Der Schmied von Gent

The story of Franz Schrekers’ ‘magical opera’ Der Schmied von Gent, based on a Légende flamande by Charles de Coster, begins on Ghent’s Ajuinlei. De Coster transposed the ancient folk tale of Smidje Smee to the period of Spanish rule in Flanders in the 16th century. Smee is the most powerful blacksmith in Ghent, who does good business with the occupiers but has never renounced his past as a freedom fighter and a ‘geus’ (rebel). He is betrayed and loses his smithy. Then the devil makes him a tempting offer: seven years of abundance, happiness and unlimited production… Smee, initially a victim of repression, becomes an oppressor and coloniser himself. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen revives the successful production with which the German star director Ersan Mondtag made his opera debut in 2020. In his own visually flamboyant style, he presents a daring political interpretation of a work that the German Nazi regime labelled ‘degenerate’. In unexpected ways, Mondtag draws parallels with the dark chapters of our own colonial history.