Gijsbrecht van Aemstel staged as an opera for the first time

For centuries, the famous line resounded in the theatre: 'The heavenly court has at long last erbarred over me, and my benaeuwde veste.' This is the first stanza from the tragedy 'Gijsbrecht van Aemstel' (1637) by Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679). Composer Jan van Maanen set the original text to music and turned it into an opera. The piece will be performed by the Netherlands Concert Choir and the Caecilia Camerata Orchestra, with soloists including tenor Frank van Aken and soprano Jeannette van Schaik.

Until 1969 - before the Aktie-Tomaat - 'the Gijsbrecht' was performed annually around Christmas and New Year's Eve. The drama in rhyme is about town lord Gijsbrecht van Aemstel who must defend his city of Amsterdam against the henchmen of Floris V of Holland.

Varna State Opera

Composer and conductor Jan van Maanen studied orchestral conducting and church organ at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Van Maanen became known as a cabaret artist when he won the Wim Sonneveld Prize and the Audience Award at the Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival in 2010. He has also been artistic director of the Weekend Opera festival in Utrecht since 2012. From 2017 to 2022, he was chief conductor of the State Opera of Varna in Bulgaria. With his wife and two children, he lives in Hilversum.

"How I ended up in Bulgaria," Van Maanen repeats the question. ,,I was asked for that. At the time, we were living in Switzerland because of my wife's work. I was travelling back and forth to Bulgaria at the time. It is a very interesting and beautiful country with a great singing culture. In Varna, I was able to do a lot of Italian opera repertoire. I also did Wagner's 'Fliegende Holländer', although that took some getting used to for the Bulgarians. Bulgaria has excellent opera singers and as many as six opera houses that function full-time. And that while this country has only half the population of the Netherlands!"

Farmer's wife from the Betuwe

He is always on the lookout for interesting historical stories. ,,The 'Gijsbrecht van Aemstel' is a title everyone knows. Every city has a street or square named after him. When I talked to my mother about the 'Gijsbrecht', she told me that my grandmother, a simple peasant woman from the Betuwe, could recite pieces from this drama by heart. She had learnt that at primary school. It was Dutch cultural heritage and you just had to know it." The tradition came to an end at the time of the 'Action Tomaat', when theatre students in 1969 wanted to renew the stage with all kinds of actions. They considered the stage old-fashioned and to add force to their action they threw tomatoes during stage performances. "For years, the 'Gijsbrecht' was traditionally played on 1 January and then suddenly that stopped!"

Van Maanen wanted to revive the 'Gijsbrecht' with the creation of an opera. ,,I started reading the play and in terms of form it is ideal for an opera. It is dramatic and so much happens. At the end of each act you have a rei, a text sung together, which is perfect for chorus. It has never been made into an opera before. However, stage music was written for it by composer Alphons Diepenbrock and others, with choral pieces and an orchestra in the pit. That's almost an opera, but the characters just spoke their lines; they didn't sing them. People always saw the 'Gijsbrecht' as a play and didn't want to look any further." He submitted his opera idea to the Netherlands Concert Choir. "They have performed a work of mine before: 'Marienklage' and they liked the idea. Actually, I didn't know anything about '750 years of Amsterdam' yet. The Concertkoor found an orchestra and soloists to go with it themselves."

The story

"Floris V is said to have raped Gijsbrecht's niece and thereupon he is said to have killed Floris V. Floris V's henchmen besiege Amsterdam, but are suddenly gone with a ship left behind. The famous story of the Trojan Horse. Inside the ship are soldiers hidden. That ship is pulled into the city and the soldiers commit a robbery. That all happens on Christmas Eve." Gijsbrecht defends the city and wants to fight to the bitter end. Because to give up is to fail and that is bad.

"However, his wife Badeloch tries to convince him that it is a lost cause and that they should flee. He continues to refuse, but the situation becomes increasingly dire. Then a messenger tells him that nuns have been raped, and how that was done is truly gruesome. How Vondel writes that down says something about the misdeeds of the people at that time, who, like now, liked to be entertained with all kinds of horrors."

The composer does not find Vondel's original text difficult to read. ,,That one inspired me too. You can almost hear the melody when you read his text. The tricky thing is that many words we know then meant something different. Like the word 'vain' and vanity'; in those days it meant 'meaningless'. And it's full of them. I use the original, but I did shorten the text. Otherwise, the opera would last five hours and that's not what audiences want. At most it has become two and a half hours. And there will be surtitles in modern Dutch and English so you can follow it easily. Making something accessible without affecting the original."

Ready made

The original text is available, but how did Van Maanen go about composing?
,,I write music I would want to listen to myself. With everything at hand. Ready made. That's called eclectic." The idea that he doesn't come up with anything himself is not true. ,,Per phrase I can change style. From almost baroque to something expressionistic. The important thing is that it shouldn't be boring, there has to be something going on. I think theatrically and, after all, that's because I've conducted so many famous operas and have been inspired by them. How did Wagner write? How did Puccini put his operas together? What kind of atmosphere is needed? Very dramatic or not at all?" The opera will be performed in concert at the Concertgebouw. "I hope the piece will be staged one day. That's also how I wrote the 'Gijsbrecht'. Besides, it will work very well in the theatre."

Tenor Frank van Aken plays Gijsbrecht. The singer - husband of soprano Eva Maria Westbroek - has a big sound. ''I don't see him as a vulnerable character. Rather a mourner who doesn't want to listen. You can see that in a dialogue with his wife Badeloch. He doesn't listen and thunders over what she says. Only at the end do you see someone vulnerable. Van Aken has done many heroic tenor roles: 'Tanhausser' and 'Othello' . He really likes that the opera is inspired by a heroic tenor role. I also incorporated quotes from this kind of heroic music."

Marriage-rei

Besides adventurous music, the composer chose very sensitive music. A piece like 'Where was truer fidelity, than between man and woman, In the world oit found? (closing of the fourth act and 'Marriage-rei called')'. I turned that into something beautiful and ant-sweet. I'm not afraid of that ant-sweetness. Sweet can be sincere and touch you. It doesn't have to be all intellectual. This part of music you can almost sing along with." He explains that this music has even been arranged for carillon. , "The Dutch Association of Carillonneurs picked it up and it is played on all kinds of carillons in Amsterdam. When I first heard it, I was incredibly moved. That music sounding like that over the city."

At the end of 'Gijsbrecht', after a lot of bloodshed, the angel Raphael comes and tells Gijsbrecht to stop fighting. "Rafael says: if God had wanted to conquer, it would have already happened. Gijsbrecht leaves the city saying: 'Farewell my Aemsterland: expect another lord.' The latter is an interesting theme. How far do you go to defend your city? How many more casualties do you want to inflict?" Van Maanen does not link to current affairs. "No, I don't want to. I'm not going to impose that either. I kind of hate that myself. You see it enough with modern opera where all sorts of things are added and a point of view is taken. Whereas I think: let the audience figure it out for themselves."

Woman-unfriendly

Besides the 'Matthew Passion' of Moonen's 'Gijsbrecht', could it become an annual tradition? ,,Why not? For the sake of innovation, a tradition does not have to go away. Traditional things can very well coexist with modern things. If you look at Germany, you cannot ignore Goethe and his plays. In England, you have Shakespeare. Vondel has become very important to the Netherlands for our language and theatre. This is just part of our cultural heritage. Of course, some traditional values that can be read into it are not good and you have to talk about that. The 'Gijsbrecht' contains woman-unfriendly texts. But the play also shows that Badeloch, Gijsbrecht's wife, is much wiser than her husband. So one can ask all sorts of questions about that. Knowing and realising that women-unfriendly things were said in the past and that it can't be done now. Point. You shouldn't underestimate your audience. You cannot but see it in its time."