The Vlaamse Opera (Flemish Opera) is an opera company in Belgium directed by Aviel Cahn which operates in two different opera houses in two Flemish cities, the Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen at Van Ertbornstraat 8 and the Vlaamse Opera Ghent at Schouwburgstraat 3. However, the company shares one orchestra, choir, technical team, etc.
The organization is mainly financed by the Flemish government and the city councils of Antwerp and Ghent.
In its current form, it was created in 1996 as a successor to "Vlaamse Opera Stichting" (Flemish Opera Foundation, which had existed since 1988), and "Opera voor Vlaanderen" (Opera for Flanders, which had existed since 1981). Both former institutions were similar fusions between the former opera houses of Antwerp and Ghent. Since the fusion in 1981 the company has been giving performances in two different historical theatres:
Read more about Vlaamse Opera: Direction
Famous quotes containing the word opera:
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)