Return of Kettings Ithaka

Programme

  • Otto Chain Ithaka

Otto Kettings Ithaka is back on stage after nearly forty years. An intriguing opera by a searching artist.

Between Berg and Stravinsky
Composer Otto Ketting (1935-2012) has always had his own place in Dutch musical life. He stood with one leg in the lyricism of the Rotterdam school and with the other in the pulse of the Hague school. Both Alban Berg and Igor Stravinsky inspired him. He was outspoken in his defense of Dutch musical life, which he regularly saw threatened. His opera
Ithaka, which opened the new Amsterdam Muziektheater in 1986, was praised for its intriguing music. Massive blocks of sound alternated increasingly throughout the work with introspective solos by soprano, tenor or baritone, with evocative choral sounds and with poignant passages for rarefied strings and brass.

Otto Kettings 'road movie'
The story of
Ithaka is based on and inspired by the poem of the same name by the Greek poet Konstantínos Kaváfis. It focuses on Odysseus' existential journey back from the Trojan battlefield to his native island of Ithaca. For Otto Ketting, that too is the road movie of his own life, of an artist displaced in search of a memory of security.

Date:
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Time:
2:15 pm
Pause:
No
Location:
The Royal Concertgebouw

Amsterdam
-
Large Hall

Performers

Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
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Antony Hermus (c) Marco Borggreve
Antony Hermus
Conductor
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Netherlands Radio Choir
Choir
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Gijs Leenaars (c) Hans van der Woerd
Gijs Leenaars
Choir conductor
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Derk Welton (c) Simon Pauly
Derek Welton
Bass-baritone, Journalist
AJ Glueckert
Tenor, Macho / Manikin / Second friend
Ilse Eerens
Soprano, Mother of the dead sailor
Iris van Wijnen
Mezzo-soprano, Star
Johanni van Oostrum
Soprano, Angel
James Newby
Baritone, Poet
Toby Spence
Tenor, Father / Friend No. 1

Coming soon

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AVROTROS Friday Concert

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Sunday, April 20, 2025
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'Easter Concert with Mendelssohn's Lobgesang'

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Mahler Festival: Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer in Mahler's Symphony No. 2

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Mahler Festival: Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer in Mahler's Symphony No. 2

Friday, May 16, 2025

Mahler Festival: Concertgebouw Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä in Mahler's Symphony No. 8

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Mahler Festival: Concertgebouw Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä in Mahler's Symphony No. 8

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