The book traces the history of the Flanders Festival as a major cultural event and institution in... more The book traces the history of the Flanders Festival as a major cultural event and institution in post-war Belgian history. It analyses its role in the dissemination of culture and its contribution to the establishment of an institutional and legal framework for the development of culture in the last decades. The focus lies on the interplay between cultural actors, such as artists and organizers, the media, business sponsoring and government policies.
The Lithuanian artist Ciurlionis developed two talents: music and painting. The present article w... more The Lithuanian artist Ciurlionis developed two talents: music and painting. The present article was written in the context of an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent that presented an impressive overview of his work as a painter. In the article on Ciurlionis as a composer, the relationship between the two sides of his artistic practice is defined and the stylistic features of his music explored.
In four successive seasons, from Spring 2006 and to the Fall of 2008, the Flemish Opera (Belgium)... more In four successive seasons, from Spring 2006 and to the Fall of 2008, the Flemish Opera (Belgium) entrusted a production of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen to Ivo van Hove and his stage designer and video artist Jan Versweyfeld. The conductor was Ivan Törzs. The Flemish Opera as it was called then-its actual name since 2014 is Opera Ballet Vlaanderen-is an institution that serves two historical opera houses in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Antwerp. Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried were presented in Ghent, Götterdämmerung in Antwerp. Due to urgent restoration works to the building, the Antwerp Opera was not available to host the entire cycle. The timing was unfortunate, because the Antwerp theatre is excellently equipped for Wagner performances. It had originally been conceived at its opening in 1907 to meet the standards of Wagnerian music drama. At that time, the Flemish speaking community of Antwerp aligned itself with Germanic culture as a strategy to counter the dominant position of the French language Théâtre Royale Français in the same city. As a result, Antwerp developed a veritable Wagner cult, demonstrated for instance by a yearly tradition of Parsifal performances during the Holy Week that was maintained with only small interruptions until 1993. The fact that the ambitious Ring cycle that could have marked the centenary of Wagner performances in Antwerp had to move partly to the acoustically inferior Opera of Ghent was a serious set back. Other strokes of bad luck affected the performances. Drastic budget cuts necessitated diminishing the orchestra's forces until the absolute minimum. The most unfortunate development, however, was the fact that the production has not been revived after its initial run. This turn of events was due mainly to the change of directorship of the Flemish Opera from Marc Clémeur to Aviel Cahn shortly after the production. The sets have been dismantled. Produced in yearly installments and not as a unified production from the start, Van Hove's Ring has never been presented in the form of a veritable Ring Cycle spanning four successive days. It did not get time to grow, a prerequisite for every successful Ring. The production only exists in memory and in the documentation of a working video recording made by the Flemish Opera's technical services for archival reasons. Due to this cluster of circumstances, it is no wonder that the Van Hove Ring failed to leave its mark on the international operatic scene. However, we have all the more reason to treat it as one of the major Ring productions of the early twenty-first century. The international press coverage at the time leaves no doubt that the production was recognized as surprising and original by those who had a chance to see it. In part, this impression of freshness, of constant discovery, was due partly to the fact that the production took time to develop. Ivo van Hove stated that he approached the Ring from work to work, without the limitations of a rigorously preconceived concept for the whole. At the time of the Rheingold première, he declared: "I approach each part on its own. Until now I have consciously kept Götterdämmerung at bay, although I know what happens in it. But I did not want to be influenced for Das Rheingold by the end. Wagner also does not want us to think as straightforward, because
The article presents a solution to the question about the music historical positioning of Enescu&... more The article presents a solution to the question about the music historical positioning of Enescu's opera Oedipe in relating the work in aesthetics and content to fin de siecle values.
Review of Marina Frolova-Walker's study on the history of the Stalin Prize and its significan... more Review of Marina Frolova-Walker's study on the history of the Stalin Prize and its significance for Soviet music cultur
The article gives a summary of Tchaikovsky's operatic development, based on the recent state ... more The article gives a summary of Tchaikovsky's operatic development, based on the recent state of research on the composer and Russian opera in general.
Uitgeverij LannooCampus maakt deel uit van Lannoo Uitgeverij, de boeken-en multimediadivisie van ... more Uitgeverij LannooCampus maakt deel uit van Lannoo Uitgeverij, de boeken-en multimediadivisie van Uitgeverij Lannoo nv Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets van deze uitgave mag verveelvoudigd worden en of openbaar gemaakt, door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm, of op welke andere wijze dan ook, zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever.
Het artikel analyseert de transpositie van Poesjkins epische gedicht Poltava naar de opera van Pe... more Het artikel analyseert de transpositie van Poesjkins epische gedicht Poltava naar de opera van Peter Tsjajkovski.
The book traces the history of the Flanders Festival as a major cultural event and institution in... more The book traces the history of the Flanders Festival as a major cultural event and institution in post-war Belgian history. It analyses its role in the dissemination of culture and its contribution to the establishment of an institutional and legal framework for the development of culture in the last decades. The focus lies on the interplay between cultural actors, such as artists and organizers, the media, business sponsoring and government policies.
The rejection of Boris Godunov for the lack of a female part is a well-known incident. In his rev... more The rejection of Boris Godunov for the lack of a female part is a well-known incident. In his revision, Musorgskii included the historical character of Marina Mniszech. The resulting Polish Act has been received with mixed feelings. Bias against the Polish Act is one of the reasons behind the contemporary surge of interest in the 1869 version, such as productions at the Mariiinski Theater, the Bavarian State Opera, the Royal Opera House and the Paris Opeŕa testify. The return to the original Boris has a side effect, however, which is precisely the one the selection committee of the Imperial Theaters warned for: it represents a world devoid of female agency. In the otherwise signiTicant production of Ivo van Hove for Paris this omission sits uncomfortable with the social and political values that have been articulated most clearly in the #MeToo campaign. Since Musorgskii provided an alternative, the experience of the original Boris Godunov in actual performance might stimulate a renewed interest in what is left out. Considered from the standards of the #MeToo movement, the part of Marina Mniszech becomes signiTicant as a reminder of the active role played by women in the historical events represented on stage. The part also resonates with the contemporary #MeToo analysis of gender roles. Marina combines a desire for female autonomy with submission to patriarchal forces. The character could offer interesting material for a stage production that addresses the story from a modern awareness of gender roles. A comparison with Ivo van Hove's take on Schiller's Mary Stuart demonstrates that such awareness may be creatively productive.
The article offers an interpretation of Tchaikovsky's seldom played and elusive opera "T... more The article offers an interpretation of Tchaikovsky's seldom played and elusive opera "The sorceress". The main argument states that the opera should be seen as a fairy tale rather than a psychological drama and that the main focus lies on the idea of sexual liberty.
is een meesterwerk van het understatement. Zowel de roman in verzen van Alexander Poesjkin als de... more is een meesterwerk van het understatement. Zowel de roman in verzen van Alexander Poesjkin als de gelijknamige opera van Tsjajkovski suggereren meer dan ze in feite zeggen. In Poesjkins meesterwerk wordt deze kwaliteit alom erkend en geprezen. Over Tsjajkovski mag de stelling verbazen, omdat hij toch vooral bekend staat als de componist van het emotionele exces. Volgens een wijd verspreide opvatting is Tsjajkovski een componist met het hart op de tong, een componist die zijn gevoelens in zijn muziek de vrije loop laat. De receptie van zijn werk heeft inderdaad sterk de klemtoon gelegd op de uitdrukking van onopgeloste psychische spanningen. Wie met dit verwachtingspatroon naar Jevgeni Onegin luistert, zal vooral de emotionele hoogspanning in de finale dialoog tussen Onegin en Tatjana onthouden. De slotzin van Onegin-"schande, angst, o mijn beklagenswaardig lot"-krijgt dan de allure van de bezegeling van een volbloed tragedie.
Shostakovich research has focused mainly on the discovery of models and musical codes with politi... more Shostakovich research has focused mainly on the discovery of models and musical codes with political import. Other influences have remained undetected. This article argues for a reconsideration of Shostakovich's use of Brahms as a model through an intertextual reading of the first movements of Brahms's Second and Shostakovich's Tenth symphonies.
we have, a highly skilled choral director who used the genre not only to pursue her own Bachian p... more we have, a highly skilled choral director who used the genre not only to pursue her own Bachian pastimes but to experiment as a composer. The primary organization of Wolitz’s monograph is chronological, with chapters treating the Festspiel of 1829, three cantatas of 1831, the music for St Cecilia of 1833, the Einleitung zu lebenden Bilder of 1841, and music for the opening scene of Faust, Part II of 1843. The final chapter, titled ‘Anfang und Ende’, groups together the choral part-songs, the majority of which fell in 1846. Interrupting the flow of chapters are occasional excursions concerning the potential and limitations of gender and cultural studies in assessing Hensel’s music, as well as a short section about the chorus that she directed at her residence in Berlin. In the main, Wolitz favours traditional musical analysis as his mode of inquiry in approaching Hensel, and he displays a sure hand in disentangling stylistic influences on the composer, whether they be J. S. Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart in the cantatas, or her brother in other works. But the book also offers provocative, fresh lines of argument, as in the assertion on p. 106 that Fanny’s Cholera Cantata of 1831 may have been of consequence to Mendelssohn when he took up the task of composing oratorios, in the finding on p. 123 that the siblings rarely invoked the name of Christ in their letters and music, and in the conclusion on p. 134 that Hensel’s music for St Cecilia was ‘basically a caricature of Catholic sacred music’. There remain a few quibbles. Readers will lament, for instance, the lack of an index. On p. 123, the assertion that Mendelssohn possibly avoided using the surname Bartholdy in England in 1829 as a protest against the family’s adopted Christian name has been rebutted by Jeffrey S. Sposato in his monograph The Price of Assimilation: Felix Mendelssohn and the Nineteenth-Century Anti-Semitic Tradition (New York, 2006). On p. 149, the suggestion thatWilhelm Hensel played the role of the narrator in the tableaux vivants organized for Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s birthday in 1841 is contradicted by Fanny Hensel’s letter to her brother of 17 March 1841 (cited in Renate HellwigUnruh’s Hensel catalogue, p. 309), which suggests that the actor Eduard Devrient played that role. On p. 203, we might draw the reader’s attention to the conspicuous similarity between the opening of Nachtreigen and the principal theme from the first movement of Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E flat major, Op. 12. And on pp. 242 and 265, we might note some intertextual references between compositions of Hensel. The part-song ‘O Herbst, in linden Tagen’ appears to allude in bars 13^14 to Juni from the piano cycle Das Jahr, while the Uhland text of another part-song, ‘Im Herbste’ (Op. 3 No. 3) contains a quatrain (‘Ahnest du, O Seele, wieder / sanfte, su« e Fru« hlingslieder / Sieh umher die falben Ba« ume / Ach! Es waren holde Tra« ume!’) that served as the epigram for the autograph fair copy of Januar in Das Jahr. But these are all fine points that do not diminish the high quality and even-handed approach of Fanny Hensels Chorwerke, a strong addition to the growing Hensel literature.
This chapter discusses the peculiar situation of the functioning of De Nederlandse Opera within t... more This chapter discusses the peculiar situation of the functioning of De Nederlandse Opera within the structure of the Amsterdam Theatre, Het Muziektheater, and its relationship with the other institution that is housed in the same theatre, Het Nationale Ballet. The ...
The book traces the history of the Flanders Festival as a major cultural event and institution in... more The book traces the history of the Flanders Festival as a major cultural event and institution in post-war Belgian history. It analyses its role in the dissemination of culture and its contribution to the establishment of an institutional and legal framework for the development of culture in the last decades. The focus lies on the interplay between cultural actors, such as artists and organizers, the media, business sponsoring and government policies.
The Lithuanian artist Ciurlionis developed two talents: music and painting. The present article w... more The Lithuanian artist Ciurlionis developed two talents: music and painting. The present article was written in the context of an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent that presented an impressive overview of his work as a painter. In the article on Ciurlionis as a composer, the relationship between the two sides of his artistic practice is defined and the stylistic features of his music explored.
In four successive seasons, from Spring 2006 and to the Fall of 2008, the Flemish Opera (Belgium)... more In four successive seasons, from Spring 2006 and to the Fall of 2008, the Flemish Opera (Belgium) entrusted a production of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen to Ivo van Hove and his stage designer and video artist Jan Versweyfeld. The conductor was Ivan Törzs. The Flemish Opera as it was called then-its actual name since 2014 is Opera Ballet Vlaanderen-is an institution that serves two historical opera houses in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Antwerp. Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried were presented in Ghent, Götterdämmerung in Antwerp. Due to urgent restoration works to the building, the Antwerp Opera was not available to host the entire cycle. The timing was unfortunate, because the Antwerp theatre is excellently equipped for Wagner performances. It had originally been conceived at its opening in 1907 to meet the standards of Wagnerian music drama. At that time, the Flemish speaking community of Antwerp aligned itself with Germanic culture as a strategy to counter the dominant position of the French language Théâtre Royale Français in the same city. As a result, Antwerp developed a veritable Wagner cult, demonstrated for instance by a yearly tradition of Parsifal performances during the Holy Week that was maintained with only small interruptions until 1993. The fact that the ambitious Ring cycle that could have marked the centenary of Wagner performances in Antwerp had to move partly to the acoustically inferior Opera of Ghent was a serious set back. Other strokes of bad luck affected the performances. Drastic budget cuts necessitated diminishing the orchestra's forces until the absolute minimum. The most unfortunate development, however, was the fact that the production has not been revived after its initial run. This turn of events was due mainly to the change of directorship of the Flemish Opera from Marc Clémeur to Aviel Cahn shortly after the production. The sets have been dismantled. Produced in yearly installments and not as a unified production from the start, Van Hove's Ring has never been presented in the form of a veritable Ring Cycle spanning four successive days. It did not get time to grow, a prerequisite for every successful Ring. The production only exists in memory and in the documentation of a working video recording made by the Flemish Opera's technical services for archival reasons. Due to this cluster of circumstances, it is no wonder that the Van Hove Ring failed to leave its mark on the international operatic scene. However, we have all the more reason to treat it as one of the major Ring productions of the early twenty-first century. The international press coverage at the time leaves no doubt that the production was recognized as surprising and original by those who had a chance to see it. In part, this impression of freshness, of constant discovery, was due partly to the fact that the production took time to develop. Ivo van Hove stated that he approached the Ring from work to work, without the limitations of a rigorously preconceived concept for the whole. At the time of the Rheingold première, he declared: "I approach each part on its own. Until now I have consciously kept Götterdämmerung at bay, although I know what happens in it. But I did not want to be influenced for Das Rheingold by the end. Wagner also does not want us to think as straightforward, because
The article presents a solution to the question about the music historical positioning of Enescu&... more The article presents a solution to the question about the music historical positioning of Enescu's opera Oedipe in relating the work in aesthetics and content to fin de siecle values.
Review of Marina Frolova-Walker's study on the history of the Stalin Prize and its significan... more Review of Marina Frolova-Walker's study on the history of the Stalin Prize and its significance for Soviet music cultur
The article gives a summary of Tchaikovsky's operatic development, based on the recent state ... more The article gives a summary of Tchaikovsky's operatic development, based on the recent state of research on the composer and Russian opera in general.
Uitgeverij LannooCampus maakt deel uit van Lannoo Uitgeverij, de boeken-en multimediadivisie van ... more Uitgeverij LannooCampus maakt deel uit van Lannoo Uitgeverij, de boeken-en multimediadivisie van Uitgeverij Lannoo nv Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets van deze uitgave mag verveelvoudigd worden en of openbaar gemaakt, door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm, of op welke andere wijze dan ook, zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever.
Het artikel analyseert de transpositie van Poesjkins epische gedicht Poltava naar de opera van Pe... more Het artikel analyseert de transpositie van Poesjkins epische gedicht Poltava naar de opera van Peter Tsjajkovski.
The book traces the history of the Flanders Festival as a major cultural event and institution in... more The book traces the history of the Flanders Festival as a major cultural event and institution in post-war Belgian history. It analyses its role in the dissemination of culture and its contribution to the establishment of an institutional and legal framework for the development of culture in the last decades. The focus lies on the interplay between cultural actors, such as artists and organizers, the media, business sponsoring and government policies.
The rejection of Boris Godunov for the lack of a female part is a well-known incident. In his rev... more The rejection of Boris Godunov for the lack of a female part is a well-known incident. In his revision, Musorgskii included the historical character of Marina Mniszech. The resulting Polish Act has been received with mixed feelings. Bias against the Polish Act is one of the reasons behind the contemporary surge of interest in the 1869 version, such as productions at the Mariiinski Theater, the Bavarian State Opera, the Royal Opera House and the Paris Opeŕa testify. The return to the original Boris has a side effect, however, which is precisely the one the selection committee of the Imperial Theaters warned for: it represents a world devoid of female agency. In the otherwise signiTicant production of Ivo van Hove for Paris this omission sits uncomfortable with the social and political values that have been articulated most clearly in the #MeToo campaign. Since Musorgskii provided an alternative, the experience of the original Boris Godunov in actual performance might stimulate a renewed interest in what is left out. Considered from the standards of the #MeToo movement, the part of Marina Mniszech becomes signiTicant as a reminder of the active role played by women in the historical events represented on stage. The part also resonates with the contemporary #MeToo analysis of gender roles. Marina combines a desire for female autonomy with submission to patriarchal forces. The character could offer interesting material for a stage production that addresses the story from a modern awareness of gender roles. A comparison with Ivo van Hove's take on Schiller's Mary Stuart demonstrates that such awareness may be creatively productive.
The article offers an interpretation of Tchaikovsky's seldom played and elusive opera "T... more The article offers an interpretation of Tchaikovsky's seldom played and elusive opera "The sorceress". The main argument states that the opera should be seen as a fairy tale rather than a psychological drama and that the main focus lies on the idea of sexual liberty.
is een meesterwerk van het understatement. Zowel de roman in verzen van Alexander Poesjkin als de... more is een meesterwerk van het understatement. Zowel de roman in verzen van Alexander Poesjkin als de gelijknamige opera van Tsjajkovski suggereren meer dan ze in feite zeggen. In Poesjkins meesterwerk wordt deze kwaliteit alom erkend en geprezen. Over Tsjajkovski mag de stelling verbazen, omdat hij toch vooral bekend staat als de componist van het emotionele exces. Volgens een wijd verspreide opvatting is Tsjajkovski een componist met het hart op de tong, een componist die zijn gevoelens in zijn muziek de vrije loop laat. De receptie van zijn werk heeft inderdaad sterk de klemtoon gelegd op de uitdrukking van onopgeloste psychische spanningen. Wie met dit verwachtingspatroon naar Jevgeni Onegin luistert, zal vooral de emotionele hoogspanning in de finale dialoog tussen Onegin en Tatjana onthouden. De slotzin van Onegin-"schande, angst, o mijn beklagenswaardig lot"-krijgt dan de allure van de bezegeling van een volbloed tragedie.
Shostakovich research has focused mainly on the discovery of models and musical codes with politi... more Shostakovich research has focused mainly on the discovery of models and musical codes with political import. Other influences have remained undetected. This article argues for a reconsideration of Shostakovich's use of Brahms as a model through an intertextual reading of the first movements of Brahms's Second and Shostakovich's Tenth symphonies.
we have, a highly skilled choral director who used the genre not only to pursue her own Bachian p... more we have, a highly skilled choral director who used the genre not only to pursue her own Bachian pastimes but to experiment as a composer. The primary organization of Wolitz’s monograph is chronological, with chapters treating the Festspiel of 1829, three cantatas of 1831, the music for St Cecilia of 1833, the Einleitung zu lebenden Bilder of 1841, and music for the opening scene of Faust, Part II of 1843. The final chapter, titled ‘Anfang und Ende’, groups together the choral part-songs, the majority of which fell in 1846. Interrupting the flow of chapters are occasional excursions concerning the potential and limitations of gender and cultural studies in assessing Hensel’s music, as well as a short section about the chorus that she directed at her residence in Berlin. In the main, Wolitz favours traditional musical analysis as his mode of inquiry in approaching Hensel, and he displays a sure hand in disentangling stylistic influences on the composer, whether they be J. S. Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart in the cantatas, or her brother in other works. But the book also offers provocative, fresh lines of argument, as in the assertion on p. 106 that Fanny’s Cholera Cantata of 1831 may have been of consequence to Mendelssohn when he took up the task of composing oratorios, in the finding on p. 123 that the siblings rarely invoked the name of Christ in their letters and music, and in the conclusion on p. 134 that Hensel’s music for St Cecilia was ‘basically a caricature of Catholic sacred music’. There remain a few quibbles. Readers will lament, for instance, the lack of an index. On p. 123, the assertion that Mendelssohn possibly avoided using the surname Bartholdy in England in 1829 as a protest against the family’s adopted Christian name has been rebutted by Jeffrey S. Sposato in his monograph The Price of Assimilation: Felix Mendelssohn and the Nineteenth-Century Anti-Semitic Tradition (New York, 2006). On p. 149, the suggestion thatWilhelm Hensel played the role of the narrator in the tableaux vivants organized for Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s birthday in 1841 is contradicted by Fanny Hensel’s letter to her brother of 17 March 1841 (cited in Renate HellwigUnruh’s Hensel catalogue, p. 309), which suggests that the actor Eduard Devrient played that role. On p. 203, we might draw the reader’s attention to the conspicuous similarity between the opening of Nachtreigen and the principal theme from the first movement of Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E flat major, Op. 12. And on pp. 242 and 265, we might note some intertextual references between compositions of Hensel. The part-song ‘O Herbst, in linden Tagen’ appears to allude in bars 13^14 to Juni from the piano cycle Das Jahr, while the Uhland text of another part-song, ‘Im Herbste’ (Op. 3 No. 3) contains a quatrain (‘Ahnest du, O Seele, wieder / sanfte, su« e Fru« hlingslieder / Sieh umher die falben Ba« ume / Ach! Es waren holde Tra« ume!’) that served as the epigram for the autograph fair copy of Januar in Das Jahr. But these are all fine points that do not diminish the high quality and even-handed approach of Fanny Hensels Chorwerke, a strong addition to the growing Hensel literature.
This chapter discusses the peculiar situation of the functioning of De Nederlandse Opera within t... more This chapter discusses the peculiar situation of the functioning of De Nederlandse Opera within the structure of the Amsterdam Theatre, Het Muziektheater, and its relationship with the other institution that is housed in the same theatre, Het Nationale Ballet. The ...
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