DutchDivas in het 401NederlandseOperas Book-I

The 401 Dutch Operas Handbook, Part I, charts the origins and development of Dutch operas from Sweelinck to the end of the French Period. This development goes hand in hand with the history of Dutch singers, as most Dutch operas were naturally created by Dutch Divas & Divos.

Dutch Divas from the Stone Age

This first part begins with Sweelinck's secular song cycles from around 1594 and continues through the end of the French Period, during which composers such as Ruloffs, Meissner, Beethoven (the Zutphen birth legend is explored), and the Gouda/Frisian Jean des Communes predominate. Much has been lost over the past 225 years, but a number of singers remain. These included Utricia Ogle (the muse of Constantijn Huygens), Rose Baptiste Anselme (the muse of Jacob Jan van Wassenaer and the audience at the Théâtre Français in The Hague), Anna Davia (diva in the traveling company of Domenico De Amicis), Princess Carolina (who likely performed Mozart's very first opera experiments from The Hague), and Ernestine Louisa Anderegg (muse and wife of Bartholomeus Ruloffs).

Dutch Baroque operas in recordings

Recordings were nonexistent in the 17th and 18th centuries. The only way to get an idea of the voices and technique of original performers is through the scarce descriptions of their performances and the surviving notes composed for them. In addition, a surprising number of recordings have been made by Dutch vocalists since the 1940s, recording a wide variety of pieces. These include Tania Kross and Jeroen de Vaal (Hooft's "Granida"); Ank Reinders, Elly Ameling, Max van Egmond and many others in Huygens’ ‘Pathodia Profana’; Karel Willink and Marjanne Kweksilber up to and including Hieke Meppelink, Sytse Buwalda and Nico van der Meel (in Vondel/Padbrué’s ‘The Tears Petri and Pauli’), professionals such as Camerata Trajectina up to and including amateur companies in Hacquart’s ‘The Triumphal Min’ and Servaas De Koninck’s ‘Kloris & Roosje’ (with Thérèse Steinmetz, among others). From the 18th century, Jitske Steendam recorded arias from the forgotten operas of Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch. Roberta Alexander, Claron McFadden and Hendrik Vonk recorded the complete ‘Joseph’ by Willem de Fesch, a Dutch export success in the wake of Handel. Numerous Dutch singers recorded Haydn's/Gottfried van Swieten's "Die Jahreszeiten" and "Die Schöpfung" (indeed, composed to text, commissioned, and with Van Swieten's instructions). These and many other Dutch singers are extensively discussed in the performance histories and discographies for each title in the 401 Dutch Opera Handbook, Volume I.

Our own recorded concerts on CD & downloads

On the one hand, the large number of recordings of Dutch musical theatre works from the 17th and 18th centuries, available via Camerata Trajectina, obscure LPs, and small-scale CD productions, is surprising. On the other hand, no recordings existed of most of the operas in the book. Hague court composers like Colizzi and Meissner were completely forgotten, even among musicologists. Scores thought lost, such as Jean des Communes's "The Village in the Mountains," were also only rediscovered during the research. All these works, including the only surviving excerpts from operas by Hendrik Anders—De Koninck's "Athalie" and "Esther," Hurlebusch's "Fasciculus musicus," Count Jacob Jan van Wassenaer's Masonic opera "Les noces de vénus," Johannes Mulligen's "Acajou," and the aforementioned "Des Communes" opera—have been performed, recorded, and released by 401NederlandseOperas in its 37-concert series (see 401Sales.com).

Singers in the 401Concerts series in Handbook Part I include sopranos such as Elise Caluwaerts, Jolien De Gendt, Barbara Schilstra, Renate Arends, Marion Bauwens, Liza Dedapper, and Gina de Jong. Among the mezzo-sopranos are Barbara Kozelj, Sarah Konig, Esther Verheye, and Esmée van Nieuwenhuijzen. The tenors we mention are Marcel Reijans, Denzil Delaere, Hugo Kampschreur, and Twan van der Wolde. Inimitable (bass-)baritones were Mattijs van de Woerd and Hans & Nanco de Vries.

Text, images & sound

Thus, the long-planned integration of the 401DutchOperabook in text, CDs, and downloads has finally been achieved between the 401DutchDivas and the 401DutchOperas project. And this is just the fascinating first part. This is followed by the 19th century, the Fin de Siècle to 1940, and finally the post-war period to the present..

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401DutchOperas book I 1594-1814
From Sweelinck to the end of the French Period
Publisher: Lecturis/DATO
Pages: 539
Language: DUTCH (there’s NO English version !!)
De luxe hardcover, dust wrapping