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The Belgian tenor, Zeger Vandersteene, was active during the 1970’s primarily as a concert singer, in particular as an oratorio soloist and as a Lieder interpreter. He began to appear as an opera singer only in 1980, when he sang at the Opera of Antwerp and participated, likewise in 1980, at the Holland Festival in the premiere of the opera Aap Verslaat de Knekelgeest by Peter Schat. In the years 1981-1984 he sang at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels smaller parts, like Evandre in Alceste by Gluck, the High Priest in W.A. Mozart’s Idomeneo and Steuermann in Fliegenden Holländer. In 1983 he appeared as a guest at the Théâtre Châtelet in Paris in the opera Les Indes galantes by Rameau.
Zeger Vandersteene showed himself on the stage as well as in the concert hall as a great interpreter of Baroque music. In 1984 he was at the Teatro Fenice in Venice, and in 1987 at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna (in Tirsi-La Danza by Gluck) as a guest. In 1990 he could be heard at the Opera of Antwerp as Ägisth in Elektra by R. Strauss. However, he was determined to remain a concert singer for his career. In Belgium as well as also abroad he performed the song cycles of F. Schubert and Robert Schumann as well as songs of Gabriel Fauré and of other French composers.
Recordings: Telefunken (Castor et Pollux by Rameau, 1972), Erato (Armide by Lully, 1983), RCA (Secular Musik of Lully), Amati (Sacred Musik of Georg Philipp Telemann), Gailly (Winterreise by Schubert), Philips (Krönungsmesse by W.A. Mozart).
Zager Vanderrsteene is also an acclaimed voice teacher. Among his pupils and/or singers who have attended his master-classes: Palle Fuhr Jørgensen (Baritone), Bart Uvyn (Counter-tenor). |
