Every year in May / June, the inner courtyard of the Landcommanderij Alden Biesen becomes the meeting place for opera lovers. A majestic setting that certainly adds value.
In this edition, the focus is on the operetta repertoire of Austrian-Hungarian composer Franz Léhar.
During this summer opera edition, the inner courtyard of the Landcommanderij Alden Biesen is renamed
Villa Léhar. Franz Léhar, the most celebrated 20th-century composer of the genre described as the 'Viennese operetta', elevated light music and operetta to a higher level. He wrote his most beautiful operettas in his summer house in Bad Ischl on the Traun river. He bought the villa in 1910 and lived there every summer from 1912 until his death in 1948.
Everything has its time and peak. Interest in operetta slowly faded. Young talents emerged and took the helm with new music. Operetta became outdated.
Despite the operetta genre producing many beautiful melodies, operettas are rarely performed anymore. The romantic and frivolous songs from the many operettas colored the lives of our parents and grandparents. It deserves praise that songs that belong to the collective memory of an older public are brought back.
How a small idea can take off
A tourist outing can sometimes lead to ideas. When Piet Vansichen, artistic director of Alden Biesen, visited
Villa Léhar in Bad Ischl, he was inspired with the idea of using this villa as a framework for a new production. A narrative was written in which Léhar's work is fully explored, but contemporaries are also involved, as well as composers who admired Léhar. The parade includes: Strauss, Verdi, Dvořák
, Offenbach, Puccini. The decor is a sort of replica of the richly furnished interior of
Villa Léhar, now a museum, with an abundance of works of art. The audience is immersed in his musical universe. The angle: a guide who leads visitors through the villa, played by Koen Crucke, and tells something about Léhar's life in passing, which comes across somewhat meager. Music and song are lush and moving, but the totality does not form a consistent whole and lacks some body.
Soloists
Musical direction was entrusted to Dutch conductor and pianist Enrico Delamboye. Direction, set design and lighting design are under the direction of Bruno Van Heystraeten.
Koen Crucke is a musical jack-of-all-trades, but operetta and opera are certainly among the favorite repertoire of this tenor and old hand in the business. Territory where he feels completely at home. With his contagious energy he guides the audience through the highlights of Léhar's oeuvre and his beloved tenor Richard Tauber, his great example Strauss, his mentor
Dvořák, and so on
. You could see it as a sightseeing tour but then in an auditory sense.
Dutch soprano Barbara Haveman and Antwerp soprano Lisa Mostin were engaged as sopranos. Barbara Haveman is particularly impressive in the aria "Song to the Moon" from Dvořák's opera
Rusalka. Lisa Mostin specializes in virtuoso coloratura repertoire and demonstrates her vocal acrobatics as a singing mechanical doll in "Les oiseaux dans la charmille", from Jacques Offenbach's opera
Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
Tenor Ewandro Stenzowski, a Brazilian with Polish/Italian roots, sings the Tauber song par excellence, "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" from Léhar's
Das Land des Lächelns and also "De miei bollenti spiriti" from Verdi's
La Traviata. An aria that all great tenors have included in their repertoire. He also makes an impression with his voice and interpretation. Bass, Piet Vansichen, sings among other things a song from Johann Strauss' 'Die Zigeunerbaron' and 'Vor meinen Vaterhaus' by Robert Stolz. Baritone Koen Van Agtmael joins in the ensemble.
As the apotheosis of
Villa Léhar, a medley of well-known songs from Léhar's rich legacy was performed with a dynamic use of voices, changing tone color, tonality and tempo.
Villa Léhar brings about the highlights from the opera and operetta repertoire from the first half of the 20th century. For enthusiasts, a performance with 'must-see' signature.
WHAT: Summer opera
Villa Léhar
WHO: Bruno Van Heystraeten [direction], Enrico Delamboye [conductor], Federico Santi [conductor], Hilde Colaers [costumes], Ingrid De Schrijver [props]
VOICES: Barbara Haveman, Lisa Mostin, Koen Crucke, Koen van Agtmael, Ewandro Stenzowski, Piet Vansichen
WHERE: Landcommanderij Alden Biesen
tickets & info
