music theatre in flanders - Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen

formances themselves, which usually depart from original texts
and music.
Artistic leader Bo Spaenc sees de kolonie mt as an environment
where young music theatre makers can explore and cultivate their
artistic territory. This nesting ground idea is, in fact, an extension
of the company’s residencies. Young makers are stimulated not
only on an artistic level; they also receive guidance to learn all
about audience recruitment, networking and marketing.
de Munt/la Monnaie
www.demunt.be
De Munt is a federal cultural institution. In 1963 De Munt was
officially named National Opera. A major turning point in the history
of the Royal Monnaie was the appointment in 1981 of Gerard
Mortier as general director. During his directorate, not only the
building was thoroughly modernized; he also artistically reorganized
the Monnaie’s choir and symphonic orchestra and employed
new and young staff. All this, and Mortier’s choice of a more personal
and peculiar repertoire, turned the Monnaie into an opera
of international stature and renown.
After Mortier left for the Salzburger Festspiele in 1992, Bernard
Foccroulle took over. The same year, he appointed Anne Teresa
De Keersmaeker’s Rosas company as the Monnaie’s company in
residence. Together, they founded a new international school for
contemporary dance, P.A.R.T.S., as successor to Maurice Béjart’s
Mudra School.
In June 2007, after fifteen years as its artistic leader, Bernard
Foccroulle bade the Monnaie farewell. He was succeeded by
Peter De Caluwe, the Dutch Opera’s former artistic director. De
Caluwe opened the doors to a new generation of artists. Today,
the Monnaie is populated not only by today’s international household
names, but also by young talent: conductors, directors and
visual artists for baroque, lyrical as well as symphonic genres.
The traditional repertoire remains the spine of De Caluwe’s programme,
but he always makes room for baroque opera, work by
20 th -century and contemporary composers.
Furthermore, De Caluwe breaks down the conventional approach
for concerts and recitals by introducing visual or scenic elements.
Dance still takes an important place in the programme.
The special relation with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is maintained,
but De Caluwe also invites new choreographers, such as
Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Sasha Waltz as well as
international dance companies. Each year, he invites stage productions
by directors such as Ivo Van Hove, Romeo Castellucci
and Krzysztof Warlikowski to be shown at the Monnaie.
Theater de spiegel
www.despiegel.com
As a music theatre company, Theater De Spiegel explores the
common grounds between music, figures, objects, image, sound
and voice to develop a particular narrative idiom for general audiences.
Theater De Spiegel has a small creative and production team.
For each production, soul mates from a diversity of musical
genres and artistic environments are invited. Since three years,
Theater De Spiegel has been focusing on a new target group: lit-
92 93
table of contents