It was a moving moment when director Cherry Duyns drove a frail Misha Mengelberg onto the stage on Tuesday 9 June, after the premiere of his opera Koeien (Cows). Dressed in a bright orange windbreaker and wearing a cap with an oversized visor, the recently turned eighty improviser and rudderless disruptor looked around uncomfortably: is this applause for me? Yet he visibly enjoyed himself and...
Where minister Bussemaker tries to sell the same overall budget as "an extra investment of 18 million" with the new "cash shift" and municipalities like Amsterdam use the old-fashioned cheese slicer to make cuts, the municipality of Enschede uses the blunt axe. Despite fierce opposition and 27,000 signatures from concerned citizens, the city council agreed to an additional annual cut of 600,000 on the library and...
It is a niche sector in marketing, but cultural marketing is fast becoming mature. In recent years, cultural organisations have had to be creative and inventive with increasingly limited budgets. This often manifested itself in sensational marketing of performances, exhibitions and festivals. Not without results: these five marketing cases have bravely drawn attention last cultural season....
Minister Jet Bussemaker's letter will keep tongues wagging for a long time to come. There are considerable gaps here and there between the Culture Council's advice and the minister's letter. Also in the field of film and media. A list of differences. Bussemaker notes that the film sector is changing considerably. Media consumption is changing due to the rapid rise...
Bussemaker invests 18 million in the arts and a symphony orchestra for pop and jazz added. It seems too good to be true. And so it is. Because in return for that one extra orchestra, two other orchestras will be cut. At least, that's how the minister's letter can easily be read. That's how I read it too, at least. Currently...
The repair of cultural subsidies by more than 18 million, announced by culture minister Bussemaker on 8 June 2015, mainly concerns a perpetuation of earlier patchwork. That patchwork was necessary in recent years to smooth the crudest consequences of the cuts by her predecessor Halbe Zijlstra. That predecessor is now in the chamber as a coalition partner, to ensure...
For the first time in years, Robert Wilson is back on stage by himself and he proves what a sublime performer he is. In Samuel Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape, he plays an old man looking back at his younger self. His older self is almost without language, but with cries, grimaces and gestures. Wilson manages to take the play to its bitter...
'Urbo Kune' is esperanto for 'common city'. Klangforum Wien presents 24 hours of contemporary music and ideas today at the Muziekgebouw, focusing on the future of Europe and ideas about the ideal capital of the United States of Europe. At 12:12 today afternoon, the event started with an incomprehensible statement from the roof. Mayor Van der Laan, Arnon Grunberg, Francine Houben alternate...
Twenty-two years after Jurassic Park the fourth instalment of the well-known dinosaur films enters Dutch cinemas on Thursday 11 June. In Jurassic World we see in 3D how the dreamed theme park with live dinosaurs is finally realised, and how things go grandly wrong when overambitious showmen start genetically manipulating dinosaurs. In each new volume, the plot is thinner, the special effects become more dominant and the scientific pretensions less so, but no one can deny that the Jurassic Park-films have revolutionised. Also in the arts.
[Tweet "No one can deny that the Jurassic Park films revolutionised the arts. Also in the arts."]
'See, that's how it goes.' Esther Ending flips open a magazine containing an interview following her new novel An Island of Her Own, set on Ibiza, the island where she grew up. The article is not about her novel, but, unbeknownst to her, is part of a story about partying, drinking and drug use. [Tweet...
The new format of the Holland festival puts the spectator first. Plenty of visible events, free performances and being in the middle of the city. It's director Ruth McKenzie's trademark. It is therefore not surprising that she does not shy away from the digital universe. After all, what better way to share than digital art? But what then is digital art...
Manger, the new performance by Boris Charmatz and Musée de la Danse, gives spectators all the space they need. Where you line up to watch or just to listen, who or what you watch and for how long, is up to you. The Purification Hall on the Westergasfabriek site, majestically empty and echoing, creates a wondrous atmosphere in this for Charmatz'...
It is one of the most pre-discussed performances of this Holland Festival. Newspapers, magazines and webmagazines dived en masse on The End featuring Japanese superstar Hatsune Miku. That she is not real. About all of us being fascinated by the virtual and technology. About her two and a half million Facebook friends. About the fans who have written more than 100,000 songs for her. About the costume designs...
Inspired by stories by Borges, whose widow was present at the launch of the online interactive musical piece at the Holland Festival, The Book of Sand still looks most like an elaborate, very chic music video. Is that a bad thing? "Neither the book nor sand possess a beginning or an end." Borges' story, to which the title refers, is about...
A confession. There is no other way. So: yes. I was lying between immaculate white sheets in a comfortable bed with actress Lina Issa and it was beautiful. She whispered soft words in my ear, put a hand on my hand and it was very quiet around us. Thanks to that whispering, the noise of the big city fell away. Trams...
I am an idealist, said Bero Beyer, the new director of the Rotterdam Film Festival at the Spring Consultation.
Emio Greco and Pieter Scholten rehearse their new performance Extremalism in Marseille. The two dance companies under their direction, ICKamsterdam and Ballet National de Marseille, have merged for this occasion: 30 dancers on stage, six authors and designers in the auditorium, and the crew of technicians is also made up of Amsterdamers and Marseillais. They are working together on the biggest production that Greco and...
A special film programme opens at Eye on 5 June: Where do we go now? Arab women behind the camera. Those who think of the Middle East and North Africa may think of conflicts and IS, perhaps of the origins of algebra, but probably not of women filmmakers. Yet they are rising considerably. In 1994, Moufida's Les Silences du Palais was...
What happened to the five million Overijssel gave the orchestra in 2011 to 'get more money from the market'? This was also what councillor Van Abbema wondered, and the answers the province gave her mostly raise more questions. What is abundantly clear is that the province wants to keep the orchestra no matter what and of no merger
Lulu, the opera that Alban Berg left unfinished on his death in 1935, is considered an undisputed masterpiece, which is frequently performed. The opera is at the Muziektheater for the third time this millennium, but for the first time with the third act completed by Friedrich Cerha. South African artist William Kentridge will direct. He and the performers were honoured after the...
The first weekend of June, something exciting is happening in The Hague. For adventurous men. By adventurous men. On a stage. By music-making men that is. Mr Cello One of these men I once saw (sometime in the nineties in Groningen) going wild on his instrument. With an almost bare bow, missing a string, but...
A young blonde woman climbs a staircase in a round, windowless room and emerges into a desert. She runs laps around a red cloth, singing "everything's repeated many times". Or: the same young woman lies in the same windowless round room, but now in a different dress and with a curious machine. "everything's repeated many times". Or: the same...
Stepping into M.U.R.S. is a treat. This is the smart city, the city of our near future. Communication electronics and fun rule. It resembles a fairground or a huge disco. Exciting voices welcome you. You whirl in with the crowd. Everyone joins in. Your phone is in touch. Cheerleaders stand on a stage,...
THE Symphony Orchestra is as good as bankrupt. The 2014 figures show that. So it is total nonsense that responsible minister Jet Bussemaker reported in her answers to questions by MP Jacques Monasch less than a month ago that the orchestra was well within the own income norm of 21.5%. Not only did she already use incorrect figures in her answers, now...
Metropolis at Holland Festival: 4 ways to look at the future.
Payments are made via iDeal, Paypal, Credit Card, Bancontact or Direct Debit. If you prefer to pay manually, based on an invoice in advance, we charge a 10€ administration fee
*Only for annual membership or after 12 monthly payments
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français
You must be logged in to post a comment.