The prototype of the modern conductor: virtuoso and at the same time intelligent, adventurous, capable of bringing to life even the most cerebral of scores, and yet at home in the historical styles of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Verdi. His pioneering work in Flanders is the result of a continually surprising search for new repertoire and of gathering around him a group of like-minded musicians wanting to explore each taste and trend of our time.Rudolf Werthen is the founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed I Fiamminghi. He has conducted this orchestra on the most prominent stages in the world. The name of the orchestra is a conscious choice and refers to the musicians from Flanders, who brought musical life in the renaissance to its zenith at the Italian courts and chapels.
Under his direction I Fiamminghi has recorded for the American label Telarc the music of Pärt, Hovhaness, Gorecki, Corigliano, Kancheli, Vasks, Takemitsu, Tavener, Piazzolla and Orlando di Lasso. Thanks to his enthusiasm and international success the Government of Flanders appointed Werthen "Cultural Ambassador of Flanders".
Rudolf Werthen’s remarkable success with I Fiamminghi and his individual ideas lay partially at the basis of his appointment as musical director of the Flanders Opera in 1988, where he directed a pleiad of productions including “Ariadne auf Naxos”, “Eugene Onegin”, “Macbeth”, “La Cenerentola”, “The Flying Dutchman” and “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”. With the Brussels Opera Hall Company, he conducted the spectacular productions of “La Bohème” in Brussels, “Aida” and “Nabucco” “in Cologne , “Carmen” in Brussels, Cologne, Lisbon and Münich.