The diary of the one who disappeared
The form of The diary of the one who disappeared is unique: a series of 22 songs for tenor and piano, with an addition of three songs in the middle for a small choir of women and a mezzosoprano representing the gypsy girl Zefka. Ivo van Hove directs among others top singers Ed Lyonand Marie Hamard, and ITA actor Hugo Koolschijn. Fascinated by voices, Belgian composer Annelies Van Parys wrote a coda to this touching love story. The diary of the one who disappeared is a coproduction with Muziektheater Transparant from Antwerp. We previously collaborated with them for Kings of war.
Location Opéra de Dijon
Duration 75 minutes
Genre Theater
Language Dutch
It is 1917 when Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) meets Kamila Stösslová, who is almost forty years younger than him, in a health resort. She is married and has two children. This does not prevent Janáček from falling deeply in love with her. The relationship remains platonic, but he will remain obsessed with her until his death, with more than 700 ardent letters to prove it. Kamila inspires him to write some of his most important operas, such as Katya Kabanová and The Makropulos Affair.
-|-A year earlier, Janáček read an anonymous series of poems in a newspaper about Janik, a village boy who falls madly in love with a gypsy girl and leaves everything behind to follow her. The composer sees his feelings for Kamila reflected in the poems. Based on the poems, he writes a series of songs that can be best described as an intimate self-portrait. Will Janik’s desire for passion free him from his suffocating surroundings? Or is he wasting his entire existence on an illusion?
Ivo van Hove was Artistic Director of Internationaal Theater Amsterdam from 2001 to 2023. As stage director, he signed on for numerous ground-breaking and highly acclaimed productions such as The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) and A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara), as well as the two Shakespeare marathons Roman Tragedies and Kings of War, with which the ensemble toured around the world. After twenty-two years, Van Hove decided to leave ITA and concentrate on his international directing work. He will also head the Ruhrtriennale as Artistic Director from 2024 to 2026.
In the 24/25 season, his production of Angels in America (Tony Kushner) will be revived.
credits
director Ivo van Hove
vocalist Ed Lyon, Marie Hamard
dramaturge Krystian Lada
scenographer, light design Jan Versweyveld
composer Annelies Van Parys, Leoš Janáček
musician Kooracademie De Munt, Lada Valešová
costumes An D'Huys
assistant scenographer Ramón Huijbrechts
coproducer Beijing Music Festival, De Munt/La Monnaie, Kaaitheater, Klarafestival, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Operadagen Rotterdam
producer Muziektheater Transparant
-|-with Matthew Fletcher, Ed Lyon, Marie Hamard, Hugo Koolschijn, Annelies Kerstens, Lisa Willems, Fabienne Seveillac
