From June 26 to July 3, Midsummer Mozartiade takes place again in the Brussels Martelarenwijk district. In 2022, the festival presents 22 opera talents on stage. The 6th edition of the festival presents not one, but two operas - La finta giardiniera by Mozart and Acis and Galatea by Händel - in the welcoming Théâtre des Martyrs. In addition to this stage program, there are three concerts for voice and organ in the church Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Finisterrae, and a lecture on Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a patron and music lover from the Enlightenment era, at la Maison CFC. On July 5, La finta is performed at the Théâtre Royal in Bergen.
From June 26 to July 3, the Midsummer Mozartiade festival settles again around Martelarenplein, an emblematic but little-known place from the 18th century. The festival has been organized by Amadeus & Co since 2015 and brings Mozart's masterworks to the stage every summer with the aim of promoting Brussels not only as a capital with a Mozartian past, but also as a dynamic center of excellent opera production. In this way, the festival offers a valuable springboard for emerging opera artists.
La finta giardiniera, Mozart's first dramma giocoso, offers an absurd portrait of seven people in search of love in the Italian countryside. In this rare jewel, an 18-year-old Mozart unfolds for the first time his very personal theater, in which he mixes burlesque with drama to capture the whims of the human heart. This new production brings talented Belgian and international opera singers, in a production by Eric Gobin and again under the direction of the young conductor Gabriel Hollander, who leads the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia.
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Händel's first opera in English, Acis and Galatea, was written in 1718 for the virtuoso musicians of an English country estate. This baroque jewel has been reworked many times, including by Mozart for Baron Gottfried van Swieten in Vienna. Eight soloists bring the score to life in a production by Hugo Segers. They are conducted by Thibaut Lenaerts, under whose direction the baroque ensemble le Pavillon de Musique makes its festival debut.
During the festival week, three concerts take place in Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Finisterrae, the beautiful church in Nieuwstraat, a stone's throw from Martelarenplein. The program features quartets, duets and solos of sacred works by master composers from the 18th century, from Bach to Beethoven, performed by emerging singers and first-class organists. This series of free concerts is dedicated to the figure of Gottfried van Swieten, patron of the arts and music lover in the Enlightenment era. He is also the subject of a free lecture by musicologist Hugo Rodriguez at la Maison CFC.