Maurice Ravel was fascinated by Spain, shown clearly in his Boléro and his entertaining one-act play L'Heure Espagnole. The composer wanted to breathe new life into the comic Italian opera of yesteryear. He therefore chose Franc-Nohain's popular play, which overflows with comic potential.

The ingredients? Start with a dutiful clockmaker and his adulterous wife. Add to that a muscular donkey driver and some lovers and lock them in a clock. Served with the playful compositions of Ravel – the ticking clocks are even reflected in the music – and everything is just right. Right up the alley of director Tom Goossens, who has already proved he knows what to do with opera and comic love intrigues. The scenography for both pieces is designed by Conrad Willems. Ravel's world-famous Boléro is playfully used as a surprising prologue in which employees of Opera Ballet Flanders play a starring role.

Opera Ballet Flanders performed L'Heure espagnole for the first time with the Youth Orchestra Flanders. This new symphonic youth orchestra was founded in a partnership with the Brussels Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of Opera Ballet Flanders. Top talent Yi-Chen Lin guided the Youth Orchestra Flanders through Ravel's virtuoso orchestral scores.

A great article on Radio Klara (Dutch) you can read and listen to here. 

Find out more on this piece on Opera Ballet Flanders website. 

This musical theatre production by Opera Vlaanderen for kids explores questions about rage, fear and resentment. Where do the roots of evil come from? What does it mean to take revenge? How can I contend with the world outside that is often dark and unfair?

With elements from Shakespeare's masterful play and Verdi's musical masterpiece, Tom Goossens and composer Mathias Coppens have created a radical adaptation for children ages 9 and up. Their work is based on classical musical structures, rooted in a theatrical language taken from opera. A female vocalist, Zofia Hanna plays the role of Lady Macbeth, and an actor, Bert Dobbelaere plays Macbeth. The Opera Vlaanderen Children's Chorus performs all other roles.

About the story:

Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth leave a child behind, presumed dead. Just as in Verdi's opera Macbeth, the ghost of the murdered Banco appears to his murderers during a festive banquet, in this spooky adaptation, a group of mysterious children appear to the Macbeths and swear revenge. The sumptuous banquet thus devolves into a creepy nightmare in which a group of children take revenge on the wicked world of the adults.