Unbound Curation – The Freedom Of Programming Without Frames

An Interview with Mr. Guy Coolen, art director, producer, manager, Antwerp, Belgium/Rotterdam, Netherlands. Interviewer Ivanka Apostolova Baskar.

Guy Coolen (1966) is one of Europe’s leading figures in contemporary music theatre. Trained in Germanic Philology, Theatre Studies, Medieval Literature, and Communication Science, he holds a PhD from Ghent University and has built a career that bridges scholarship, artistic creation, and international cultural leadership. Since 1994 he has been Artistic and General Director of Muziektheater Transparant (Antwerp), transforming it into a globally recognised platform for residencies, new music theatre, and pioneering international collaborations, with appearances at Salzburger Festspiele, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Holland Festival, Covent Garden Festival, Avignon, Munich Biennale, among many others. He also initiated the TRANSLAB project, opening doors for emerging generations of music theatre makers. Coolen is Artistic Director of O. Festival Rotterdam, co-founder and leader of multiple international cultural boards including Opera Europa, the International Theatre Institute, the European Cultural Parliament, B’Rock baroque ensemble, and serves as Intendant of Fast Forward (Fonds Podiumkunsten, NL), dedicated to the international development of Dutch creators. A passionate writer, traveller and cinephile, Guy Coolen stands at the crossroads of artistic innovation, cultural diplomacy, and visionary leadership, shaping the future of contemporary opera and music theatre on a global stage.

Ivanka Apostolova Baskar: From the perspective of your production and artistic management work – What is the difference between contemporary opera and contemporary music theater, today?

Guy Coolen: Most contemporary opera still starts from the more traditional idea of starting with a librettist and a composer and then an artistic team joins to stage the piece. In the hierarchy, the composer is still the most important.  These projects use an ensemble or orchestra and soloist singers and often a choir, like it was done for centuries. Music theatre is most of the time a more collective work, where the whole artistic team works together and the composer is just one of them. The composition is important but not as holy as with opera. In most projects a lot of the compositions are adapted during the rehearsals depending on how the process goes. Here nothing is fixed – it can be with a music ensemble but could also be on tape and most of the time there are singers, but there are also music theatre pieces with actors instead of singers. The difference between music theatre and theatre is that in music theatre the music dramaturgy is as important as the theatrical dramaturgy. Otherwise you have theatre with a bit of music and that for me is not music theatre. The starting point should be music and theatre and not just to illustrate something. For me music theatre is the most exciting theatre form as so many things can be invented – also the visual aspect is often very strong and a starting point.

IAB: What is happening with and in contemporary music theater and performance, in Belgium, Europe, and the world (comparative news, new formats, different forms and shapes, experiments, innovations… different interpretations)?

GC: Belgium and especially Flanders always had a lot of top artists that really wanted to make opera a more lively art form – by creating new works and also adding things or working more freely with the repertoire – like how spoken theatre is treated – you can make a Shakespeare very contemporary by giving it a twist – since the 80s this started also in opera. In the 1990s the Flemish government started to invest a lot in music theatre by giving subsidies to a few music theatre groups and artists. Because of that a whole generation of makers, composers and performers made it their specialty and were invited with their projects all over the world. Famous names like Ivo Van Hove or Alain Platel made a lot of music theatre projects, but also a lot of visual artists. The opera houses embraced this work and put it also in their programme – music theatre attracts a broader audience than opera so it was a win-win because the opera houses found a mostly younger and more diverse audience and the music theatre makers could benefit from the international network of houses like La Monnaie in Brussels. Now music theatre is an important theatre form all over Europe and USA, slowly developing in South America, Asia, and Africa. The main problem for many makers is to find funding for this often experimental form as they usually don’t have a connection to a bigger institution that wants to support their work. We have a competition called Music Theatre Now Awards under the umbrella of International Theatre Institute to help makers from all over the globe to show their work in different festivals. Former winners from Ukraine, Lituania or Africa were shown in many festivals and are now touring with their work. Important there is the originality of the project and relating to your own cultural legacy.

IAB: In your opinion, is the contemporary spoken/physical dramatic/post-dramatic/deconstructive/post-structural theater and performance exhausted and predictable, compared to the potentials of contemporary acoustic-electronic/analog-virtual music, sound theater, today?

GC: There are still a lot of fascinating theatre projects, but of course in theatre a lot has been tried already and often I’m not triggered by what I see. In the different forms of music theatre that I see there is more imagination and freedom and the emotional impact of music can be sometimes more surprising.

Guy Coolen. Photo Credit Khalid Amakran.

IAB: You are the artistic director of the annual O. Festival for opera, music, theater in Rotterdam – what is the key to being and remaining a successful updated artistic director/manager in this artistic domain?

GC: The main thing for me is to be open to new things – I never programme only my own taste – I see a lot of work all over the world – listen and talk to many artists, link them to other artists and try to make them fly. If your own ego is too big in my opinion you won’t remain successful as your good ideas will end at a certain point – so for me it’s to get inspired by younger generations, and often connect them with some older makers to also inspire them. I don’t believe in programming around a yearly theme as then you are limiting things and you exclude interesting projects. Our yearly festival is also known for taking risks – with more than 60% new creations I never know what the result is – I believe in the quality but I also accept that artists can fail – but then they deserve a second chance. Young makers need to be able to start somewhere. Our audience knows that and accepts that a project is not completely successful yet. Luckily in most cases it works out. Out of the 45 projects from the last festival only 2 were not what I hoped for. The rest of the projects were picked up or invited by other festivals or theatres. So my advice is to be more daring and embrace projects that you would not choose yourself – and listen to other generations and artists from other cultural backgrounds. Never programme for them but invite them to think with you what to programme.

IAB: You stated that the Flanders-Belgian theater is emotional, while the Dutch theater is intellectual-conceptual? According to your observations and experiences, why is this the case?

GC: We speak the same language in Flanders and the Netherlands, but Belgium is catholic and the Netherlands is protestant. Although most people are not religious any more, you feel it in everything. Flemish people are less direct in giving their opinion, and have another way of looking at life. We love each other as the Dutch people like to come to Belgium, but the more organized way of living in the Netherlands often reflects in the theatre we see – the way the actors speak is different. A lot of the Flemish go more for the poetic and emotional form. But it’s changing now since more and more performers from both countries start working together.

IAB: You are the general and artistic director of the production company Muziektheater Transparant (based in Antwerp), and you have been active for decades in initiating and implementing widely staged international co-productions? What is the key to a successful international co-production – to be initiated, realized and to remain active on tours, year by year?

GC: We are giving chances to Flemish artists but try to connect them immediately to the international field, as Belgium is such a small country. We set up a lot of co-productions with artists or ensembles from other countries – so we are not just selling our own projects but trying to work together and this can only be done by being open to other worlds. In the last 30 years we managed to give a platform to many artists that are working now internationally. Also here the key for me is to see a lot of work, listen to many colleagues, connect and to be open to good suggestions – not all ideas should be mine – that would be boring. But with my network I can help and be proud later of what our artists achieve.

IAB: You are a member of several international and European professional networks – what is the goal of this current constant networking and re-networking in culture? Are the circles in art and culture closing again?

GC: I’ve always found it important to stay connected and listen and also help people from other parts of the world. Like everything in life – the more you give, the more you get back at one point in life. That is not why I do it – to get things back, but if I can help artists with it then I’m happy. I don’t feel the circles are closing but we need to include different generations – sometimes older people are excluded, which I think it’s stupid, but we need the voice of the young as well. The time when a few of the men from the big houses were discussing everything with a good glass of wine amongst themselves is luckily gone in most countries.

IAB: You are also a member of the European Cultural Parliament, what is the purpose of the cultural Parliament and what has it achieved for the benefit of contemporary culture and art in Europe, at a time of many financial blows aimed at culture and art?

GC: This is a group of very interesting people that come together regularly – without being paid – just for the benefit of being a think tank and coming up with advice for the European ministers. It’s an independent group, non-political, who can raise issues and come up with suggestions for political leaders. The power is limited but the politicians listen to what we suggest and this has had effect in the past. So we continue in the hope we can convince people to keep culture alive.

Photo Credit Guy Coolen.

IAB: In September 2024, the Flemish and Dutch ITI Center hosted the 37th ITI UNESCO Congress in Antwerp and Den Bosch. What are the challenges of organizing and programming such a global event, and why in co-hosting?

GC: It’s so inspiring to talk to artists and programmers from countries I don’t know – to hear their stories and to connect people from all over the world. It’s a big challenge to organize it since we, as Europeans, can travel wherever we want – but so many people couldn’t get a visa – even if they were invited and we paid for their hotel. It was important for me to also confront our artists with the luxury they can work in. They can get funding if they have a good project and there are theatres that support them. Once at a ITI congress an artist from Africa came to me and said – I make art with what I can do but I’m not financially supported, so I’ll never get into your system. He meant he would never be picked up to show his theatre work outside his country, because he had no connection or money. That touched me a lot and was an impulse to help as many people as I can by organizing meetings like this. But even for us it was costly, that is why we did it in two cities and shared the budget, which says a lot about how Flanders and The Netherlands work together in a positive way.

IAB: According to which criteria were Milo Rau and Luanda Casella the key guests and speakers at the Congress?

GC: These two international makers, working in Belgium then, have a broad vision on the world and are sometimes revolutionary in their thoughts and work. We didn’t want a local politician to open, but a keynote that people would talk about during and after the congress. Milo Rau is now director of Wiener Festwochen and is spreading his message further and Luanda was invited by many countries after to talk. I recently met her again in Brazil. So it had an impact.

IAB: At the Congress, we had an excellent opportunity to enjoy the fascinating theatrical productions that were part of the program for us guests – the outstanding Works and Days – Open Rehearsal by FC Bergman; VR performance Ascension by Paul Boereboom and Leon Rogissart; a magnificent performance Inner Life (Wim Henderickx’s final work) staged as artistic happening throughout the DE SINGEL building… The Shell Trial by Anoek Nuyens and Rebekka de Wit (Why this particular selection of productions)?

GC: We wanted to give a showcase of the sort of work that is made in our part of the world. We asked artists who wanted to show something and made a selection together.  It’s also a way of getting to know each other. Many artists are now in contact and also artists from other countries stay connected.

IAB: In the past, what was crucial for you to recognize and choose the world of music and sound, theater and opera, to become your professional life and orbit?

GC: I was taken by my grandfather to the opera when I was 9. He was also a painter and made sets for the opera. He worked a lot onsite in theatres and that’s where I got fascinated. I directed a few shows in the beginning of my career but then decided to help other artists in developing their work and I don’t regret this choice.

IAB: During this period – what are the new projects you are designing and initiating for the years ahead?

GC: Since Covid-19 we have been working with a lot of artists who are under 30. We were allowed in our rehearsal spaces to work without an audience – we kept the energy for these years and now they became part of our artistic family – we are writing a new plan for our next 5 year subsidy together with them. We are broadening our world. We are touring now with a project with circus artists and singers and we will go to all the markets to perform in between the people with another project. But we also perform in many opera houses. We see the whole world as our stage. One of my favorite recent projects was a glass house in the central station where a writer and composers created an opera during a week. The libretto was made of sentences that people in the train station gave them and they made an opera with the words of the people passing. Every day, 2 to 3 minutes were rehearsed live in the station and at the end of the week 20 minutes of opera was there – closer to the audience we couldn’t get. It was amazing – we did it in Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and London and hope to do it a lot more. This was art with impact.

IAB: Thank you very much, dear Guy Coolen.

Antwerp/Rotterdam/Skopje, 2025