Press Interpreter

10/24/05 -- A dozen far-right Flemish nationalists interrupted a performance of the opera ‘La muette de Portici’ in the Ghent concert hall yesterday afternoon. Members of Voorpost, NSV and NJSV also distributed pamphlets demanding Flemish independence and Anschluss with the Netherlands.

At the end of the second part, just before the aria ‘L’amour sacré de la patrie’ (‘The sacred love for the fatherland’), the Flemish nationalists rose to sing ‘The Flemish Lion’, after which they left the concert hall. The audience hardly reacted and the concert continued.

The opera by Daniel François Auber is closely linked to the origins of Belgium. In 1830, during the performance of the opera, about the revolt of Naples against the Spanish occupier, a popular revolt broke out in Brussels, which led to Belgian independence [from the Netherlands].

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-- Translated by Cedric Ryngaert

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