music theatre in flanders - Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen

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The international ambitions of
music theatre
Guy Coolen
OVer-Supply And FruSTrATIOn: The prOduCer’S TASkS
Opera and music theatre are on the rise worldwide. Contrary to
about twenty or thirty years ago, nowadays at least one new work
is created every week. Whether all these recent creations will
reach an international platform is doubtful. But that should be
no problem: among the vast array of efforts, one or two projects
will, in the end, rise to the surface, just like in the old days: from
the thousands of operas written at the time, only a select canon
is left.
Quite some opera houses and music theatre companies regularly
commission new operas or music theatre productions, usually
out of international ambition. And so we now find ourselves
in a situation of an over-supply that is often frustrating for the
makers. Apart from some ten internationally renowned living
composers, whose new works fairly easily find their way in the
market, the international scene has become pretty inaccessible
to unknown, or less well-known, makers. The producer and/or
local governments need to have a strong network or plan to get
these compositions on an international platform.
Typically for music theatre, the local national target group is
relatively small. The producers logically aim at an international
market. The producer therefore now plays a more important role
in the creation process, especially in the way he supports the artistic
research process and even more when it comes to assessing
the potential and the ambitions. Not every piece of work is to go
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