The project around the Van den Berghe decors has been supported by a number of institutions, without whose aid this mad but wonderful endeavour could never have come to pass: The Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Leidse Schouwburg and Leiden University. I will return to these partners in a later blog…but I do want to mention Bruno Forment, theater historian and musicologist, who first brought the collection to my attention. Find more information about him here:
https://orpheusinstituut.be/en/orpheus-research-centre/researchers/bruno-forment
Bruno is an expert on the topic of stage decorations in general, but is the man when it comes to Belgian sets and set design. He works as the archivist in Ton Koopman’s former library, which is currently magnificently housed in the building complex in Ghent from which the Orpheus Institute operates. My department at Leiden University (The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts) and the Orpheus Institute collaborate on the well-known docARTES programme, which facilitates doctoral studies in and through musical practice. I sincerely hope that at some point in the not-all-too-distant future participants in the docARTES programme will be able to make use of the Van den Berghe collection; for instance, one could mount one of the sets in the performance hall of the institute in Ghent for a research project into historical opera productions.
Bruno was in Leiden for two days this week in order to help us hang and light the sets. It was really wonderful to be able to profit from his knowledge, and I look forward to continuing to work together with him in all things Van den Berghe. Bruno has written a chapter about the Van den Berghe family and their various theatrical activities in his lavishly illustrated new book Droomlanders. Highly recommended!