Louis Andriessen: new staging of De Materie in Antwerp
Flanders Opera presents the first Belgian staging of Louis Andriessen’s magnum opus De Materie in September in a new production by Phia Ménard, with eight performances in Antwerp. This year also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Andriessen’s ground-breaking minimalist work Hoketus with performances in the autumn by Het Muziek in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Den Bosch.
Louis Andriessen’s iconic stagework De Materie was premiered at the Netherlands Opera in 1989 and rapidly established a reputation as one of the most original music theatre works of the late 20th century. Largely known through performances in the concert hall and an acclaimed Nonesuch recording, De Materie returns to the theatre in September in a new production by Flanders Opera, its first staging in Belgium. The eight performances in Antwerp are directed by Phia Ménard and choreographed by Antonio De Rosa and Mattia Russo (KOR’SIA), with Bas Wiegers conducting the orchestra of Flanders Opera Ballet together with soloists and an eight-voice choral ensemble.
> Visit the Flanders Opera website
As its title implies, De Materie is concerned with matter and, by extension, humanity’s interaction with it. Cast in four sections, each provides a distinctive tableau, exploring a particular historical situation. The first combines Dutch maritime independence in the 16th and 17th centuries with early atomic theory, powered by the hammer blows of the Amsterdam shipyards. The second offers a mystical and reflective contrast with the 13th-century poetess Hadewych – who lived in the Antwerp area – moving through a spiritual and architectural space. The third movement, De Stijl, which is often heard in concert as an independent work, refers to the art movement around Piet Mondriaan and his love of boogie-woogie. The final movement is focused on the physicist and radioactivity pioneer Marie Curie, who mourns the death of her husband as scientific discovery races relentlessly forward.
De Materie has enjoyed two legendary productions to date. The premiere was staged with visual virtuosity and minimalist slow-motion choreography by Robert Wilson in Amsterdam in 1989, mirroring Andriessen’s wish for a non-narrative abstract approach. Heiner Goebbels presented the work afresh at the Ruhrtriennale in 2014 and at the Park Avenue Armory in New York in an epic industrial-space production, memorably featuring a rolling orchestral platform, zeppelins and a live flock of sheep.
> Read background on De Materie
> Listen to De Materie on Spotify
Hoketus at 50
This year is the 50th anniversary of the first performance of Andriessen’s minimalist classic Hoketus in 1976, and the work is being celebrated in the Netherlands. The Hague hosted a performance by Het Muziek in April and the group plays the piece again this autumn, coupled with a new work by Michael Gordon confronting the influence of Hoketus head on and charting the next step in the path set out by Andriessen. The programme at De Doelen in Rotterdam on 17 October is repeated at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam on 22 October and at the Theater aan de Parade in Den Bosch on 22 November.
The title of Hoketus refers to the hocketing – literally hiccupping - technique of the 14th century Ars Nova composers such as Machaut, where the melody jumps alternately between two or more voices or instruments. Andriessen’s iconoclastic work is scored for two amplified quintets of panpipes, alto saxophone, bass guitar, piano and electric piano, defining a new hard-edged soundworld driven by loud, percussive energy, which reshaped the face of contemporary music.
Hoketus was first performed by an ensemble of the same name, which forged a new repertoire created for the score’s distinctive instrumentation. Andriessen’s music became a cornerstone of the Dutch movement known as The Hague School and has proved to be an enduring source of inspiration far beyond the Netherlands. Many composers have drawn from Andriessen’s propulsive rhythms, minimalist precision, and raw sonic world, including the Bang on a Can group founded by Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, alongside composers as diverse as Cornelis de Bondt, James MacMillan, Graham Fitkin, Steve Martland, Michael Torke, Oscar Bettison and David T Little.
Hoketus has recently been choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker as a new duet danced by José Paulo dos Santos and Lav Crncevic, moving from challenge and rivalry to a complementary ‘pas de deux’. The new dancework was premiered by Rosas in January with the Ictus Ensemble, with further performances at the Chaillot Théâtre national de la Danse in Paris on 19-20 September.
> Further information on Work: De Materie
Stage design for De Materie: Opera Ballet Vlaanderen