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Theater in the Concertgebouw
02.06.2009
What a treat it was! A whole week of Mendelssohn with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting. A delight from the very first day. Psalm
42 en de Sommernachtstraum. With soprano Julia Kleiter, mezzo Elisabeth
von Magnus and actor Gerd Böckmann, ably assisted by Harnoncourt himself. It was the first time the RCO had performed the Psalm, and Julia Kleiter and the Nederlands Kamerkoor were its undisputed stars. Everyone still formal in tails and black dresses.
But after the interval the fun and games really started. The ladies of the choir, dressed in their most summery clothes, took the role of fairies. The orchestra looked as if it had just returned from the camping site and Harnoncourt had put on three-quarter length trousers, a colourful T-shirt and a baseball cap. All of this in order to give a detailed and vivid account of the Midsummer Night’s Dream, including absolutely all the music Mendelssohn wrote for it. Böckmann played a great variety of roles, Harnoncourt was the wall through which Pyramus
and Thisbe declared their love for each other, and the fairies and their queen filled the main hall of the Concertgebouw with Mendelssohn’s most angelic and bewitching music. It was a real treat, lasting a whole week!
(Karin van der Poel as l’enfant)
After Mendelssohn came Ravel. Where can you find a chamber choir that can provide singers for all the roles in Ravel’s unique fairy tale L’enfant et les sortilèges? The Nederlands Kamerkoor can, and how! With Karin van der Poel as the child, naughty at first and later on touching, Myra Kroese as the mother, and practically every singer in the choir in one role or another, from tomcat to tree, from frog to princess — adults and children alike lapped it up. And then on Sunday afternoon the addition of the van Gnaffel puppet theatre. All of this in collaboration with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in the Concertgebouw. For us it is clear: ‘to be continued!’
(David Barick and Annemieke van der Ploeg as cats)
(Gnaffel Puppet Theatre)
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