The former residence of Fons Olterdissen.
Alphons Olterdissen (1865 - 1923) was a Dutch writer, poet and director.
His work, consisting of stories, plays, and operettas, is among the best known written in the Maastricht dialect.
He became famous as a designer and director of historical pageants, but his lack of business acumen left him with large debts. He tried to pay off these debts with plays and operettas. After a few flops he had a success in 1907 with De kaptein vaan Köpenick, a play in Maastricht dialect about a character popular in those days: the fake captain Wilhelm Voigt. The takings were more than enough to pay off his debt. The second comical opera, Trijn de Begijn, was also a hit. His brother Gustave Olterdissen (1860-1942) provided the music to both pieces, which consisted mainly of arrangements of well-known arias and (children's) songs.
For the Maastricht canonical feast in 1916, he directed the Sint-Servaasspel, a musical play in rhyme about the life of St Servaas. The play was written by the priest Christian Mertz and set to music by Philip Loots. It was performed several times on the Vrijthof Square by some 600 actors and extras.
The final chorus of his comic opera Trijn de Begijn has officially been the Maastricht city anthem since 2002.
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