Already before the final production of this season, Rachmaninov-Troika in June, the Munt is moving to Cinema Marivaux. Renovation work will be carried out in the familiar hall at Muntplein, lasting until spring 2016. The company is relocating to venues that Peter de Caluwe hopes will "provide artists and audiences with the necessary comfort."
Already before the final production of this season, Rachmaninov-Troika in June, the Munt is moving to Cinema Marivaux. Renovation work will be carried out in the familiar hall at Muntplein, lasting until spring 2016. The company is relocating to venues that Peter de Caluwe hopes will "provide artists and audiences with the necessary comfort."
According to the artistic director, this handicap and the struggle with budget cuts has nonetheless made it possible, with considerable effort, to create a program that offers "out-standing" quality. A number of new names among directors and conductors can certainly pique curiosity: Damiano Michieletto, Richard Brunel and Alejo Pérez, to name but a few. Besides, returning regulars such as Robert Carsen (revival of Mozart's Mitridate") and conductors Jérémie Rohrer and Christophe Rousset will be back.
The opera program opens with light and especially popular fare—Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore —at the Royal Circus. There will also be the tragédie lyrique La Vestale by Gaspare Spontini (1774-1851): a rarely performed work from the golden age of bel canto. The composer spent much of his life in Paris, and the Munt presents the French version that premiered in Paris in 1807. At the Hallen van Schaarbeek, Powder her Face by contemporary British composer Thomas Adès will be presented. There are also performances at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, including a semi-staged Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck, a concert performance of Adriana Lecouvreur with conductor Evelino Pidò, and a rarity by Anton Rubinstein, Demon", also in concert form.
Frankenstein
The Monteverdi Incoronazione di Poppea", which René Jacobs was to conduct, was cancelled due to budget cuts but has been somewhat compensated for with a rediscovered score by Florian Leopold Gassmann. L'opera seria, an opera that is essentially about the opera production as a business and primarily references a "opera house in times of crisis" (Royal Circus) is a fitting wink from the witty Jacobs. With Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédict the Munt hopes to return to its own theater, where the season will close with a creation commissioned by the Munt and composed by American composer Mark Grey: Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelley's bestseller. The production is in the hands of Àlex Ollé of La Fura dels Baus, who also provided the idea for the opera. Excitement guaranteed.
Of course, there are as always song recitals (Sally Matthews, Christiane Stotijn, Matthias Goerne and others) and concerts with the Munt Symphony Orchestra. The afternoon concerts, the so-called Concertini, also take place at various locations.
Despite the reduced subsidy, the Munt's season brochure is a hefty and luxuriously presented book. The cancelled productions are listed in a light gray tint, making it clear what the reduced subsidy entails.
