401dutchoperas.nl
PHOTO POLICY
401DutchOperas is a non-profit volunteer website that highlights forgotten Dutch opera composers and their operas, both from the past and present. The portraits of post-war composers were created in collaboration with the composers themselves, their relatives, and opera companies. Organizations such as the Dutch National Opera, the Concertgebouw, Opera Spanga, Lyrica Ghent, the composers themselves, or their descendants have provided visual material for this purpose. The biographies serve solely to promote the composers and their work. No commercial interest is served by them. This means it falls under the globally accepted 'fair use' principle, which also governs Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Recently, aggressive copyright groups have become active, laying bizarre claims on postage-stamp-sized photos, which they "track down" using obscure dragnet techniques. For us, it's very simple: if a photographer or a relative believes we are not allowed to use photo X or Y, we remove it. The aggressive approach of recent date is not without consequences though: we have now removed dozens of biographies of Dutch opera composers in popular post-war categories as a precaution (from Louis Andriessen to Hans Kox & co). Oh... the accompanying illustration is our own creation.
DUTCH OPERA IN THE FRENCH THEATRE THE HAGUE 1751-1790
On Sunday May 13, 2018, 401DutchOperas and the Dutch Music Institute (NMI) organize a concert with forgotten operas of composers at the court of stadhouder William V in The Hague, composed for the French theater there in the period 1751-1793. Among the sloists are mezzo soprano Barbara Kozelj, soprano Elise Caluwaerts, tenor Marcel Reijans, Dutch baritone Hans de Vries, violin player Rémy Baudet, hobo player Martin Stadler, cellist Saskia van der Wel and harpsichordist/arranger Albert-Jan Roelofs. The young talent ensemble of Music Academy The Hague with supervisor Peter le Feber will give several on location performances in the Hague and Amsterdam with modern arrangements.
401Concerts 10 De Nieuwe KHL (CvdM)
On january 14, 2018, 401Concerts 10 presented a spectacular programme in De Nieuwe KHL in Amsterdam, the monumental former coffee lounge of the Lloyd's personel. Behind the present day café-restaurant with French and exotic kitchen lies hidden a fantastic Jugendstil concert hall. Heldentenor Hendrik Vonk, soprano Barbara Schilstra and pianist Wolter Willemsen perfomed there arias & duets from Dutch operas 1852-1931. Besides Hendrik's Heldentenor repertoire there is a sneak preview into our upcoming Jan Brandts Buys Festival of September 19-21 in Zutphen. This includes highlights of his operas Hero und Leander (1929) and Ulysses (1931). Our fieldwork in the Royal Collection is presented by Le roi de boheme (1852) of court composer Charles van der Does.
FROM MOZART TO BRANDTS BUYS in DE NIEUWE KHL
On Sunday 29 april De Nieuwe KHL Amsterdam presented a preview of our three main 2018 projects. Sopranos Esmée van Nieuwenhuizen and Gina de Jong of Music Academy The Hague brought a preview of our Dutch Royal Court Opera in Mozart times with arias by Colizzi, baron Gottfried van Swieten and Mozart. Dutch late romanticism was presented with Jan van Gilse’s Helga von Stavern (1911), sung by soprano Barbara Schilstra and baritone Hans de Vries. A preview of our Jan Brandts Buys Festival in september featured arias & duets from Hero und Leander (1919), Der Eroberer (1921) and Ulysses (1931). Jan ten Bokum played romantic piano pieces by the composer. All related to our first official cd-release, a studio recoridng of Jan Brandts Buys' opera Micarême, also presented here.
