All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
In school, we used to have a very good way to check the quality of wine: the yield. Wine with 14% alcohol was better than wine with 12% alcohol. After all, the goal was clear: to get drunk. Wine of 14% was more effective at that. So we preferred to drink wine with a yield of at least 14%.
After partially or even completely failed productions of Falstaff The National Opera now does everything right. Twenty years after the previous attempt in the Holland Festival, Verdi's last opera gets a dream performance that could only just become audience favourite of the entire festival.
Dutch museums do not pay for the art they present. Cable companies stick money from writers in their own pockets. Spreading new journalism platforms without permission and without paying the work of small independents. Libraries are closing, and are being replaced by private libraries or school libraries.
Like many of my contemporaries, I have played Jeff Buckley's CDs grey, but know next to nothing about Pakistani Sufi music. Except that it's great. And that Abida Parveen is the queen of that genre. Tonight, this Voice of God and her ensemble are on stage at the National Opera & Ballet.
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Jiří Kylián is not at the Holland Festival. He has his own festival. The small Korzo theatre hosted ten days of intimate works by the great choreographer. Varied and still impressive. Next year, Kylián will have been a choreographer for 45 years. How do you keep performing at the world's top for so long?
It seems like a statement, opening the latest Holland Festival under Pierre Audi's direction with 'Vortex Temporum'. The collaboration between the two top Belgian ensembles Rosas and Ictus does everything that is scarce in the present day.
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Jubilant reviews. With the 'reality opera' The News, the Nederlandse Reisopera has a hit on its hands. However, the familiar theatre setting is being abandoned for pop temple Paradiso. Whether you like opera or not: five reasons to go.
A surfing Dutch marketing guy noticed in South Africa that a disease was thinning the population indiscriminately. That made him care. Now, as an undisputed highlight, dance4life is celebrating its tenth anniversary at The Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
450,000 euros they need to raise, the 15 culturally optimistic signposts of Public. All but a few were born well past 1980, so they don't suffer from any baby boomer arrogance or generational nit-picking: these are real, young, happy Amsterdammers.
It will be a total experience, as if you were briefly in another world. 'Mirror Mirror' by Conny Janssen Danst is set in a former submarine hangar of the Rotterdamse Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM). The audience is taken there by boat.
William Forsythe, dance innovator, and widely regarded as one of the most important choreographers of our time, is quitting the company to which he attached his name on September 2015. The New York Times reports that. He will still remain associated with the company as an advisor, but the real management will probably be taken over by Jacopo Godani, a former student of the legendary choreographer.
Barely five months between first audition and first performance. That was all the time the makers and local residents had for the Volksopera Ondiep, which experienced the first of two performances on Friday 23 May. It was a warm May evening, touching at times, sometimes dreadful, but fun anyway: classics by Verdi (most of them), Bizet, Puccini and Offenbach, set to Dutch text and sung by complete amateurs. Accompanied, for once, by the Groot Omroepkoor.
According to minister Bussemaker it would all go down very well and Jet de Ranitz of Arts ' 92 felt that all those researchers were panic over nothing sowed. But so they are coming: new cuts to culture, and bigger than first expected. Maastricht, just equipped with a very broad board of B&W, will cut half a million from next year's culture budget first, and at least 750,000 more every year thereafter.
Er is al veel over geschreven. En veel over gepraat: de Reinbert de Leeuw-biografie van Thea Derks, die van Reinbert de Leeuw niet uitgegeven mocht worden. Nu mag Thea Derks, lid van de coöperatie Cultuurpers, aan Peter Gielissen, ook lid van de coöperatie Cultuurpers, haar kant van de zaak uitleggen. Mooi verhaal geworden. Op Lezen.tv
De commotie die is ontstaan door de voorstellingenreeks ‘De uitvaart’ in de St. Willibrorduskerk in Utrecht had niemand voorzien, laat staan gewild. Het apostolaat van de St. Willibrorduskerk vindt dat de kerk ‘ontheiligd’ is en wil er geen missen meer houden, nu Dries Verhoeven daar met hulp van Sens Uitvaarten tien avonden lang ‘De uitvaart’ opvoert. Het zijn theatrale uitvaartmissen, waarmee hij onder meer de verzorgingsstaat en het maatschappelijk draagvlak voor de kunst ten grave heeft gedragen. Maar iemand hiermee kwetsen was nooit zijn intentie geweest: ‘’Als ik de provocatie al op zoek in het project, dan is dat die met de toeschouwer.’’
In Catholic Limburg, I was taught catechism every week in primary school. "What are we here on earth for?", asked Mr pastor. With the whole class we droned out the answer: "To become happy here and in the hereafter." A similar question occurred to me last night during the performance of the opera Faust by Charles Gounod at The National Opera. "To what end do we go to the theatre?" For me, the answer is: "To be touched, purified, yes maybe even happy." Given the rave reviews, I expected that this would indeed be the case.
The digital canvass battle in cinema is still some time away. For now, moviegoers are benefiting, according to research.
About two years ago, the digitisation of the Dutch cinema business was completed. All cinemas and film houses have been projecting digitally since 2012. In the projection booth, the disappearance of 35mm equipment meant a landslide.
Rechte lijnen, eenkleurige vlakken. Rood, geel, blauw en wit. De essentie van de werkelijkheid weergeven. Dat was het streven van de schilders van De Stijl in de eerste helft van de vorige eeuw. In dezelfde tijd had ook Hendrik Valk dit ideaal.
The Valley of Astonishment. Titles don't come much prettier than that of 'The Valley of Astonishment'. Theatre legend Peter Brook's tentative last play is coming to Amsterdam. The Holland Festival gave me and two journalists from Parool and NRC, respectively, the opportunity to talk to the already legendary director when he was alive. Pretty special, because the man who enchanted an entire generation of theatre-makers and audiences with performances such as the nine-hour Mahabharata in Avignon, is considered a deity among theatre connoisseurs and enthusiasts.
370 miljoen kostte de verbouwing van het Rijksmuseum. Op een ton na. 5,5 miljoen minder dan de laatste raming uit 2010. Die weer het bijna het vierdubbele was van de oorspronkelijke begroting, die nog uitging van 134 miljoen. Maar dat was voor de crisis over die trappen en die fietsroute, en voor er allerlei bouwbedrijven failliet gingen, en voor de hele boel hoe dan ook in het honderd dreigde te lopen.
Iemand merkte op Facebook op dat het een beetje raar stond om in een krant sterren uit te delen voor een toneelstuk gebaseerd op Het Dagboek van Anne Frank. Hoewel ik zelf huiver om zo vroeg al een Godwin te maken, is er toch wel degelijk iets aan de hand met Het Toneelstuk en De Recensie. Recensies over Het Toneelstuk naar Het Dagboek lijken namelijk overbodig. Want hoe recenseer je zo’n stuk, met zo’n geschiedenis? Is gedoe over wel of geen gelaagdheid, wel of geen avontuurlijkheid in de regie niet zelfs een beetje oneerbiedig? Het zijn drie kwesties dus, die me tot een overweging brachten dat het misschien wel helemaal niet moest kunnen. Anne recenseren.
In 2001, when Rotterdam was European Capital of Culture, a number of institutions joined forces and from this, in 2005, the Rotterdam Opera Days born. The aim is to programme innovative musical theatre in the opera house-less Maasstad after all, often in unusual locations. This year the ninth edition will take place, from 17 to 25 May, with the theme 'brotherhood'.
Omdat Nederlandse cultuur de Nederlanders pas opvalt als er gescoord wordt in het buitenland (geldt ook voor voetbal, overigens): Groot nieuws over het eerste gezelschap van Nederland. Bondscoach Ivo van Hove van Toneelgroep Amsterdam heeft niemand minder dan Juliette Binoche gestrikt voor een hoofdrol in een toneelstuk.
The Holland Festival, dat doen we al jaren. Het is zonder meer het hoogtepunt van het culturele seizoen. Op het Holland Festival zie je hoe de internationale kunstwereld erbij hangt. Onder de vaardige leiding van Pierre Audi is het hele gebeuren de laatste jaren ook nog eens een stuk minder elitair en hoogdravend geworden dan vroeger. Een kaartje kost ook vaak een stuk minder dan een avondje André Rieu in Maastricht, om maar wat te zeggen.
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