Can you play a brilliant concert with dark music? The symphony orchestra Continuo has proved it, on June 24 in concert hall De Bijloke in Ghent. Continuo is the alumni and staff orchestra of Ghent University, under the direction of conductor Kevin Hendrickx.
Hungarian
The opera Bluebeard by Béla Bartók is a short opera with only two singers which are often also performed in concert form, whereby the orchestra sits on the stage and the two singers act and sing in front of the orchestra. Bluebeard is performed by Dutch bass-baritone Marc Pantus, the role of Judith 
is sung by mezzo-soprano Frauke Elsen. They sing in Bartók's language, Hungarian. In their repertoire singers are familiar with quite a few European languages, often also Russian, but singing for an hour in Hungarian is no easy task. The audience follows the story via surtitles.
Because of its short duration, this work is not often performed. It is an eclectic work with late-romantic and impressionistic influences in which you hear Bartók finding his way towards his own idiom. Duke Bluebeard's Castle is the opera's actual name. Bluebeard takes Judith to his castle, where the curious Judith wants to open all the doors. A curious woman who wants to poke her nose in all your rooms, that can create tensions. A symbolist opera that is staged here in a sublimated choreography by Spanish choreographer German Jauregui. Not only sublimated, the way the choreographer makes the two singers move and sing in front of the orchestra is truly sublime. No theatrical gestures, but symbolic gestures that express the essence of this symbolist opera. The austere clothing is also specially designed for this performance.
Pantus
The voice of Bluebeard, of Marc Pantus, is so voluminous that with one word he fills the entire hall. Next to the impressive Bluebeard, Frauke Elsen's voice is less powerful, but fits perfectly with the submissive role of Judith opposite Bluebeard. Afterwards I hear that Pantus was actually a stand-in. Three weeks before the concert, the original singer dropped out. How on earth do you find a baritone who is available and can sing a Hungarian opera? Fortunately Marc Pantus had it in his repertoire. Moreover, the still young Pantus performs and sings with great authority on stage. Duke Bluebeard seems like an old hunchbacked man, I think when we see Pantus in profile kneeling bent over. As if there is a bend in his back.
At the end of February I already listened to this orchestra, which wrongly describes itself as an amateur orchestra. They are supplemented here and there with professionals at the wind section, but especially the strings sound solid, a round warm sound. For my part you can call that professional. The conductor's impact certainly has something to do with it. The young conductor Kevin Hendrickx already has an impressive track record, we read in the programme. That programme booklet certainly deserves a mention too. Nowadays you often no longer receive an extensive programme booklet for a concert, sometimes nothing more than a folded A4 sheet with a QR code. Here we read about the work, orchestra, singers, conductor, concertmaster, beautiful photos, gorgeous layout. Wonderful to go to a performance where everything was top-notch, the performers, the choreography and the booklet