The bad news is: most myths about Carthage are nonsense. The good news is, the reality is at least as fascinating. Until 10 May 2015, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (RMO) in Leiden is showing the multifaceted history of a port city in present-day Tunisia, and once formidable rival of the Roman Empire. It simultaneously offers a glimpse...
In a sold-out Geertekerk in Utrecht, Camerata Trajectina exuberantly celebrated its fortieth anniversary yesterday. In those four decades, the ensemble has worked tirelessly to put the Dutch song repertoire from the Middle Ages to the Golden Age on the map, not only on stages, but also on sound carriers. Entirely in style, attendees were treated to a varied...
Georges Vermeersch comes home early from prison, where he was serving a sentence for incest with his daughter Christiane. In the meantime, his wife Jeanne has had a child by younger neighbour Erik. So how to move on? Casper Vandeputte directed an intense, haunting version of Hugo Claus' play Friday at the Nationale Toneel. Lead actors Stefan de...
Morgan Knibbe doesn't do that badly at all. Graduated from the Film Academy two years ago, already on equal footing with the world's best documentary filmmakers at IDFA. Those Who Feel the Fire Burning is his unconventional portrayal of the world of refugees who ventured across to Europe. Now nominated for IDFA's top prize, the award for best feature-length documentary. It...
Brian Ferry covers Stephen Sondheidm's Send in the clowns on his new album Avonmore. But his version above all else illustrates the sigh that follows 'Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer?' follows: 'Losing my timing this late in my career.' It seems so easy. You don't have to write a good song yourself, but you take one from someone else....
In the city where Geert Mak was born and Lévi Weemoedt spent thirteen years as a Dutch teacher in front of the classroom, culture has to make way. On 6 November, the city council decided to cut back to such an extent that the BV Stadsgehoorzaal could close. The director put the theatre up for sale on marktplaats.nl. In archaeology, Vlaardingen culture is a well-known concept, but in Vlaardingen itself you will actually find less culture...
While Amsterdam languished for years with a plan for a Dance House, Chassé Dance Studios will open its doors in December. The former Chassé church has been transformed into a multifunctional centre with eight professional dance studios, 45 hotel rooms, a gym in the ridge, and a grand café. Lenny Balkissoon, ex-dancer and actor (Zeg 'ns Aaa) financed, designed and organises the construction. Cultural entrepreneurship in turbulent times. It can be done.
Film-making used to be a man's business. Men made films about men watching women - something like that. In 1975, film scholar Laura Mulvey launched the famous notion of 'The Male Gaze'. Last year, it resurfaced in the heated debate surrounding La vie d'Adèle, that wonderful film by Abdellatif Kechiche (male) about a lesbian love affair. So how about before? This year, IDFA has...
,,I put discomfort in my artworks. I get that feeling when I walk through the city and see all those big buildings. The postmodern architecture with its megalomaniac mentality, and its decay, those depress me." From 29 November to 4 January, visual artist Peter Zuur is one of the exhibitors at the Pulchri Graphic Biennial, The Hague. Notably, his works...
Among the audience at Korzo theatre in The Hague at the performance 'Here We Live And Now' are a striking number of dancers from Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT). No wonder, as many of their colleagues are involved in this performance. This annual programme featuring young choreographic talent is a co-production of NDT and Korzo. The addition 'Hague' talent, by the way, may be taken with...
So I spent five minutes in singer-songwriter Patrick Watson's studio. He played a bit. Put his phone in the ashtray. Said something to his labrador. And I could look around quietly while he played. Behind me, in front of me. Below and above. Nothing like sitting at an artist's home while he plays. And he wasn't bothered...
For most artists, it is an ideal. Being represented by a gallery. Writers have their sights set on a contract with a publisher. Musicians eye labels eagerly and theatre-makers queue up for an impresario. Creators have a love-hate relationship with such intermediaries. Because while the average creative professional would be willing to spare a toe in exchange...
Stories about jazz are more often about dead heroes than about the future. If they do reflect on jazz's prospects, they are usually bleak. The genre has been declared dead more than once, and if jazz is not dead, it has at least moved or smells funny. British essayist Geoff Dyer published a decade...
Five years. You have to get through it. Not everyone is always charmed by the petite girl diction of Roos Rebergen (Roosbeef). But what a throat. And what a presence. So it is more than ok that Roos Rebergen did something daring at David Bowie's career anniversary party: perform a translation of Five Years, the opening track of David Bowie's classic album...
Those stars at reviews. Now I'd like to know how you got those. Explain.
Good. The first 30 minutes of Wagner's Lohengrin at De Nationale Opera are unforgettable. First the Vorspiel with the curtain closed, played heartbreakingly beautifully by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra which, under Marc Albrecht's direction, does justice to every nuance. We haven't heard it this impressive and...
Starting with the most recent issue. And then chronologically go back in time to somewhere deep in the 1960s. And then titling it 'Nothing has changed'. Brilliant move by David Bowie. All biographers can immediately throw their work in the bin. After all, anyone who grew up with David Bowie's music chronologically could not help but be continually bewildered...
On 10 November, the White House announced that President Obama is selecting choreographer Alvin Ailey for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The recognition is for Alvin Ailey's contribution and dedication to civil rights and dance in America. Interestingly, Obama is now awarding the prize.
Vice we all already know. It is the terror of any medium, online or otherwise, that focuses on youth culture, because with a global network and hefty US dollars, there is no getting around it. Live Nation we already know too. If you attend concerts at least once in a while, chances are good that...
We reported earlier. Worldwide, the Netherlands is Crazy when it comes to protecting the creators of books, films, journalism, art, theatre, dance and so on. And no, IT IS NOT ABOUT SUBSIDY NOW. It is about an archaic legislation that does protect the middlemen but leaves the creators outlawed and disenfranchised. That middlemen are paid extremely well, have...
The Holland Festival got a completely unknown new director in the person of Britain's Ruth Mackenzie. At least, to us. The flamboyant, artistically exceptional opera director Pierre Audi makes way for a woman who has presented herself mainly as a manager of festivals and cultural institutions, but whose ideas are anyone's guess. When she was presented, none of the...
Should the free market be curbed to save Dutch culture? The issue facing the Dutch government is quite a big one. On Tuesday, Dutch 'makers' (artists, photographers, actors, screenwriters, translators, directors, freelance journalists, etc.) presented a pamphlet. The pamphlet outlines the idiotic situation the Dutch cultural and creative sector is in. No other country disregards...
" Dear friends of Free Knowledge," With these words the president of Wikimedia Netherlands, Frans Grijzenhout concludes his welcome speech of the Wikipedia conference. In a conference venue at Hoog-Catharijne, I am surrounded by some 120 ' Wikipedians', as they call themselves. As in any subculture, it is clear to see who belongs to the regular incrowd. Wikipedians look like...
For fine art, you go to the museum, especially in Amsterdam and especially now that all the museums have reopened. But there is also another option: the opera. There you see visual art that doesn't fit in any museum, not even in the largest room of the Rijksmuseum. Take the Greek sculptor Jannis Kounellis. From today, his work is a...
Twenty-five per cent of people have a room they can no longer enter because it is too full of stuff. This is oppressive and it is no wonder that some resort to the other extreme: radical consumerism. In TROEP, theatre group Firma MES follows Barbara, a woman who wants to live with no more than eight objects. Just like Buddhist monks. This results in a delightful, witty play that is seriously thought-provoking and shows how giving up can become just as oppressive as keeping it.
We usually don't think about it, but marketing is all around us. And that while we can learn a lot from all those good examples. And certainly also from the not so good ones. Recently, I saw on TV an interview with the world star Stromae. This young Belgian rapper and musician has been very successful in recent years. Whether you...
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