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PODIUM ART

Anything for which people enter a stage.

Toonkunst Choir not afraid of Peasant Wedding Stravinsky

Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam has had a name to live up to since its establishment in 1829. In earlier times, it was invariably on hand when the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Willem Mengelberg performed large-scale choral works. Although the choir still consists of amateurs and its ties with the illustrious orchestra have weakened, it still puts (very) demanding pieces on its desks. For instance, the... 

Frighteningly predictable or provocatively good? The Player at De Nederlandse Opera

Prokofiev's The Player is an hour and a half of drama, then after the interval it really becomes opera. This is not down to the soloists, not to the direction or sets, and certainly not to the excellent Residentie Orkest conducted by Marc Albrecht. Perhaps the music and libretto are too ingenious, Prokofiev was too faithful to Dostoevsky's book to make it a real opera. And perhaps Andrea Breth is too good a stage director for this opera. "Watch the surtitles especially carefully," she told me just before the premiere, "so you don't miss anything."

Red, Yellow and Blue (photo: Bob Karman)

Isabelle Beernaert is successful. Four reasons why it's not just down to SYTYCD.

The dance industry is not doing very well at all, people say. I spoke to a dance marketer who told me that venues are often only a quarter full. And that includes dance makers who have a  Oscar for dance have won. What does attract a lot of audiences are fairy tales. And Isabelle Beernaert.

What explains the success of this Belgian choreographer?

Figaro and The Fonz on a scooter in entertaining choreography for set pieces

It is the turnout of the evening: riding around on a scooter, barber Figaro gets involved in a crazy adventure in which Count Almaviva wants to snatch the beautiful Rosina from the hands of her guardian Doctor Bartolo. Three Bertas, meanwhile, literally tear Basilio's clothes off in an ingenious dance in front of three sets in which the action moves at lightning speed from inside to outside and... 

Figaro! Figaro! Figaro! Reisopera on tour with Rossini's masterpiece on order

'Give me a shopping list and I will set it to music,' the Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini is said to have said. Perhaps apocryphal, but fitting for the man who composed faster than musicians could rehearse his scores. Where Wagner needed a lifetime for 14 operas, Rossini wrote triple that. In barely fifteen years.

Everything, everything I know. Rest, rest then, rest you god. With Götterdämmerung, the Amsterdam Ring approaches its final end.

Forget the hours that preceded, don't think about the two hours to come. This is the moment. The Nibelungenhaat motif and the Hagen motif resound, but distorted. They clash. They cannot agree, We hear something vaguely triumphant, but at the same time threatening.

Young Talent Performance (Fugaz Floor)

Talent development new buzzword in dance world: 3 encouraging initiatives

Dat je na je afstuderen moeilijk aan een baan komt, is ook in de danswereld bekend. Gezelschappen zetten daarom, mede  op aandringen van de overheid, in op talentontwikkeling. Ze hopen ook op een betere aansluiting met scholen. Jonge dansers staan nu eerder in de frontlinie van ballet: het theater, en dat is goed nieuws voor het publiek. Want de energie is fris en het niveau is flink opgeschoten.

Rutte and Bosma don't do vision or substance and bend culture debate to their will

Culture debate 2013: Rutte and PVV shake hands. It was about Caro Emerald. About Zwarte Piet. And the classic: subsidy on opera tickets. And briefly about carnival. And it made all the news. Geenstijl. Radio 1,2,3 and 4. What else was the debate about? Um... no idea.

Gergiev under fire. How a silly statement and half-hearted attempt at nuance worries Rotterdam. And exposes a bigger problem.

Protests abound again tonight at a concert conducted by Valery Gergiev, this time at London's Barbican. Many of the protesters are demanding that the orchestra emphatically distance itself from the Russian star conductor and speak out openly against gay legislation in Russia.

From Dutch to National and vice versa. DNO and NRO give lesson on name change and collaboration

A joint press conference by two companies. In the post-Zijlstra era, that often does not bode well. A merger then seems obvious, especially when it involves the two largest opera companies in our country: De Nederlandse Opera and the Nationale Reisopera. Only now we have to turn that around: the Netherlands Opera will become the National Opera. And the building will be called National Opera and Ballet.

It's raining at Amsterdam's Muziektheater. Armide impresses at De Nederlandse Opera.

It's raining at Amsterdam's Muziektheater.

When Crusader Renaud sings of an idyllic landscape half an hour after the performance begins, the curtain rises deliciously slowly. It adds a breathtaking dimension to the opera, which until then had been set on a small and sparse landscape on the front stage.

Bonnie Doets (photo: Antoinette Mooy)

Modern dance wins prizes at Dutch Dance Days

Tijdens de 16e editie van de Nederlandse Dansdagen zijn diverse dansprijzen uitgereikt: de Prijs Nederlandse Dansdagen 2013, de Zwanen en de Dioraphte Dansprijs. Respectievelijke winnaars zijn choreograaf Giulio D’Anna, danser Medhi Walerski, Club Guy & Roni voor Midnight Rising, danseres Bonnie Doets van Scapino Ballet Rotterdam en Keren Levi met The Dry Piece.

Tristan und Isolde at Reisopera, something special happens here

A Brünhilde who does not burst into flames but endures the Götterdämmerung with a baby in her arms, a Senta who does not jump off a cliff but is shot by Erik together with the Holländer. No one really looks surprised anymore. And Isoldes who do not die in the Liebestod are no exception, but Tristan who rises from the dead, as it were, by Isolde's notes reaching into heaven, stands diagonally behind her and sings along soundlessly?

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.

The Red Piece - photo by Maarten Vanden Abeele

Oppressive (audience) manipulation in The Red Piece

'Don't let anyone leave the room without having experienced or felt something.' That is surely and surely the mission with Flemish Ann Van den Broek's work. If the mood swings in The Red Piece don't do much to you, your retinas will burn out from the changes in lighting design. You might just think you are being manipulated as an audience. But you gladly allow it.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin turns Rotterdam Doelen into a swirling sea of sound

In a letter to Franz Liszt in 1852, Wagner stressed that in his Der fliegende Holländer should be shown as realistically as possible, full of violent waves. One hundred and sixty years later, Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes that advice very much to heart in port city Rotterdam. Nothing about this Holländer ripples, from the first notes it storms, culminating in a third act at hurricane force, with a leading role for the Netherlands Opera choir.

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).

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