Hot dates for 2012

Mark your calendars, order your tickets and be quick about it. The next six months hold great stuff in store, but she who hesitates will not get in the door. Herewith, The Bulletin’s picks

1 Sandrine Piau

The French soprano’s gifts for Baroque repertoire will sparkle in the title role of Handel’s masterful oratorio Theodora, with Hervé Niquet leading the Concert Spirituel; and in a recital of 17th- and 18th-century French opera arias by the likes of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Lully and Charpentier, accompanied by French Baroque ensemble Les Paladins.

Bozar, Mar 12 & 17 respectively

2 Sting

Celebrates the 25-year mark of his solo career with a greatest hits tour. It isn’t a criticism to note that all those hits could never fit into a two-hour performance, but Sting does his best.

Cirque Royal, Brussels, Mar 3, www.cirque-royal.org

3 Lang Lang

With the bravura and fan base of a rock star, this classical pianist draws crowds wherever he plays. It has taken some time, but even the critics are starting to admire him. On the programme: Bach, Schubert and Chopin.

Bozar, Feb 16

4 Andrey Boreyko

His five-year term as musical director of the Belgian National Orchestra starts next September. In this concert, he leads his future charges in a programme of Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel and Franck. 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition winner Anna Vinnitskaya is the guest soloist.

Bozar, Apr 20 & 22

5 Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas

Dance fans should drop everything in late January to see Early Works 1982-1987 , rare performances of four of De Keersmaeker’s radical first choreographies – the ones on which her entire oeuvre has been built: Fase, Rosas Danst Rosas, Elena’s Aria and Bartok/Mikrokosmos. In April, in Brussels, don’t miss Drumming (1998), set to Steve Reich’s percussion piece of the same title, performed here live by the Ictus ensemble.

Early Works, De Singel, Jan 21, 22, 27 & 29; Drumming, Kaaitheater, Apr 25-29

6 Salome

Composer Richard Strauss and playwright Oscar Wilde will be heard applauding wildly from the Great Beyond during Guy Joostens’ racy new production of this modernist opera conducted by Carlo Rizzi.

La Monnaie, Jan 24-Feb 11

7 Jeremy Deller

Mid-career survey organised by London’s Hayward Gallery for this 2004 Turner Prize winner, known for his collaborative works with regular folks.

Wiels, Brussels, Jun 1-Aug 19, www.wiels.org

8 Nick Lowe

A rarity among punk rock-new wave old-timers, this 60-something English singer-songwriter is productive, discreet and keeps growing artistically. On tour with new solo album The Old Magic.

Stadsschouwburg, Bruges, Feb 10,www.ccbrugge.be

9 Pierre Boulez

This titan of 20th-century music is conducting three concerts at Bozar. He leads his Ensemble Intercontemporain in March (programme includes Schoenberg, a Borowski première and one of his own compositions) and returns in May to conduct two programmes with the London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. Not bad for 86.

Bozar, Mar 21, May 3 & 4

10 Kiss & Cry

Michèle Anne De Mey and Jaco Van Dormael’s table-top choreography for two hands, performed, filmed and projected live at each presentation, melds dance, theatre and film. A small-scale masterpiece.

Théâtre National, Mar 3-9

11 Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Four choreographies from the not-so-distant past by this award-winning Antwerp choreographer, who dances in two of them: duets Faun, created to music by Debussy for Sadler’s Wells theatre, and Dunas, in which Cherkaoui partners Flamenco dancer Maria Pagés; Apocrifu, for three dancers, a puppet and Corsican men’s choir A Filetta; and  choreographed with Damien Jalet, Babel, a masterful work for 18 performers, with set designed by British sculptor Antony Gormley.

Dunas, de Singel, March 1, 2, 3, 5, 6; Apocrifu, La Monnaie, Mar 21 & 22; Babel, de Singel, May 30-Jun 2; Faun, de Singel, Jun 3

12 The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic

Think what you like about Abramovic’s art, this music theatre piece by Robert Wilson, narrated by Willem Dafoe, sung by Antony Hegarty (of Antony and The Johnsons) and featuring Abramovic, who is still very much alive, is a tour de force.

de Singel, June 28-30

13 Rudresh Mahanthappa

Trio and Robin Verheyen New York Quartet Phenomenal New York-based Indian American alto saxophonist Mahanthappa performs with his trio on a double bill with young Belgian sax player and composer Verheyen, a jazz talent to watch. Together with the impressive ensemble he’s formed in his adopted city, Verheyen plays from new album Trinity, due out this spring. They’ll be running through it a few days earlier in a solo gig in Antwerp.

Bozar, Mar 11; de Singel, Mar 8

14 Ford Madox Brown

Calais-born ( in 1821) Brown studied painting in Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp before making his mark in England, where he influenced, but never joined, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. To this retrospective organised by Manchester City Art Gallery, Ghent is adding works by Brown’s Belgian peers and classmates.

Museum of Fine Arts, Citadelpark, Ghent, Feb 25-Jun 3, www.mskgent.be

Maria João Pires & Antonio Meneses

Duo from Brazil perform works for piano and cello by Schubert, Brahms and Mendelssohn in early January (see page 29). In March, João Pires returns to play Mozart’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No 20 with the Luxembourg Philharmonic.

Bozar, Jan 11, Mar 18

Gidon Kremer & Martha Argerich

Violinist Kremer teams up with pianist supremo Argerich in a programme featuring contemporary transcriptions of Bach plus Shostakovich’s jazzy Piano Concerto No 1. Joined by the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, founded by Kremer in 1996.

Bozar, Jan 25

Duran Duran

They’re back. Reunited after an 18-year break, four of this British band’s players have a new album All You Need is Now and are singin’ it live to the world, including Belgium in this onenight stand.

Forest National, Brussels, Jan 29, www.forestnational.be

Bloed & Rozen, Het Lied van Jeanne en Gilles

Jeanne d’Arc and one of her devoted followers are the central figures in this all-Belgian music theatre production that debuted last summer at Avignon. Guy Cassiers directs, Tom Lanoye wrote the script and members of the Collegium Vocale Gent sing Dominique Pauwels’ polyphonic score.

Kaaitheater, Mar 2 & 3

Dalí, Magritte, Miró. Surrealism in Paris

Lest we forget that Surrealism originated not in Belgium but in Paris, here comes this excellent show from the Beyeler Foundation (Switzerland).

Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels, Mar 16-Jul 15, www.fine-arts-museum.be

Le Duc d’Albe

World première of the original French version of Donizetti’s unfinished 1839 opera, set in 16th-century Flanders during the rebellion against Spanish rule and centred, of course, on a love story.

Flemish Opera, Antwerp, May 6-18; Ghent, May 25-June2, www.vlaamseopera.be

Chantal Akerman

This Brussels-born filmmaker’s first European retrospective will span 40 years of groundbreaking, politically charged work that includes film-based installations.

M HKA, Antwerp, Feb 9-Jun 10, www.muhka.be

Sasha Waltz

Belgian première of Continu, the German choreographer’s ‘archaic group’ piece for 24 dancers set to music by Xenakis, Claude Vivier and to Edgar Varèse’s monumental orchestral work Arcana.

Théâtre National, Jun 19-21

Philippe Herreweghe

This esteemed early music guru has more than Baroque in mind. On January 23 and 26, in Brussels and Antwerp, respectively, he conducts his Collegium Vocale Gent in Bach Cantatas; a month later, in Antwerp, he leads them and I Solisti del Vento in Kurt Weill’s Berliner Requiem,a jazz-inflected modern masterpiece set to poems by Berthold Brecht. In June, Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale revisit passionate, late Renaissance motets by the mad, murderous Italian prince Carlo Gesualdo.

Bozar, Jan 23; de Singel, Jan 26 & Feb 25; Eglise des Minimes, Brussels, Jun 5, www.bozar.be

Festivals

Rock Werchter

Mega rock festival – one of Europe’s top five. Festival Park, Werchter (near Leuven), June 28-July 1, www.rockwerchter.be

Couleur Café

World music means anything and everything these days. This festival, smack in the heart of Brussels, has the best of it.

Tour & Taxis, Brussels, June 29-July 1, www.couleurcafe.be

15 Kunstenfestivaldesarts

Europe’s most exciting contemporary performance festival features three weeks’ worth of cutting-edge presentations by amazing artists such as William Forsythe, from everywhere. The programme goes online in March.

Multiple venues, Brussels, May 4-26, www.kunstenfestivaldesarts.be

Art Brussels

Brussels’ international contemporary art fair, where 170 selected galleries display their finest.

Brussels Expo, April 19-22, www.artbrussels.be

Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition

Top violinists under 30 will be competing in the 75th anniversary edition of this prestigious, marathon contest. Tickets go on sale in mid-January.

Flagey (first and second rounds); Bozar (finals), April 30-early June, www.qeimc.be

Ars Musica

Contemporary classical music festival of international standing. Always a hard sell; always compelling. Brussels, Liège, Mons, Antwerp and Bruges, March 1-April 3, www.arsmusica.be

Manifesta

The ninth edition of this nomadic European contemporary art biennial is curated by Cuauhtémoc Medin and will be held on the site of a former coal mine outside Genk. Waterschei, Genk

June 2-September 30, www.manifesta9.org