus romantic, seeking answers to life's questions and an ode to imagination.

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' directed by Tom Goossens

So we're right at the opening concert with the very fitting 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by Shakespeare, and Mendelssohn's ethereal orchestral music, during the summer solstice on June 21. Place to be: Donkmeer in Berlare. It will be a blockbuster with the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen and the actor couples Tom Van Dyck & Alice Reijs and Koen De Graeve & Ariane van Vliet, the vocal ensemble Air4Six, conductor Risto Joos in a production by Tom Goossens. In recent years he has been active at Muziektheater Transparant, his own company: de SCHONECOMPAGNIE, Com. Marius. At Opera Ballet Vlaanderen he directed Le Nozze di Figaro last month, a cheeky and acclaimed production. His work adds a fresh dimension to the opera repertoire, fiction and reality that he knows how to filter with fine detail and a touch of humor mixed in. We managed to book him for a conversation despite his busy schedule.

-When directing, what appeals to you most: heart, head or intuition?
Intuition, certainly. I always try to make what I like to see myself. That naturally has to do with taste. I try to prepare myself well so that it is very clear to the actors what kind of language and atmosphere I want to achieve.

-Being receptive to atmospheres is very important.
When I direct, I try to frame the atmosphere very well and pull people along in it. Spoken text is in itself musical. The actors also get a score from me. That makes the context very concrete. With a game with rules you can have a lot of fun. That's the case with this Shakespeare play too. There are rules of play, there is a framework, there is music to talk to. This creates a very clear framework. You have to learn that framework, you have to know the rules. Within these rules, a collaboration develops. That brings relaxation and pleasure too. When a text is musical, it also pulls the players into the fun atmosphere. 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' can be described as a tender reverie, a story rich in playful elements. Summed up in two words: romance and humor.

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-The Donkmeer, a rural setting, immediately stimulates the senses.
It is a very special place. The grandstand is gigantic, a kind of football stand, in front of it a lake and a pontoon with plants. The orchestra will be placed there in a transparent tent. The actors move around it. They will bring texts between the music based on Shakespeare's work. The audience sees the sunset, the night falling. All elements to intensify the experience.

-F. Mendelssohn, a musical prodigy, wrote the 'Overture' at the age of 17, only sixteen years later did he compose the rest. Originally with a narrator, a soprano and mezzo-soprano, a children's and women's choir. How do you approach it?
We do it with fewer actors, a six-member women's choir and an orchestra. Those actors essentially play themselves. They play the actors from the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. There are scenes about a group of actors and they also experience all the love troubles that the other characters, the non-actors experience. I've thrown it all together and concentrated on just four characters and those are those four actors.

© Paul Teerlinck


© Paul Teerlinck


© Paul Teerlinck


© Paul Teerlinck


© Paul Teerlinck

-You managed to book top-notch actors Tom Van Dyck & Alice Reijs and Koen De Graeve & Ariane van Vliet. You're gradually building a reputation. You always look for the right people in the right roles.

Yes, that's true. I usually select the right ensemble to tell the right story. In this specific case, I didn't select them so much based on their role but rather on the group energy. Because that group dynamic fits what I want to do with the story. The emotional life is central to a narrative that, despite its fairy-tale quality, is emotionally resonant.

-Will the whole thing be a fresh marriage between beautiful arias, new text and vocal material.
In Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream there is very little vocal material. It will be somewhat different. It's more actors with orchestra. It becomes a playful story full of understatements.

-You turned 'Rigoletto' into a blockbuster in the opera world! Some scenes were almost pure slapstick. 'Le nozze di Figaro' also gained an extra humorous layer. What about 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'?
It's actually a classical concert that opens up with text material from Shakespeare. A concept with playful scenes, brought vitally to life by the four actors.