Tristan und Isolde is the ultimate declaration of love
"That sounds different. A bit sad."
I just played F, B, D♯ and G♯. Better known as the Tristan chord. But on guitar. My audience consists of 15 toddlers.
ACTUAL
All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
Subtle but dull Fokine fine lead to Van Manen's 'Corps' and promising premiere of EGPC at the Dutch National Ballet
The bodies of Fokine, Van Manen and EGPC in the Dutch National Ballet's new programme 'Corps' are vastly different, though they all dance a form of ballet. It is the differences in stakes (decorative or expressive, stylised control or individual surrender, full of symbolism or stripped of it) and the key role for the ensemble that make the programme extremely interesting. Besides the fact that EGPC seems to be on its way to an artistic breakthrough.
Les Nabis from Hermitage Petersburg on display in full glory on the Amstel
In the main hall of the Hermitage Amsterdam, the music room of businessman and art collector Ivan Morozov has been recreated. The hall, where normally the top pieces of the exhibitions hang on the Amstel, now shows what the music room of Morozov's Moscow city palace looked like. With grand piano and all. But above all: with wall decorations by Maurice Denis, who was specially commissioned for this purpose. For once, these paintings have left the Hermitage so that St Petersburg can also work on a similar reconstruction. There is little chance of them leaving St Petersburg after that.
Borgman is Dutch entry for the Oscars
It cannot have been a difficult choice. The feature film Borgman by Alex van Warmerdam had already made it through to the Cannes competition earlier this year. Now this dark, wry-comic thriller has been chosen as the Dutch entry for the 86th Academy Awards (the Oscars) in
NRC doesn't count right: not 11, but at least 34 groups gone due to cuts
According to NRC Handelsblad Culture cuts became fatal for 'only' 11 theatre institutions. In doing so, they assume groups that actually dissolved themselves. In their overview, however, they overlook the companies that voluntarily dissolved themselves by merging with another company. In addition, there are a number of institutions that disbanded before the new round because it was already clear that they would not receive any money. If we do count those, we come to at least 34 companies. That is already 25% of what was on offer before the cuts.
Oudolf's sturdy sprites replace floating trestles in Rotterdam harbour
Piet Oudolf, the Dutch garden artist who changed the face of New York changed, is best known in the Netherlands as an ennobled plant book author. After many big cities worldwide, Rotterdam is the first city in the Netherlands to have a public garden designed by the now 69-year-old designer. And it immediately becomes clear what we have been missing in our 'public green space' for all these years. Quite right, then, that Oudolf received the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund Prize gets awarded.
Twelve-tone horror at KCO
Tonight and tomorrow night, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra kicks off the fourth season of the AAA series, with film music under the title 'Suspense'. But not everyone will immediately associate composers like Bartók, Lutyens and Schoenberg with cinema.
Mondrian, Verhoeven and human rights in Netherlands-Russia year
With all the critical coverage of Russia that Putin and his supporters are provoking, we would almost forget that we are in the middle of the Netherlands-Russia year sitting. A screening of Paul Verhoeven's war film will take place tonight at the Pioner Gorky Park in Moscow Black Book, as a kick-off to
More art supply does not create more demand, but free helps
More seats do not bring more spectators. The only way to get more spectators to venues and museums is: drop the price. This is according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Dream team comes to save Utrecht Games
Thibaud Delpeut, up-and-coming talent in theatre land, has been appointed artistic director of The Utrecht Games. Jacques van Veen has been appointed as managing director to exude sufficient confidence in the business field as well. He previously won his spurs at the Holland Festival and Groningen City Theatre.
Armando Navarro (1930-2013): Scapino Ballet for more than just children
Armando Navarro (Argentina, 1930 - Amsterdam 2013), former artistic director of Scapino Ballet, passed away last Sunday. Together with his wife Marian Sarstädt formed Navarro one of the Netherlands' best-known dance couples, alongside Han Ebbelaar and Alexandra Radius (Het Nationale Ballet) and Jiří Kylián and Sabine Kupferberg (Nederlands Dans Theater).
Daan Roosegaarde for president? Alderman? Councillor?
Jet Bussemaker believes in Daan Roosegaarde. She confessed this on Sunday 1 September during the traditional Paradiso debate. She admired his courage to imagine the unthinkable and his drive to come up not with opinions but with proposals. Her message to the arts sector, again almost fully present in Paradiso, was clear: stop complaining, start doing something.
BPP kaputt (5): what exactly is a dead body in the closet, or: is 4 million enough?
The dissolution of the Performing Arts Promotion Office continues to stir minds. So another piece, although we are actually supposed to be walking around the Uitmarkt to expensive advertising leaflets to sell.
Enfin.
EAR at the Fringe Festival: its own little world of music, dance and needle & thread
"I don't have a theatre background, but I know what I like." These words from Cammy Mai Tran are typical of a trend among young theatre-makers. They find the walls between different art disciplines to be oppressive. Increasingly, we see them walking right through those walls. And when the blow is over, new inspiration swirls richly over them.
BPP Kaputt (4): 1.7 million available for international performing arts promotion: who has plans?
The Performing Arts Fund is taking over the international promotion of the performing arts from the Performing Arts Promotion Office, which will soon be disbanded for lack of funds due to mismanagement. The fund will continue to do so until 1 June 2014. In the meantime, they are looking for a new party there to take over. Also, the programme through which important visitors from abroad can be invited will be...
'Barter with Robinson' art project in demand by hardcore bargain hunters
Pet van de Luijtgaarden has a thing for collections. So he collects them. But being an artist, he also wants to say something with those collections: 'I am mainly concerned with society. I think we are going down because of overproduction and to show that, I want to go right over the top.'
Money: the biggest threat to our cultural heritage
Update: According to the Filmkrant, it's not all that bad: http://www.filmkrant.nl/nieuws_2013/9842
It was announced today that a large archive containing almost all raw film material from the Netherlands in the shredder threatens to disappear. Since film laboratory Cineco is bankrupt due to the vanished demand for oldskool celluloid, the vault containing unique historical material must also go. Unless someone comes forward who wants to store the material. And that costs quite a bit of money. Even though we no longer work with the highly flammable nitrate films, all that plastic must be kept safe.
'Ann Goldstein's departure signals Ann Goldstein's departure'
Wonderful quote in the Volkskrant, also copied by the ANP in the message feeds on Ann Goldstein's departure as artistic director of hert Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Or vice versa. Just read carefully:
Nude is main theme at 33rd edition Netherlands Film Festival, Hoe Duur was de Suiker opening film
Paul Verhoeven, Dick Maas, Katja Schuurman, Monique van de Ven and Kim van Kooten are all special guests at the upcoming edition of the Dutch Film Festival. Nothing special, you might think, but if you see them on the festival posters you probably won't recognise them. After all, they are namesakes of well-known film personalities who this year
Kevin Spacey: 'Television will be fundamentally changed by arrival of Netflix'
Three-quarters of pilot episodes for series in the US do not lead to a sequel. For House of Cards, the series with which the on-demand and streaming video channel Netflix final breakthrough in America, no pilot episode was made. Major broadcasters refused the series without pilot to make, but Netflix immediately saw that there would be a large enough audience for it. That was
Ebooks under fire by BREIN and Google
That the book market is struggling, is well known by now. In the battle between paper and ereader, things are getting tough. Publishers actually consider digital reading a form of theft. Are you allowed to cut up, lend, give away, resell and burn a bought paper book apart from reading it, with an ebook you are not allowed to do any of that.
Art. Videos for those who did not already know
From facebook gesponst: those who wondered why there was art again. Or why it costs money. Those people are there .
Series of videos now.
Bureau Promotie Podiumkunsten kaputt (3): a one and a half million corpse in the closet
The Theatre Voucher has been more popular than its publisher suspected. Theatre-goers have certainly used this performing arts book voucher more than expected over the last decade. One and a half million euros more. As a result, the Foundation for the Promotion of Theatre and Concert Attendance SPTC has faced negative assets since 2011.
NJO honours Steve Reich
Ever since the establishment of the NJO Summer Academy in 2001, one composer takes centre stage every year, in the current edition it is Steve Reich (1936). During the NJO Music Summer, two hundred music students from fifteen countries will play a good number of compositions by the American grandmaster.
10 per cent less ticket sales, but Festival Boulevard is still satisfied.
Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch sold 55,000 tickets this year, 5,000 less than in 2012. The festival, which this year was held from 1 to 11 August, did attract more crowds for the free offerings on the festival square. This brought the total number of visitors to the festival this year to 145,000, 5,000 more than in 2012. As the venue occupancy is still nice at 85%, the drop in ticket sales will mainly be due to a smaller offer of performances.
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