Record year for Flanders’ opera and ballet

Among the highlights was the ballet’s season opener Van Manen/Cherkaoui, featuring new and updated work by the company’s new artistic director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. It consistently sold out the official opera houses in Antwerp and Ghent and in smaller venues where it was performed in Flanders, making it the most successful production of recent years.

Customers for the opera and ballet are becoming younger, the organisation reported, with the average age of a ticket buyer for the opera now 47 and for ballet 44. In addition, 22% of all buyers of single tickets had never bought a ticket to the opera or ballet before. One in eight visitors to the opera in 2015 came from another country, up from 9% in 2014. For the ballet, the number of foreign visitors doubled to 8.5%.

“Culture houses are usually pretty humble, but we can be justifiably proud of these results. We have been able to put several turbulent years behind us,” said Kunsthuis general-director Lena De Meerleer, referring to the departure of the ballet’s former artistic director, Kathryn Bennetts, who left in 2012 in protest at the fusing of the opera and ballet, and to the ballet’s decision to end the contract of her successor, Assis Carreiro, in 2014.

“These figures are proof of the enormous effort made by our artists and by the staff behind the scenes,” De Meerleer continued. “The public appreciates the high-quality opera and ballet productions we offer. The loyal public keeps on coming, and the new public is growing more loyal.”

The company also announced that it was extending the term of Aviel Cahn, intendant of the opera, until 2019. Cahn was originally brought in in 2009. The opera will begin a procedure to find his successor later this year.

The ballet’s production of The Nutckracker (pictured) is on stage in Ghent until 14 February, while the opera’s next production, Othello, premieres in Antwerp on 12 February.

Photo: Filip Van Roe