music theatre in flanders - Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen

ing Arts Decree. But the list’s most striking feature is the diversity
of the involved organizations’ backgrounds. There is the Flanders
Royal Ballet (Koninklijk Ballet van Vlaanderen), that also produced
musicals during the examined period (the company actually
closed its musical department in 2004). There are also the
productions by dance companies such as Rosas and Les Ballets
C de la B: not their entire production, but only the productions
that worked with on stage live music. There is also the theatre
companies’ share: Ensemble Leporello, Victoria, HETPALEIS,
Toneelhuis, Het Net... It should be noted that nearly all – Leporello
is an exception – theatre companies have been involved both
as main producer and as co-producer. Toneelhuis, for instance,
co-produced Wayn Traub’s work during the period.
The list also shows a number of arts centres and festivals
which work primarily as co-producer for – domestic ánd foreign
– music theatre companies: Vooruit, Kaaitheater, deSingel, Kunstenfestivaldesarts
and Flanders Festival. A striking presence in
the list is Paris-based Théâtre de la Ville: this house does not
primarily owe its high ranking in the list to a partnership with
music theatre companies in Flanders recognized as such, but
to its year-long partnership with theatre and dance companies
such as Rosas, Needcompany and Les Ballets C de la B. Further
below is a list of the most active foreign co-producers.
The top of the pyramid is, of course, only one side of the story.
Diagram 2 only shows the music producers top twenty, representing
only 4% of the organizations, but responsible for 41% of the
entire production volume. In what follows, we shall take a closer
look at the rise of co-production practice and the background of
producers for the entirety of music theatre production.
deVelOpInG CO-prOduCTIOn prACTICe
During the period 1993-2005 the production mode of the performing
arts drastically changed. In Metamorphoses a strong
rise of co-production practice was noted as one of the most striking
trends. Whereas the majority of the productions of the early
1990s were made by single organizations, today’s production increasingly
takes place in a network environment – in co-operation
with partners with a variety of backgrounds, domestic and foreign.
This is a trend that began in the 1980s and that was probably intensified
since the introduction of the Arts Decree. A new edition
of the field analysis, scheduled for mid-2011, is expected to give
definite answers.
In the meantime, it is plausible to say that co-production has
become a regular practice in music theatre as much as in any
other performing arts discipline. For the 1,038 productions, a total
of 2,184 mentions of a (co-)producer can be counted.
This means that, on average, just over two producers are
involved in a music theatre production. But averages can sometimes
disguise considerable differences. That is why we think it
is better to cluster the productions on the basis of the number of
producers. Did co-production practice become increasingly frequent
during the examined period? How do the averages in music
theatre relate to the entirety of the performing arts?
20 21
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