Harlequin

This application emerges from The summit of sentimental affirmation, the research project in which we explore the artistic universe of Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1928) and the connection between Flemish musical modernism and the artistic avant-garde. Although the scope and quality of the retrieved repertoire calls for a thorough content analysis, in the timespan of this one year research there is no room for this. In this new research application, therefore, we propose a more profound look at the corpus, focusing on a character that is strikingly prominent in modernist art and music, the ubiquitous but hitherto sparsely researched character of the harlequin. Concentrating on August Baeyens’ ballet Arlekijn (1924) and De vrolijke dood. Arlequinade in 1 act (1923) by Karel Albert, we draw the portrait of the modernist harlequin, in its complex guise at the intersection of atonal music, free verse and abstract Like The Summit of Sentimental Affirmation, this research is auxiliary to a music theatre production we are preparing for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen for the season 2027-2028 (the centenary of Van Ostaijen’s death). In this production, the harlequin will play a seminal role in the story: as an element of connection and subversion. Together with teachers and students from KCA and KAA, we will also undertake a quest for the twenty-first-century harlequin.