Houtebeen - An Oratorio for Male Chorus, Strings, Accordions, and Percussion

The historical oratorio, Houtebeen, was commissioned in 2013 by Accordeonensemble Alphen Opus 2 and Rotterdams Jongemannenkoor De Coolsingers, both under the direction of conductor Sergé Latychev. The hour-long work was scored for male chorus, tenor soloist, accordion ensemble, string ensemble, percussion, synthesizer, and narrator and depicted the career of Cornelis Corneliszoon Jol (1597-1641) in 29 musical episodes. Nicknamed "Houtebeen" ("Peg Leg"), Jol was an admiral of the Dutch West India Company during the Eighty Years' War. He was a notorious privateer, who captured vast amounts of treasure during his raids on Spanish and Portuguese ships laden with gold and silver. Jol distinguished himself by his unparalleled courage, his great skill as a navigator and his humane treatment of prisoners of war (this in contrast to many buccaneers, who simply threw the crews of captured ships overboard). He received his nickname "Houtebeen" after he was wounded in a battle and had to have one of his legs amputated and replaced by a wooden leg. The oratorio juxtaposes musical episodes illustrating many of Jol's adventures with meditative songs, the lyrics of which were composed by Dutch poets, such as Daniël Heinsius (1580-1655), Simon van Beaumont (1588-1637), Jan Vos (1610-1667), and Carel Vosmaer (1828-1888). John Franceschina, composer, has created scores for the National Shakespeare Company and the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Baltimore's Center Stage, Washington's Ford's Theatre and the Arena Stage, the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, Geva Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Papermill Playhouse, Music Theatre Works, and the Moscow Art Theatre, in addition to the Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, where he acted as composer-in-residence from 1976 to 1993. His Fanfare for the Fiftieth was commissioned by Philippe Entremont for the fiftieth anniversary of the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra in 1985; his secular oratorio, Houtebeen, for male chorus, string orchestra and accordion ensemble, toured the Netherlands in 2014, and his opera, Scenes from the Jungle toured the Netherlands in 2019.