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Brussels Travel Guide: 6,611 reviews and 11,368 photos
In Brussels I saw the same opera two nights in a row in two different versions. The first night the title role was sung by a baritone, Ludovic Tézier, and the next night the same role was sung by a tenor, Andrew Richards.
This is highly unusual, because usually a composer decides on one kind of voice and that's the way it is. In this case, though, composer Jules Massenet (1842-1912) originally wrote his opera Werther for a tenor, but later went through and made the necessary changes so it could be sung by a baritone.
The man in the blood-stained white shirt in the first photo is Andrew Richards. On his left is the French soprano Sophie Koch, and on his right the orchestra conductor Kuzushi Ono and the stage director Guy Joosten, who came up with an ingenious and convincing interpretation that was fully consistent with the text and the music.
The staging was the same on both evenings, and the changes in the score are actually quite minimal from one version to the next, but I found it did make a difference to have the title role sung by a deeper voice the first night. The baritone seemed more like a brooding romantic hero, whereas the tenor came across as a timeless tortured soul. Though that could also have to do with the personalities of the two singers, as well as with the level of their voices.
Werther is an opera I have seen previously, in different productions, in Darmstadt, Würzburg, Freiburg in Breisgau and Frankfurt am Main.
The Brussels Opera has been an exciting place since the 1980s, when it was run by one of the outstanding contemporary opera administrators, Gérard Mortier, who later went on to run the Salzburg Festival, where he was constantly at odds with conservative opera fans and local politicians. He is now the head of the Opéra National de Paris, meaning that he is in charge of two of the five Paris opera houses, namely the Opéra Bastille and the Palais Garnier. From 2009 he will head the New York City Opera, the second opera house in that city after the Met.
Another outstanding opera administrator, Bernd Loebe, was Artistic Director of the Brussels Opera throughout the 1990s. After leaving Brussels he returned to his home city of Frankfurt am Main, where he became the General Director (Intendant) of the Frankfurt Opera starting in 2002.
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Comments (52)
Interesting page on Brussels Don! Very different from my own experiences. Thanks for the contrast. BTW, I must have spent all my time with locals because I only heard of it as Walloon and Flemish and had to readjust my thinking from French and Dutch.
A wonderful page - I like the Bridge between two worlds.
Yes, haven't been fond of Luxembourg at all. Great Brussel page here, not too much of sun around Sun Hotel?
Thanks for looking at more of our London tips... Enjoyed your Brussels tips. The wall poem (Local Customs tips) include couple words in Russian: "Air that was stolen by lungs not certified. Life is illegal."
Very interesting and helpful page. Homeless people in front of the opera house? That's shocking.
It sounds very much like the Jorvik Viking centre; many a school trip was spent queuing outside there! It's got sights, sounds and smells of York from Viking times. http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/
Great tips on Brussels! A shame this flemish-walloon political fight, really.
Brussels is definitely a city I want to revisit. I was there during a five-hour layover between flights--not enough time to fully appreciate the city.
I also enjoyed my visit to Brussels very much. Another very inexpensive hotel, centrally located that I found is the Hotel de la Madelaine.
So far I have driven past Brussels and never entered the city.
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