Long ago, in Ancient Greece, the blind poet Homer sang about the exploits of Achilleus. " Sing, goddess, of the hatred of Achilleus", thus begins his Iliad.
The story tells of the war for Troy, also known as Ilios . The Greeks fight the Trojans because a Trojan prince has kidnapped the wife of a Greek king. This story of Homer was meant to be sung. Wim Henderickx has turned it into a new opera for young people for Flemish Opera, HETPALEIS and Muziektheater Transparant. He didn't want a fairy tale but a hard play, a play about war, about fighting and heroes. The greatest war is the Trojan, the greatest hero is Achilleus. Imme Dros has retold his story and shows that in a war there are no winners, only losers.
Love and war those two only
help us through boredom.
20 years of Music Theater Transparent
A response from Jo-An Lauwaert
"Before Achilleus I gave movement training to the children of the children's choir. They were very happy with the intense training and attention that was given to them. At a certain point I taught them a rhythm that they had to learn to beat on wooden horses with hammers I have rarely seen children do their best to get a rhythm right. Once everything really fell into place, it really gave me chills! Wim Henderickx was very satisfied, because the movements and rhythm with the horses, had added something beautiful to his music, and as a choreographer I was very proud of that."
"During the preparations for AchilleusI also received training in sword fighting along with soloists. The man who gave this training was like Sean Connery. He was a sturdy, slightly older man with a lot of charisma and a warm, deep voice. He mastered his craft and was able to convey it in a clear and inspiring way. While the soloists continued to train, I taught the children how to fight with the wooden swords. Quite an adventure! The children trained for hours on one of the fights, a tight opening choreography. The music was complex and it took time to get used to the strange rhythms. But when we finally tested the choreography together with the orchestra, it took too long for us to get the movements and music in line together. It was soon decided to discontinue the choreography. An orchestra has no time to wait if a scene doesn't go well right away. That was a bit of a swallow for the children as well as for me. That was a hard lesson."
