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We have another letter from the secretary of state for culture. Halbe Zijlstra has sent it to parliament, to make it official that from 2013 a very bleak wind is going to blow in arts land. That makes cuts of 200 million final, still excluding the probably 150 million in so-called friction costs that the ministry also has to get from somewhere (u...
"I can fire anyone here. Except the actors." Sam Walters, artistic director of London production house the Orange Tree Theatre does not mince words. "Everyone in the office could leave. The directors too. But without actors no performance." The actor is unequivocally central to this theatre. As a director, you only prove yourself here when you get top performances out of your...
That's going to be fodder for chambers exegetes, though the question is whether it will make any difference. But Halbe Zijlstra says he did not say that the VAT measure "was not the most accomplished measure in the coalition agreement. Although that is what that interview with him in NRC Handelsblad of 8 July 2011. At the time, everyone thought that was a funny
The ANP brought it and all newspapers typed it up: 'Amsterdam gets a City playwright'. Big news, of course. After all: the theatre is rather under pressure as an expensive leftist hobby, so it would be nice if the Amsterdam city council had decided, together with the theatre world, to establish a city playwright, alongside the city poet and the poet of the fatherland, An honorary title, would...
Last week, they reached the US top lists. Nice for a British pop group looking to emerge from anonymity via a targeted Facebook campaign. Remarkably though, the pop group is not reaching the 'ordinary' top. In fact, with the song 'Trust', Bitter Ruin is on the opera list. But it is less surprising than it seems. At Amazon, the band falls...
National Theatre Week is new and very small. And, oddly for a small festival, advertises big on its site with the logo for the Home Shopping Guarantee. This raised questions. Because clicking on the logo for the guarantee produces a very different result. Criminal is not, by the way, if you use the logo of Thuiswinkel-waarborg without...
It's so simple that you think: why didn't we think of this before? After all, expensive inner-city restaurants already park your car in front of you and hang up your coat. So why just also arrange a babysitter for the stay-at-home kids? For now, Amsterdam's Theater Bellevue has the scoop. When ordering a kart (on pre-sale, of course), you can take the theatre...
Opponents of government support for arts and culture quite often cite the United States of America as an example of how things can be done differently. There, according to these people, no tax money goes to art and culture, and art is there despite this. Others point out that America does have government support for art, and that much of the top art in the US is partly...
For another 15 years, the Delft Chamber Music Festival, so named to reflect its international character, has encompassed 15 years. Violinist Isabelle van Keulen handled the chamber music festival's programming for the first ten years, Lisa Ferschtmann - also a violinist - took over from her five years ago. But even this already successful festival fears the upcoming budget cuts. A pity, because what...
Rain, rain, rain. That looks bad for the festivals. Right? "Weather has less of an impact on a festival than people think," says Noorderzon's Mark Hospers. And they should know. Last year they had a lot of rain, and at the same time sold a record number of tickets. How is it that bad weather seems to bother the festivals little?....
"It's interesting here," says a lady with a two-year-old daughter, "and good for her development. And they have delicious apples with cinnamon here." The Children's Parade is ice creams, the carousel and baking your own poffertjes. But also taking your parents to performances. Getting them into the tent and making them forget the turmoil of the grounds for a while is the job
"The Parade is like a snack bar. I come here to soak up atmosphere, drink wine and, in addition, be made to think a bit by the performances. But then that shouldn't last too long." Looking for the essence of the Parade performance, Cultural Press Agency knocks on the door of visitors, The Sadists and John Buijsman. "It's already just cosy...
With a small break for much-needed sleep, we were active for over 27 hours with a liveblog on the March of Civilisation. Hard work, and at first we suffered from some start-up problems. After all: setting up such a liveblog requires some structure in the approach. We had introduced a few so-called #hashtags, such as #marsderbeschaving, which on twitter allow people to share their...
Of course there are 'trolls'. Opponents of 'leftist hobbies' and supporters of the thesis that good art will survive on its own. Our liveblog on the March of Civilisation, which we had filled partly by following Twitter hashtags, turned a bit sour. We cleaned that up a bit, took out the loudest screamers (also pro, incidentally) and a few striking political...
Photo: Pierre Nydegger To conclude. The 2011 Holland Festival could well be historic. Not only was it the festival that attracted the most audiences for years, it was also the festival that took place while a minority government of populists, nationalists and materialists proclaimed the end of art subsidies. We therefore look back on a festival in which we were able to meet with...
Sponsorship repels audiences. That could be a conclusion of the research carried out at Oerol by Inholland's professorships Media, Culture and Citizenship and Media and Entertainment. With the central question "How can Oerol survive without government funding?", they are exploring the audience's reaction to commercial expressions. "The question is how to apply marketing strategies without...
In conclusion. The 2011 Holland Festival could well be historic. Not only was it the festival that attracted the most audiences for years, it was also the festival that took place while a minority government of populists, nationalists and materialists proclaimed the end of art subsidies. We therefore look back on a festival in which we had a great time with our new...
The Utrecht Games (DUS), with its successful production August Oklahoma, immediately wins three nominations for the theatre awards to be handed out in September: Ria Eimers for best female lead, and Peter Bolhuis and Tjitsjke Reidinga compete for the prizes for best supporting actress. Percentage-wise, however, much more successful than DUS is De Kus, a production by Hummelinck Stuurman, because there the...
We are not big on copying press releases directly, but this one accidentally slipped in. For those who didn't know it yet, but tout art is going loopy on Sunday and Monday for the preservation of sanity in the Netherlands. Although that will have no effect on the architect of the cut, PVV member Martin Bosma. Even the cultural sector in Limburg (Geert...
Gerard Marlet is becoming a veritable numbers guru for the Dutch arts sector. His latest publication concerns the "Podiumpeiler". We have embedded it for you. Worth reading, not only for number and art freaks. After all, many discussions about whether or not money goes to art, whether or not full theatres, they can now all be equally well based on the facts. Useful,...
The Dodo was busy, this third week of the Holland Festival. Thankfully, again with an exciting mix of beautiful, weird and extraordinary. As it should be, really. What makes the Holland Festival all the more exciting is that such extremes can sometimes take place within one programme, as with the National Ballet, or even within one performance, as with The Russians...
At last: the opera The Cricket Recovers after the animal story The cure of the cricket by Toon Tellegen is in the Netherlands! More than six years after its world premiere in Aldeburgh, the Holland Festival presents Richard Ayres' work, performed by Asko|Schönberg and VocaalLAB conducted by Etienne Siebens. Pierre Audi signed on to direct: he made the performance layered and daring....
Could Prime Minister Rutte cum suis's anti-advertising by dismissing art as destined for leftist types and other idiots already be having an effect? You would almost think so when you see the rather poorly filled halls during the performances at the Holland Festival. There are more than ten people in the front row, yet it all doesn't hold...
At the request of the Holland Festival, Jamie McDermott of The Irrepressibles created a new programme: Human Music Box. The ten-member British band will start its world tour in Amsterdam. The premiere on Friday 17 June at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ became a subdued, musical evening that was especially visually appealing. In the middle of the Grote Zaal was a large, rotating...
"Alifib" by British progrocker Robert Wyatt (b. 1945) is a song that gets under the skin. Wyatt's near-breaking voice sounds so genuinely sad that it takes your breath away. It seems an impossible task to perform "Alifib" convincingly without the master himself. Yet the French Orchestre National de Jazz gets it right. Where Wyatt in the original...
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