Introductory
Note
[Before I can even begin to
tell the story of Jozef Sterkens, I need, first and foremost, to publicly thank
Pierre at Jozefsterkens2.com. for his absolutely indispensable assistance. Pierre 's site is one of the oldest and most
respected on Youtube, and he is certainly the foremost authority on Jozef
Sterkens, after whom he has named his site. I owe to him the videos and the
biography which I have used in the preparation of this article. Secondly, it is important to point out that
Jozef Sterkens' life consists of two distinct parts: artistry and politics, and
the two influenced each other. He was a
leading figure of the Flemish artistic renaissance in Flanders, during the very
stressful period of WWII. I can only deal here with the artistic life.
Edmund St.Austell]
Jozef Sterkens (pseudonym of
Jozef Steuren) was born in Antwerp in 1893.
His parents had a laundry in Antwerp, and hoped that young Jozef could
study to become a teacher. He was a good scholar, and so they arranged—although
their funds were limited—to send him to
the Normal School in Ghent, in 1908. Bright boy though he was, he failed
to develop much interest in his studies, generally speaking, but he did have the
chance to take music lessons from the Flemish composer Emiel Hullebroeck, who
soon discovered that young Jozef had a beautiful tenor voice. Hullebroeck
strongly recommended singing lessons, but family finances made it impossible for
Jozef to do anything but become an art teacher after graduation. Within a few
years, WWI broke out, and Jozef joined the armed forces, where he spent the next
four years working as a nurse in a military hospital. While in the army, he had the opportunity,
along with other artists, to sing for soldiers at the front. His patriotic diligence and hard work led to
his being decorated on four different occasions.
After the Armistice, Sterkens
returned to Antwerp and resumed his teaching career, while also studying at the
Royal Flemish Conservatory. In 1923, he sang for the music critic of a local
newspaper, who in turn introduced him to Edmond Borgers, the leading heldentenor
of the Royal Flemish Opera. After
hearing Sterkens sing "In Fernem Land,"
he offered to give him singing lessons.
In that same year, Sterken's career began, in a modernistic vein that
would characterize much of his later work.
His first concerts consisted of works by Flemish composers Peter Benoit,
Jan Blockx, Jef Van Hoof, and Renaat
Veremans, and were presented to largely Flemish-speaking
audiences.
One of the main reasons many
opera lovers, especially in this country, do not know much about Sterkens' career now is that from the very beginning he
became strongly associated with presenting Flemish music, and music in
Flemish. There were two opera houses in
Antwerp: The Royal French Opera and the
Royal Flemish Opera. The French Opera
dedicated itself largely to French and Italian works, and the Flemish house to
German works, and works in Flemish translation.
Because of Sterken's association with the Flemish house, he did not have
much opportunity to sing the French and
Italian repertoire that held so many great roles for tenors. There were strong
political pressures for him to adhere to Flemish. At this time, Flanders, the Dutch-speaking
part of Belgium, was completely dominated by French speakers and French culture,
and the need was greatly felt, by the Flemish, to establish Flemish art and
culture in Flanders. Sterkens was, in
fact, to become an important figure in that Flemish struggle for cultural
liberation.
He joined the Royal Flemish
Opera in 1925, and his first big success was Tamino, in 1927. He quickly became the leading lyric tenor in
the company. The following year he sang
the St. Matthew Passion in Paris, under the baton of the famous Flemish
conductor Lodewijk de Vocht, and made his first recordings for the French
Gramophone Company. He was also becoming a fixture on Belgian radio. In 1929 he sang Florestan opposite the
Leonore of Lotte Lehmann, who was a frequent performer at the Royal Flemish
Opera. During this period, he took part
in presenting the Dutch versions of Sadko (1925), Paganini
(1927), Jenufa (1927), Sly (1929), Die tote Stadt
(1932), and Daphne (1939)
Sterkens' story from this point
until his death in 1952 is primarily a story of administrative work, both at the
Royal Flemish and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, it is a sad one, full of the political intrigues and
politics of the time. He was even jailed
at one point, after the liberation of Antwerp in 1944, for a period of about 8
months. After that, he fell into
obscurity for a long time, but slowly began to regain his reputation. Just at the moment when he was to be given a
significant post as chairman of the Musical Copyright Society, he died of a
heart attack. The year was 1952. It's a
rather depressing story, really. Those interested in reading of these matters in
more detail can consult 401 Divas, http://401dutchdivas.nl/en/belgian-singers/440-jozef-sterkens.html I am indebted to this site for my
biographical information.
I think it is important to
first hear Sterkens in one of the most lyrical and beautiful renditions I know
of the aria "Glück das mir verlieb,"
from Korngold's Die tote Stadt:
Now isn't that just absolutely
beautiful! I certainly think it is! What kind of voice is it, essentially? I think of Sterken's voice as being in the
Gigli/ Tagliavini/ Schipa fach, which is to say high lyric tenor, but with a
decidedly German/Dutch color. If you
associate colors with vocal sounds, this might be called "brown," as compared to the darker, "black" quality of
the typical Italian voice—or at least that of Gigli, perhaps not so much that of
Tagliavini. Of one thing there can be no
question: this is a very beautiful
voice, absolutely without strain or harsh edge, a superb lyric
tenor.
Next, we can hear in Sterken's
voice the introduction of drama, of a dark and mysterious kind, in Respighi's
Campana Sommersa, a mythical
opera concerning a sunken bell between two worlds, the world of humans and that
of fairies. Choices have to be made, and
tragic consequences may hang on the quality of the choice. It is basically a verismo fairy-tale with
dark forebodings:
The voice, while lyric, has
here acquired some edginess; it is also more dramatic, with greater dynamic
variations. Clearly, the potential for
development into a slightly darker voice is there, but it was never pushed. It was always the lyric and the beautiful
that dominated Sterken's singing.
Finally, to illustrate that
point even more, here is a real rarity, the only known film footage of
Sterkens. It is from a silly,
light-hearted comedy of the kind that proliferated during the 1930's. Here is the Dutch song "Elisa," from the
movie "De Witte:
Notice the voix mixte
high C sharp at the end? A famous voice
teacher once told me that opera voices would be better and longer-lived if
singers and conductors ever figured out that most people far prefer what is
pretty to what is simply loud!. Case in
point! I cannot help but wonder what
Sterkens' fate would have been if he had been born in Italy or France, in years
of relative peace, and had had the opportunity to sing extensively in the
standard Latin repertoire of those countries.
I believe I would be telling an entirely different story
