The spark has been ignited: when Alejo Pérez
speaks of his new position as music director of the Opera Ballet
Vlaanderen, a role he will step into from the 2019/2020 season onwards,
he stresses the great affinity he has for the orchestra and the entire
team. “The challenge should not be underestimated. The chemistry has to
be right; that‘s essential for any artistic project. I’m looking forward
to breathing this atmosphere of passion for music in this house – this
is something that makes me feel at home,” says the conductor. He shone
in his debut in Flanders in 2018 with Pelléas et Mélisande, staged by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet and Marina Abramovic.
Audiences responded to the performances with wild applause and the
international press published rave reviews. German critic Eleonore
Büning commented that the conductor “leads the Opera Vlaanderen
Orchestra with a keen eye for detail and at the same time an awareness
of the overall arc,” and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote: “a success of
the highest order in an overall spectacular staging.”
A key component of Alejo Pérez‘s excitement is the future working
relationship with Jan Vandenhouwe, the artistic director designate who
appointed him. “I am very happy to be able to work with Jan Vandenhouwe,
whose vision for the future of the ensemble corresponds to mine,” says
the Argentine, who places great importance on making sure the musical
and directorial concepts align through close collaboration and exchange,
also as a guest conductor. His sensitivity to the decision-making
process with an artistic team grew both in his time as musical director
of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, where as a young conductor he led a
diverse repertoire, as well as during his formative years as one of the
main conductors at the Teatro Real Madrid in the Gerard Mortier era.
“The exciting thing is that the music carries the action. Much of the
psychology of the characters is already recognisable in the music,” he
says, explaining his role in this process. Alejo Pérez doesn’t expect
stage directors to have musical expertise in particular, but instead
hopes that they listen attentively and with respect for the dramatic arc
inherent in the musical score. In his first season as music director in
Ghent and Antwerp, his role in this delicate creative process will be
demonstrated in two new productions.
In concert, Alejo Pérez’s strengths play out the same way – whereas
other conductors at the podium might see symphonies as abstract musical
entities, he brings out a dramatic, quasi-psychological thread,
rendering his interpretations remarkably vivid. Following the new
artistic director’s decision to strengthen the orchestra’s symphonic
repertoire, Alejo Pérez will also conduct the Opera Vlaanderen Symphony
Orchestra in several concert programmes per season.
“I love both opera and concert music”, the conductor emphasises,
evoking the magic of the moment, which unfolds just as much in one genre
as it does in the other. “Together with the singers and the musicians, I
take pleasure in this feeling of ‘tonight it will be completely
different’. Sometimes, the stars align and then it all comes together;
where everyone is listening to each other and reacting to each musical
idea as if it were chamber music. This takes a certain amount of
freedom. Every night you breathe differently; it‘s exciting to feel and
respond to these nuances, to engage with the artists standing onstage
before you. This makes the job uniquely thrilling.”
Nina Rohlfs, 2019
translation: Kathleen Heil
