This CD is centred around fragments of the opera The Children of the Sea by Lodewijk Mortelmans (libretto by Raf Verhulst (1866-1941) and the recently rediscovered orchestral song, Ellen, as performed by Liesbeth Devos, Peter Gijsbertsen, Werner van Mechelen and the Wurttembergische Philharmonia Reutungen.

2018 sees the 150th anniversary of Mortelmans’s birth. He worked on this opera between 1900 and 1915 and it was premiered at the Antwerp Flemish Opera on March 27, 1920. The essence of The Children of the Sea is featured on this CD plus a first recording of a concert aria for tenor and orchestra, Ellen: A Song of Woe (1895). Works by a contemporary of Mortelmans, August de Boeck, are also included on the disc alongside those of Peter Aerts.