Every year in May / June, the inner courtyard of Landcommanderij Alden Biesen becomes the meeting point 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 Landcommanderij Alden Biesen is renamed
Villa Léhar. Franz Léhar, the most celebrated 20th-century composer of the genre described as '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 river Traun. He bought the villa in 1910 and lived there every year during the summer months from 1912 until his death in 1948.
Everything has its time and peak. Gradually, interest in operetta faded away. Young talents stirred and took the helm with new music. Operetta became outdated.
Despite the operetta genre producing many beautiful melodies, operettas are hardly performed anymore. The romantic and frivolous songs from the many operettas coloured the lives of our parents and grandparents. It is commendable that songs that belong to the collective memory of an older audience are given another chance.
How a small coin can roll
A tourist excursion can sometimes lead to ideas. When Piet Vansichen, artistic director of Alden Biesen, visited
Villa Léhar in Bad Ischl, the idea sprang up in him to use this villa as a hook for a new production. A story line was written in which Léhar's oeuvre receives ample attention, but also contemporaries are involved and composers whom Léhar admired. Passing in review: Strauss, Verdi, Dvořák
, Offenbach, Puccini. The set is a sort of replica of the rich 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, a role for Koen Crucke, and along the way some account of Léhar's life story, which comes across somewhat meagerly. Music and singing are lush and moving, but the totality does not form a consistent whole and lacks somewhat in substance.
Soloists
Musical direction was entrusted to Dutch conductor and pianist Enrico Delamboye. Stage direction, set design and lighting design are under the direction of Bruno Van Heystraeten.
Koen Crucke is a musical man-of-all-trades, but operetta and opera are certainly among the preferred repertoire of this tenor and seasoned professional. A field where he feels completely at home. With his infectious dynamism, he guides the audience through the highlights of Léhar's oeuvre and his beloved tenor Richard Tauber, his great model Strauss, his mentor
Dvořák, and so on
. One could view it as a sightseeing tour, but then in the auditory sense.
Dutch soprano Barbara Haveman and Antwerp-based Lisa Mostin were engaged as sopranos. Barbara Haveman makes a particular impression in the aria "Song to the Moon" from Dvořák's opera
Rusalka. Lisa Mostin specialized 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, 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 too 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 with the ensemble.
As a climax to
Villa Léhar, a medley of well-known songs from Léhar's rich legacy was performed with vocal dynamics, changes in timbre, tonality and tempo.
Villa Léhar brings together roughly the highlights from the opera and operetta repertoire from the first half of the 20th century. For enthusiasts, a performance with 'must-see' credentials.
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
