Symfonisch Orkest van de Vlaamse Opera
orkest in Peter Grimes
Biography
The Flanders Opera Symphony Orchestra was formed in early 1989 after a series of auditions for an international jury. This young and dynamic orchestra is composed of about 80 Belgian and foreign musicians.
The orchestra made its debut in 1989 in a concert featuring the mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa conducted by the then musical director, Rudolf Werthen, in the Pacification Hall at Ghent City Hall. Since then the orchestra has played in numerous successful opera productions such as Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Otello, Un ballo in maschera, Falstaff, Rigoletto, La Forza del Destino, Il Trovatore, Luisa Miller, La Traviata and Giovanna d’Arco; Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Pikovaja Dama; Richard Strauss' Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Daphne, Arabella and Salome; Puccini's Edgar, La Rondine, Manon Lescaut, Tosca, Turandot, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West and Il Trittico; Wagner's Parsifal, Der fliegende Holländer, Rienzi, Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde; Mozart's da Ponte operas, La Clemenza di Tito, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Idomeneo; Handel's Alcina, Ariodante, Orlando and Rinaldo; Rossini's La Cenerentola and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Massenet's Cendrillon and Werther, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. The orchestra also performed several 20th-century operas such as Britten's Billy Budd, Sir Michael Tippett's King Priam, Giorgio Battistelli’s Prova d’Orchestra, Hans Werner Henze's Der Prinz von Homburg, and the world creations of a.o. Piet Swerts' Les Liaisons dangereuses, Wim Henderickx’s Achilleus and Giorgio Battistelli’s Richard III. Furthermore they played Alban Berg's Lulu, Janacek's Jenufa, Cunning Little Vixen and Kat’a Kabanova, Maderna’s Venetian Journal/Satyricon and Thomas Adès’ Powder her Face.
From 1993 until spring 1997 Stefan Soltesz was music director. As from the 1997-1998 season Soltesz became the general manager of Aalto Theatre in Essen. Marc Minkowski succeeded him as music director. Under his direction the orchestra gained much acclaim with Cendrillon (Massenet), Oberon (Weber) and Idomeneo (Mozart). The orchestra was conducted later by music director Massimo Zanetti (2000-2002). From 2002 on, its principal guest conductor is Ivan Törzs.
Silvio Varviso has been a permanent guest conductor at the Flanders Opera for several years now. Varviso has been much praised for his original and elegant interpretation of Puccini’s operas, as well as for his captivating performances of Wagner's Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde.
The Flanders Opera Symphony Orchestra also frequently performs under guest conductors such as Thomas Fulton, Gabriel Chmura, Jos van Immerseel, Paul Dombrecht, Elgar Howarth, Imre Palló, Graeme Jenkins, Ingo Metzmacher, Evelino Pidó, Pinchas Steinberg, Bernhard Kontarsky, Lawrence Renes, Roy Goodman, Patrick Davin, Patrick Fournillier, Marc Piollet, Balász Kocscár, Gianandrea Noseda, Francisco de Gálvez and Jean-Claude Casadesus.
updated 10-10-2006
Last update on 14 November 2012
Recently engaged in
-
Whereas in Le Nozze di Figaro , the notorious barber and jack-of-all-trades thwarts Count Almaviva in his amorous adventures, in Rossini’s...
-
Flemish composer Louis De Meester's rarely played "radio-opera" is given a new performance in Antwerp and Ghent.
-
According to Giuseppe Verdi, it was the opening lyrics of the legendary slave chorus – Va pensiero, sull’ ali dorate (Fly,...
-
After entering Walhalla at the end of Das Rheingold , Wotan has been trying to find ways of winning back Alberich’s...
-
After the succes of Mozart's The Magic Flute last year, Flanders Opera again schedules an opera for children. Nino Rota's...
-
‘Concert opera’ and ‘dramatic saga’. Such are the descriptions Hector Berlioz himself offered for La Damnation de Faust . As with...
-
The third part of Ivo van Hove's version of Wagner's Ring cycle will, once again, be a both intriguing and moving present-day interpretation of...
-
Flanders Opera’s Fellini cycle – with Satyricon (Maderna), Prova d’Orchestra (Battistelli) and Aladdin en de Wonderlamp...
-
In a similar vein to Verdi, Puccini reveals an incredible love for renewal at the end of his life. Turandot ,...
-
With his chamber opera, The Rape of Lucretia , BenjaminBritten follows the path of the classical tragedy. The intimacy of thework...
-
Verdi’s final opera is a brilliant riposte to Gioacchino Rossini’ssuspicions that his colleague was too serious and melancholy to evercreate a decent...
-
Pyotr Illich Tchaikovsky’s seventh grand opera Mazeppa is a timeless parable of the laws of social change and the continuously...
-
Of the three operas created by the duo of Mozart and Da Ponte, Così fan tutte isperhaps the most ambiguous....
-
A surprisingly topical opera about the mechanisms of fanaticism: thebiblical story of Samson and Delilah is an exemplary illustration ofhow reconciliation is found wanting...
-
With this fully-fledged stage production of Aquarius, justice is finally being done to the great masterpiece by Karel Goeyvaerts,... -
Jevgeni Onegin is the typical ‘superfluous man’ commonly encountered in 19th-century Russian literature: cultivated, intelligent and sensitive, but incapable of emotional commitment and of finding...
-
A fishing village on the wild coast of England. Life there is hard, the fishermen go out to work on the tempestuous sea, live...
-
The gala concert that accompanies the Queen Elizabeth Competition for Singing is a justifiably cherished tradition of the Flanders Opera. As always the exciting... -
'Klassiek in de Stad' has become a tried and tested formula: previous editions attracted more than 10,000 music lovers. The place-to-be this...
-
Three fugitive criminals found the city of Mahagonny in the desert, which is really a snare and money pit. Goal:... -
Lovers of the unfathomable Russian soul can really let themselves go: we are organising a genuine Russian evening in the opera. On the programme... -
In this unknown pearl by Tchaikovsky, Nastasia, owner of an inn in a Russian city, gets into trouble with the local council. Her inn... -
In the second concert featuring conductor Dmitri Jurowski the focus is on Mahler. His Fifth Symphony is a musical journey... -
A group of aristocratic tourists travels from all corners of Europe to Reims. They are on their way to Charles X's coronation. However, they... -
This opera of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi describes the turbulent tragedy of Spanish family Calatrava. Daughter Leonora and her beloved Don Alvaro are hunted... -
Rumours abound when the body of a young woman is found. Suspicions, half truths and guesses determine the search for the perpetrator. The rumours... -
The theme of this season's Easter concert is deliverance: accepting the inevitable and death, but also deliverance through suffering and purification. This exalted thought... -
Le Duc d’Albe takes place at the start of the rebellion against Spanish rule. The Spanish dominate public life in Brussels and... -
Bizet's heroine is a real femme fatale. Carmen is a predatory female in the purest sense: she flirts with Don José, seduces him and... -
Again, Mahler is key this season, this time with his monumental Third Symphony . This majestic masterpiece brings together an unlimited... -
Antwerp’s outdoor classics festival is now already in its fourth year and continues to grow. The combination of a relaxed festival atmosphere and a... -
The scientist Faust has lost his faith in God and man. Just when he is about to end his life, the devil appears on... -
Four world religions come together in this concert that connects perfectly with the season’s theme: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam. Each of the four... -
Ruthless and lusting for power, Agrippina is determined to put her son Nero on the throne, at the expense of the reigning Emperor Claudius.... -
Three composers are united around the transcendental theme of human death. This theme inspired Mahler, Shostakovich and Wagner to compose pages of subdued music... -
In the most frequently performed opera in the world we see two opposing realms. That of light and the land, represented by Sarastro, and... -
In this New Year concert we will be exchanging Viennese waltzes for highlights by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. These composers, also described as the... -
The first 24 Hours Onstage was an instant hit: more than 2000 people moved from one location to another in Antwerp to enjoy the... -
Zaccariah, the leader of the Hebrews, and Nabucco, the Babylonian king, are polar opposites, both politically and in religious terms. The first tells his... -
The ‘apotheosis of dance ' is how Richard Wagner described Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony . Boisterous dance rhythms and a bright, optimistic... -
During the Wagner Year the Flanders Opera will once again respect the time-honoured tradition of staging Parsifal at Easter. A... -
Verdi composed this mass following the death of Alessandro Manzoni, a true Italian literary icon. Rather than a sublime hymn to life after death,... -
In 2013, it will be 200 years since Richard Wagner was born: an ideal time to turn the spotlight on this legendary composer. The...
