Composer of the month
401DutchOperas Anthology I
The first part of the 401DutchOperas Anthology covers the period from Sweelinck (1595) to the French Period 1814. The book will be published in 2023 by the Dato Fund in collaboration with the Netherlands Music Institute Foundation. Included are opera composers such as Vondel/Padbrué, Huygens and the Amsterdam Liedschool composers 1687-1715: Hacquart/Buysero, Petersen, Anders and Schenck. In the first half of the 18th century also Van Blankenburg, De Fesch and Zingoni. From the period of Stadtholder William V: Jacob Jan van Wassenaer Obdam, Josina van Boetzelaer, Gottfried van Swieten, Belle van Zuylen, Colizzi, JMeissner, Just, the Mulligen brothers, and Mozart in The Hague. In the French Period: Bartholomeus Ruloffs, Jean des Communes and Ludwig van Beethoven, of whom the story is examined that he was born in Zutphen. A biographical sketch is given for each composer, followed by the plot summaries of those operas by his or her hand of which music survived. These plots are followed by a discussion of the work and a discography. The CDs in and around the book contain highlights from almost all the works discussed.
Opera of the month
BEETHOVEN/NIEUWENHUIZEN: VESTAS FEUER
In June 2022, 401 Dutch Operas presented a try-out (with reduced orchestra) of the torso of Beethoven's first opera, Vestas Feuer, as reconstructed by Cees Nieuwenhuizen. Vestas Feuer was composed in 1803 on a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, librettist of Die Zauberflöte! It is an exciting adventure story full of miraculous escapes and with outstanding music. Including two world premieres of completely unknown Beethoven opera arias that Nieuwenhuizen reconstructed for us from the never before examined sketches for scenes 2 to 8. We are now looking into possibilities to have a staged world-premiere with full orchestra.
