This release is centered around fragments of the “lyrical drama” (i.e. opera) The Children of the Sea by Lodewijk Mortelmans (libretto by Raf Verhulst) and the grand orchestral song Ellen, long lost but recently rediscovered. In 2018 we’ll celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mortelmans’s birth, so that the year will be a Mortelmans Year. It is amazing how many interesting and indeed beautiful works of this major composer have never been explored. Mortelmans worked on this opera between 1900 and 1915. It was premiered at the Antwerp Flemish Opera in 1920, but was never performed since. The essence of The Children of the Sea is featured on this album. Because Mortelmans’s orchestral finale contains just about all the important themes of the entire work, the artists decided to present it as a kind of overture on the album. In addition, the album contains a first recording of a true concert aria for tenor and orchestra: ‘Ellen: A Song of Woe.’
