La troupe d'Orphée

La troupe d’Orphée is a production about a ‘troupe’ of singers, dancers and performers surrounding Orphée, the most famous of all singers, who tours courts and towns with his band. In this production, OPERA2DAY goes back to the roots of opera and theatre in The Hague in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. An operatic world that was a reflection of the opera scene throughout Europe, but particularly that of France. We find our inspiration in the past for a contemporary and touching music theatre production of today.

Of tennis courts and stables
Around 1580, after many decades of poverty, the economy of The Netherlands began to flourish and the winds also changed direction in the life of the arts. There was a renewed interest in the arts and literature. Classical theatre was rehearsed in the classroom by students and was practised by rhetoricians and a great curiosity developed for the travelling theatre troupes who passed through from France and England. They also performed their shows in The Netherlands. As in other countries, ‘kaatsbanen’ (a kind of indoor tennis courts) and ‘pikeurschuren’ (stables) were temporarily converted into theatres, where the lively spectacles were shown. 

A performance at the Buitenhof in The Hague in 1635

Theatre was adored in The Hague – Willem II was also a great lover of the theatre. And of actresses. A French ambassador wrote to cardinal Mazarin on 12 May 1648 that the prince was difficult to do business with and that one could better try to establish contact with him through comedy. A broad range of works were performed: from classical mythological stories to popular 'comédies'. A particular favourite was the writer Molière, who travelled for years around the French provinces as ‘chef de troupe’ of his own company ‘Troupe de Molière’ before he later took up permanent residence in Versailles with ‘Troupe de Monsieur’ and ‘Troupe du Roy’.

‘Les operistes en tournee’
Meanwhile, a new rage had taken France by storm: the opera. In Paris, Jean Baptiste Lully with his royal patronage, had established a permanent opera house. This was the very first French opera house, since it had also been the tradition in France to stage opera in tennis courts (‘jeu de paumes’) or other court spaces. In 1677, the musician Dirk Strijker established a similar setup in Amsterdam. He clearly had success in this enterprise: amongst his visitors were not only the governor with various prominent citizens of The Hague, but also the 85 year old Huygens, who took the trouble to make the tiring journey to Amsterdam in order to become acquainted with this new phenomenon.

A few years later, in 1682, opera also gained a foothold in The Hague. François Caillault’s ‘bande François de musiciens et d'operistes’ arrived and established the first French opera in The Hague in the tennis court of Pieter van Gool on the south side of Casuariestraat. A stream of French troupes performed their vocal productions and ballets, the performances often a blend of both genres. In 1804, the French and Dutch theatres in The Hague were given their own permanent house, in what is now the Koninklijke Schouwburg (Royal Theatre). Since French opera was performed here, the building was originally called the Théâtre Français. This institution existed until 1919 and brought an almost never-ending stream of operas and comic operas to The Hague.

Old energy = new energy
The opera and theatre life of seventeenth century The Hague was lively and dynamic. Travelling ‘troupes’ devised multidisciplinary productions and made creative use of the locations available, with great enthusiasm realizing impossible plans: we recognise ourselves! The energy is contagious and the surviving stories and images are more than inspiring. As The Hague’s new opera company, we wish to create a production inspired by the dynamic history of opera in the city. In this, we will use repertoire from the period in a collaboration uniting song, dance and theatre in a location performance. All this in order to truly touch our audiences, perhaps in the same manner that this music also touched its original audiences.

A masterpiece by Charpentier...
In the seventeenth century in The Hague, ‘opera’ was pronounced ‘ópera’. French culture dominated everything, also the theatre, far into the nineteenth century. And French culture is also central to this production. We focus on one of the protagonists of French opera of this period: Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Overshadowed by Lully during his life, he was the creator of timeless works. We create our own performance out of his music but with one particular work as the production's centerpiece: his chamber opera La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers.

La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers was composed around 1686. It is the French opera about the mythological character, Orphée, who loses his lover Euridice and who then through the use of song, tries to convince the gods of the underworld to give her back to him. The story was a source of inspiration to composers throughout the whole of the seventeenth century in the new genre of opera, thanks to the magical combination of a powerful story and the iconic narration of the power of music. Charpentier’s setting of the story is masterful (as a kind of stepping stone, he had already created a cantata version of the story). The opera is written for a group of solo singers who participate in both solo roles as well as in ensemble singing. The libretto is strong and expressive, whilst the score is full of highly charged harmonies and rich, inventive colours in both the vocal and instrumental parts.

...and more
We want to perform this largely unknown masterwork for our audience, making it the centrepiece of a programme in which other music of Charpentier is also performed. During the period in which he wrote La descente for Mademoiselle de Guise at the French court, he was also working on profound religious music and theatre music for the Troupe du Roy, Molière’s theatre ensemble. In the music for the theatre, we meet a completely different Charpentier from the composer of the melancholic Orpheus story. Here, Charpentier writes playfully, with energetic and sophisticated humour.

La troupe d'Orphée on a tour to the underworld
The theatre and opera world of Charpentier’s time is the point of departure for our Orpheus production. In the descriptions of theatrical and operatic production in The Hague at that time, productions were performed by ‘troupes’ and ‘bandes’. In our production, we present such a troupe. But in this case, our itinerant singers have formed a troupe around the most famous singer of all time: Orphée. This ensemble brings the mythological story of Orpheus and Euridice onto the stage, merging theatre and reality. The story is told as the story of the group itself: the ‘chef de troupe’ Orphée will today marry the singer Euridice, but she dies on their wedding day. On another level, reality and theatre are also united: our group of singers from Vox Luminis is of course the contemporary version of such an itinerant group. 

La troupe

Project management and creative team

Serge van Veggel - Concept, composition and stage direction

Hernán Schvartzman - Musical direction and conductor

Alice Gubler - Business manager

Thom Stuart - Choreography

Rinus Sprong - Choreographer, repetitor, ballet director

Herbert Janse - Scenography

Uri Rapaport - Lighting

Joost van Wijmen - Costumes

Vox Luminis

Reinoud van Mechelen - Orphée

Sophie Junker - Euridice

Lionel Meunier - Apollon

Geoffroy Buffièr - Pluton

Stephanie True - Proserpine

Zsuzsi Tóth - Daphné

Amélie Renglet - Énone

Victoria Cassano - Aréthuze

Marine Fribourg - Mezzo soprano

Raphael Höhn - Haut-contre

Robert Buckland - Tenor

Baroque ensemble OPERA2DAY – on baroque instruments

François Fernandez - Violin

Yun Kyung - Violin

Ricardo Rodriguez - Viola da gamba

Mieneke van der Velden - Viola da gamba

Florencia Bardavid - Viola da gamba

David van Bouwel - Harpsichord

Jorge Lopez Escribano - Harpsichord

Mike Fentros - Lute

Heiko ter Schegget - Recorder

Thomas Triesschijn - Recorder

Anna Katynska - Basse de violon

The Dutch Junior Dance Division

Barbara d’Agostino

Michaël Häfliger

Marin Ino

Youri Jongenelen

Rutkay Özpinar

Thijs Hogenboom

Sidney Scully

ACCESSING THE GROTE KERK DEN HAAG
The Grote Kerk is situated in the centre of The Hague. The entrance for the performances is not by the usual entrance under the church tower, but by the ‘stadsingang’: the large red doors on the corner of Kerkplein / Rond de Grote Kerk, opposite the old town hall.

The doors opened at 19.45 and the audience was welcome to see how the troupe was preparing for teh production. The actual performance started at 20.30.

DURATION OF THE PERFORMANCE

2 hours and 15 minutes, without an interval. 

OPENING NIGHT

27 April 2014 The Hague