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
Intermission:
No
Location:
The Royal Concertgebouw

Amsterdam
-
Large Hall

Performers

Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Go to the website
Antony Hermus (c) Marco Borggreve
Antony Hermus
Conductor
View profile
Netherlands Radio Choir
Choir
Go to the website
Gijs Leenaars (c) Hans van der Woerd
Gijs Leenaars
Choir conductor
View profile
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
Eliza Boom
Soprano, Angel
James Newby
Baritone, Poet
Toby Spence
Tenor, Father / Friend No. 1

Coming soon

Friday, February 14, 2025
AVROTROS Friday Concert

AVROTROS Valentine's concert: Love in three stories

Sunday, February 16, 2025
The Sunday Morning Concert

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, an ode to love

Saturday, March 1, 2025
NTR Saturday Matinee

Recognition for Florence Price

Friday, March 7, 2025
AVROTROS Friday Concert

Violin concerto by Bruch and Dvořák 8

Friday, March 7, 2025

Concertgebouw Orchestra: much tuned Amsterdam

Saturday, March 8, 2025
NTR Saturday Matinee

Amsterdam: 750 years

Sunday, March 9, 2025
The Sunday Morning Concert

Dvořák's Eighth and Esther Yoo plays Bruch and Tchaikovsky

Saturday, March 22, 2025
NTR Saturday Matinee

Karina Canellakis conducts Janáček's From a House of the Dead

Saturday, March 22, 2025
NTR Saturday Matinee

Karina Canellakis conducts Janáček's From a House of the Dead

donderdag 27 maart 2025
Other series

Openbare repetities Radio Filharmonisch Orkest

Keep up to date with all concerts, media and news