Amsterdam has been harbouring outside influences for 750 years. The more diverse the mix, the stronger the city’s character. Amsterdam is a city of many voices, a polyphony that is echoed in its music. Tania Kross sings songs from several cultures, and evokes the rich culture of the Antilles in arias from the opera Katibu di shon (Slave and Master), the first opera in Papiamentu. In Theo Verbey’s Notturno, the whole world resonates in an Amsterdam appartment.
In Louis Andriessen’s opera De stad van Dis (The City of Dis), we board the Ship of Fools and enter a hellish city, one of water and fire. Andriessen was an inspiring composition teacher, drawing young composers from all over the world to Keizersgracht in Amsterdam for lessons. Some stayed on to further enrich musical life here, such as the former Composer Laureate of the Netherlands Calliope Tsoupaki, a citizen of Amsterdam since 1988. This programme features a newly commissioned work by her.
Bas Wiegers leads the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Choir and soloists in this programme of many voices.
