Is Jan Willem de Vriend naive, or is he blatantly lying?

 We have already written at length about the Ajax situation in Enschede: orchestra and opera are at odds over an unexpected opera subsidy application by the orchestra. Startled by the ensuing commotion, some of those involved have since responded. It's just a damn shame that those reactions are not aligned.

For instance, orchestra director Harm Mannak told the Enschede Municipal Executive that the application was submitted purely in case the Reisopera did not get the grant. Curious, because at that time there was only one application, that of the Reisopera, and without a competing application from orchestra director Mannak and orchestra leader De Vriend, the money would almost automatically have gone to the Reisopera. So, unless he has a direct line to The Hague and Zijlstra's hidden agenda, his statement is nonsense.

However, critical questions from the city council could thus be parried: as long as the money comes to music city Enschede, local administrators are fine with it. Radio 4 was not satisfied with this argument, however, and wanted to speak to the orchestra management. Alas, unreachable. Fortunately, there was room for a radio interview at RTV Oost, where the interviewer hastened to say he did not know the file. No problem, as Harm Mannak explained here that the real problem was in the orchestral accompaniment not to.

'Scandalous,' he suggested, 'that we as an orchestra have to accompany opera for free and there is no way to talk to the touring opera about compensation'.

An argument for the stage, as the state subsidy for the orchestra is based precisely on the fact that the orchestra is not to provides opera accompaniment. Indeed, several studies commissioned by the ministry show that it is not to-principle is very sensible, because otherwise there will be wrangling over money flows.

No wonder, then, that the Reisopera does not want to talk about remuneration for accompaniment, let alone pay it. So a state-subsidised orchestra cannot ask for that at all.

But, of course, things could always be crazier. We had already heard that chief conductor and co-signer Jan Willem de Vriend knew nothing about the grant application, but that seemed a bit too far-fetched to us. After all, we have the grant application in our possession, and on the first page there really is De Vriend's signature. And when we continued reading, we came across a striking amount of text that was straight out of De Vriend's mouth.

But that is so not true.

At least, that is what Jan Willem de Vriend suggests in an interview with the regional daily TC Tubantia - unfortunately not available online, so people outside Twente cannot find out. In any case, in that paper the conductor repeats yet again the spurious argument about the opera accompaniment, even though it has been relegated to the realm of fables. Orchestra director and enterprise specialist Harm Mannak obviously wants to make an illegal arrangement with the Reisopera: you don't ask us for opera accompaniment, but we collect the subsidy for it. Deal?

We advise conductor De Vriend to take a moment to read past grant decisions carefully.

But that is where the shoe pinches, as it turns out that De Vriend does not read new applications properly either. Indeed, he has not faced them at all. He says that this application was pasted together behind his back in four days and that he is "not really happy" with the fact that his own signature is on the orchestra's opera plan:

"I was not aware of that, but on the other hand don't run away from it."

Pardon?

A signature on a grant application but not knowing about it? So how does it get there? Cut-and-paste? We just call that fraud. It won't, will it?

The Friend therefore guards against such an accusation. On the contrary. He praises director Mannak and states:

"Everyone, including the secretary of state, sees us as an example."

That should be reason enough for all kinds of alarm bells, but De Vriend is aiming his arrows at the Reisopera's intendant, Guus Mostart. A fine intendant, but he is leaving soon, and so, according to De Vriend, he has all the time to focus all his energy on securing the future of his company.

A fine quality, especially for a departing intendant, who incidentally still has the final part of Wagner's Ring, a revival and the transition to a new situation to supervise, but De Vriend ignores this. He also ignores the fact that a successor has long been known: Nicolas Mansfield. But that memo apparently did not arrive, and stronger: if stagehands and choir are fired, with seven employees there will be nothing left of the Reisopera, judges De Vriend in Zijlstra's chair:

"Then it's over, out."

Then again, what De Vriend fails to mention is that dismissed employees of the Reisopera return there as freelancers at a lower amount, and only two people serve in 'his' grant application. Well, yes, and his wife. And, of course, the sacked Reisopera staff.

In a curious attempt at damage control however, De Vriend now says that his wife - previously emphatically not named as such in all the documents - also knows nothing about it.

In other words: the artistic director knows nothing, his wife knows nothing and that the partners listed in the application know nothing, we already knew. Indeed, the listed cooperation partners not only make one covenant after another among themselves, but admit outright:

the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra is not, and at no time has been, an interlocutor in this.

A number of Statesmen, especially in the CDA camp, now doubt whether the provincial support given was wise, and national newspapers have also woken up and criticised the rosy orchestra plans.

Is Jan Willem de Vriend now naive, lied to, or is he himself lying blatantly?

• Naive for sure. Because trying to justify an application you did not sign is downright stupid.
• Lied? Most probably, because how else can one explain the fact that the application contains passages that are blatantly from his mind?
• Is he lying himself then?

Let's just say that his ambitions and care for his own orchestras mean he likes to put the truth in the hands of a business director. That's quite safe too. However, we would venture to suggest that his emotional statement that he will resign from the orchestra if the Reisopera is no longer subsidised is mainly for show.

Meanwhile, we keep getting no answers to questions on whether both will attend the hastily convened information meetings on the future of the NSO and whether the opera application may be discussed there. Perhaps we will find out tomorrow after the premiere of Le nozze di figaro. Because we would almost forget that: orchestra and opera company just worked on that in the meantime.

Naturally, we will travel to Enschede.