De slag om muziek in het theater: Omtrent definities tussen cultuurbeleid en artistieke vorm

This publication is part of a journal issue presenting the key players in today’s music theatre landscape in Flanders. Profiles of music theatre companies are presented against the backdrop of a number of essays and statements dealing with major developments and issues in Flemish music theatre. With a strong sense of historical background, this book zooms in on current issues in relation to music theatre today. How do we expect cultural policy to categorize a hybrid ‘genre’ such as music theatre? Is the international (festival) circuit open enough to young and emerging artists? How can the artistic symbiosis music theatre calls for be dealt with in different institutional contexts: in education and training, in the media, in policy environments?

My contribution focuses on the current state of music theatre in Flanders and its key players. I describe today's heterogeneity of music theatre as a self-sustaining discipline and the success of open and negative definitions that have always rather undone institutionalized understandings of the genre. I see this in relation to the development of postdramatic theatre, which caused a blurring of genre distinctions.