The 1556 Album amicorum project team will visit the first Dutch opera 'Granida’ written by P.C. Hooft in 1605 (mei 2009).

Prof. dr. Johan Oosterman and prof. dr. Willem Frijhoff are leading the project that will lead to a publication of the oldest Album amicorum in the Netherlands.

This album consist of lyric texts and songs, written by students and friends of Johan van Lynden, living in the eastern part of the Netherlands (Gelre), and dates back to the year 1556.

Athough people thought that the music for the opera Granida was lost, the musicologist Louis Peter Grijp was able to reconstruct the relation between the texts and melodies, using the Dutch Song Database of the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam, enabling him to find melodies of matching characteristic metrical format corresponding to what can be surmised of Hoofts' intentions. Dramturgist Natascha Veldhorst restaured'  Granida to a musical theater again

Their experiences might be relevant to bring back the original music to this even older album amicorum of Johan van Lynden.

Go for more information to: www.granida.info ; www.liederenbank.nl/index.php?lan=en