These were difficult years for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, not only because of covid, but also due to internal conflicts. General director Jan Raes put the house in order with a reorganization. After covid, the connection with the audience had to be restored. Despite the previous season proceeding in fits and starts, OBV successfully restarted and attracted more audiences than ever before.
Jan Raes also corrected the perception that the house's audience consisted only of elderly people. The average age dropped to 51 years through programming and 13% are younger than 30 years. With the arrival of choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, interest in ballet performances increased fourfold! After 7 years heading the ballet department, he departs for Geneva to fill a blank slate there. However, he doesn't completely disappear from the radar. His work remains part of the programming. The gap is filled by 3 'associated artists' Jan Martens, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Jermaine Spivey. They committed themselves for a four-year period.
Three pillars: Ballet / Opera / Spark
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen continues on its chosen path and put together a prestigious program on three fronts. Also unique are the hybrid productions, the combination of opera and ballet. In recent years, the ballet department has worked with a whole series of renowned choreographers with their own vocabulary and style. Few companies have such versatility in-house. There is international recognition for the company's uniqueness.
Ballet
[caption id="attachment_31820" align="alignleft" width="200"]
© Filip Van Roe[/caption]
The Flemish dance scene has belonged to the absolute world elite since the end of the last century with Alain Platel, Wim Vandekeybus, Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. They created a breathtaking and diverse repertoire that can be called unique within the international ballet world and that has inscribed itself in the artistic DNA of our region. But gradually the question arises: how can we cherish this rich living heritage for future generations. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen takes on the task of providing a safe home for the great contemporary classics of Flemish dance within its repertoire.
The season starts earlier this year than usual and begins with a premiere. For the first time, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen is invited by the Festival van Avignon with a production by Jan Martens, one of the leading choreographers of the moment. Someone who understands and can expose the structure of music. The world premiere of Futur Proche will be performed on the iconic Cour d'Honneur. This production fits perfectly with the year's theme LONGING. What does art offer in the face of dark future prospects? This production will also be seen in Amsterdam and The Hague, Sankt-Polten, Turnhout, Paris and Bruges and in the home country in deSingel, with which OBV enters into close collaboration.
Bengali/English choreographer Akram Khan is also returning as a guest with the production Creature, inspired by George Buchner's classic Woyzeck. This production also revolves around the future of humanity.
After the Paris Opera, OBV is the second company to perform Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's large-scale productions. First in line is her Mozart Concert Arias.
At the end of the season, another world premiere and triple bill follows with work by Pite/Spivey/Forsythe.
Opera
The major opera productions all revolve around the theme of LONGING.
A new Tristan und Isolde is on the program in a production by Philippe Grandrieus, a well-known name from the world of French cinema whose sensual film language perfectly matches the devastating passion between the antagonists.
Faust, between opera and oratorio with text by Victor Hugo, musical direction Philippe Herreweghe. Over the years, much of the original text was lost. A few new monologues are being written, to be delivered by accomplished actor Johan Leysen.
A new production is Aufstieg und fall der Stadt Mahagonny by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht directed by Ivo van Hove. In a visually tight style that focuses on the blurred boundary between the real and the virtual, he bridges the gap between the social crisis of the late 1920s and now.
On the program is the lesser-known work Ernani by Verdi. This work is a transition from early nationalistically-tinged works to works with greater psychological depth.
Fin de partie, the 2018 opera by Györg Kurtág, based on the work of the same name by Samuel Beckett. The Hungarian composer is 93 when his first opera premiered in 2017. It will be a concert opera in collaboration with deSingel to focus all attention on the finesse of the music.
Then there is The Indian Queen by Henry Purcell, in which director Guy Cassiers plays with the boundary between opera and theater.
There is also Le Nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart directed by Tom Goossen in a new approach to opera – a sustainable approach, everything comes from stock – and the young adventurous French conductor Marie Jacquot.
There is also a revival of Satyagraha by Jonathan Stockhammer and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
VONK
VONK, the platform for participation, development, inclusion and experiment continues with the same momentum and several remarkable and media-friendly projects. For A Bigger Thing, Opera Gent will be transformed into a ballroom. Argentine choreographer Lisi Estaras will stretch her legs there together with the residents of the city of Gent.
The major youth production will be Kruistocht, an opera based on the well-known youth novel 'Kruistocht in spijkerbroek' by Thea Beckman. Frederik Neyrick composes and Johan De Smet wrote the libretto and directs a diverse cast of actors and 50 children. The Compact Disc Dummies forge a musical alliance with the Symfonisch Orkest Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.
In Vake Poes, of hoe God Verdween, Lisaboa Houbrechts writes and stages the first part of a triptych about a twelve-year-old girl who delves into a traumatic history of her family. Fragments from the Johannespassion accompany her journey.
It will be exciting to see all this beauty.
Klassiek Centraal wishes all artists fair winds for the next season.