Lodewijk Mortelmans - De Kinderen der Zee (in concert)

Bozar, Brussels, Sunday October 17 2021

Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Stella: Tineke Van Ingelgem. Geertrui: Christianne Stotijn. Ivo Mariën: Yves Saelens. Petrus: Werner Van Mechelen. Bolten: Kris Belligh. Frederik: Gilles Van Der Linden. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra.

La Monnaie's 'post-Covid' season opened, for me at any rate, with this rare work, Lodewijk Mortelmans' De Kinderen der Zee, performed in Flemish at the Bozar hall in concert. The occasion wasn't altogether auspicious, as one or several members of the chorus had tested positive and the work was therefore performed without them. Yet, oddly in the circumstances, though proof of vaccination had to be shown, masks weren't mandatory in the auditorium.

I see Mortelmans was a respected Lieder composer, and was indeed at times annoyed to be pigeonholed as such. The work is an accomplished, rip-roaring 1915 'sea-symphony' kind of score, with lots of chromatic runs and sparkling woodwind and trills and bangs, well worth hearing (once, at least) but best seen without supertitles I reckon, so you can't understand the corny libretto.

I'll quote La Monnaie's website: De Kinderen der Zee 'is the magnum opus of this unjustly forgotten composer who nonetheless made his mark on musical life in our region in the early decades of the twentieth century. His score, which is full of poetry about nature, combines late-Romantic realism with the Wagnerian device of the Leitmotiv to create inextricable connections between the sea and fate.'

It might, I thought, appeal to people who wish they could hear more works of the Flying Dutchman kind. The plot is a grim melodrama about a fishing family labouring under a curse: they think they've got it beat, but of course they haven't, with a heroine who's, as my neighbour said, 'encore une Micaëla : une couille' (yet another Micaëla: a drip), forever evoking the Virgin. 

Mortelmans

The piece, being very much of its time, calls for strong voices - stronger than the ladies had on Sunday evening: they seemed quite stretched, Geertrui at the top in particular (though when she sang Néris in Warlikowski's production of Médée, I did say 'Christianne Stotijn was simply excellent: more of her, please'), and our 'drip', with her relatively soft timbre, wasn't always properly audible over the symphonic din from behind (what a shame it was, I thought, that they didn't use the organ).

But the two male principals were La Monnaie stalwarts and it was good to have a chance to hear them in starring roles. I've always been very happy to see and hear the reliable Werner Van Mechelen, and though I've heard Yves Saelens before, I'd no idea he'd come this far: he's now singing Das Lied von der Erde, and I should imagine he's doing it well, nuance and all.

This hall's warm, woody acoustic suits this kind of work and the orchestra was on form - hardly surprising when you see the energy and enthusiasm Altinoglu puts into his conducting. He makes it all look such fun! The result was livelier still than the excerpts (also featuring Werner Van Mechelen) to be found on YouTube.