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PODIUM ART

Anything for which people enter a stage.

Marion von Tilzer wins Women's Composition Prize MCN with Rote Schuhe

Amsterdam, 8 October 2012 During the well-attended Classical Music Day at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ the prize winners of the competition for women composers were announced this afternoon. The day was organised for the 11th time by Music centre Netherlands (MCN), which will cease to exist on 1 January. Thanks to an anonymous bequest, explicitly intended for women composers, three prizes could be awarded.

Ed Spanjaard unleashes primal forces in Götterdämmerung Reisopera

The final applause after the premiere of Götterdämmerung stormy, is an understatement. It seemed as if the completely sold-out auditorium wanted to surpass the primal forces extracted from the Gelders Orkest by Ed Spanjaard. History was made here: on stage, by the soloists and choir, in the orchestra pit and behind the scenes, for six hours and 20 minutes.

Götterdämmerung marks end and new beginning Reisopera

It is the first mass scene in Wagner's Ring: Siegfried leads Brünnhilde to the Gibichungenburg and Hagen summons all his men. From the side stage there is literally a deafening blare of horns, but conductor Ed Spanjaard lets it play on. And rightly so: the orchestra has a spark. The whole stage is filled in an instant and the choir swells in strength, louder and louder, ever louder, until the ecstatic apotheosis:

Gross Glück und Heil lacht nun dem Rhein

While the choir of...

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VARA honours Barbara Strozzi, tone poet at lonely level

No fewer than eight collections of arias, cantatas, duets and sacred works were published by Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677). She enjoyed great prestige in the Accademia degli unisoni founded by her father, and lived off her compositions. Exceptional at a time when women were expected to become nuns or wives. From 1 to 5 October, her music will be heard daily in VARA's Composer of the Week programme on Radio 4, between 19.30 and 20.00.

Unfortunately, the cliché that whole vo...

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Der Schatzgräber II: Van Hove exposes core and weaknesses

"That fairytale world has never been my world," director Ivo van Hove declared before the premiere of Schreker's fairytale opera Der Schatzgräber. Remarkable, as Van Hove and his regular scenographer Jan Versweyveld were previously responsible at De Nederlandse Opera for Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Janáček's The Makropulos Case - also fairy tales rather than grand dramatic works.

Tchaikovsky's last opera is all about Princess Iolanta. Everyone knows she is blind, but keeps...

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Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Der Schatzgräber I: blistering music, freezing dry staging

The Netherlands Opera opens the season with a rarely performed opera by Franz Schreker, in which pagan and Christian themes intermingle. The gorgeous music is countered by the chilly direction, preventing identification with the characters.

At the end of the nearly three-hour Schatzgräber, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor Marc Albrecht were clapping the loudest at the Muziektheater last night. At his instigation, De Nederlandse Opera pulled out...

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Order of the Day renews theatre

I did it just like that. Proclaimed a show as the most important theatre innovation for 20 years. That's daring. Even though I made the term a bit more vague in a subsequent tweet, because, yes, there has been quite a lot of innovation in recent years, left and right in theatres. So let's stick to 'the last few years'. And then... 

The Second Detail

Shock and awe ballet in Bill & Mr. B overflows with quality on all sides; there is no stalling

In the production Bill & Mr B, the Dutch National Ballet dives thematically into history with reprises of works by George Balanchine and William Forsythe. Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements (1972) is considered the breeding ground for Forsythe, who then went 'the extra mile' with Steptext (1985) and The Second Detail (1991). From protocol to photocall: dance as a photo session. Movement - click,... 

The Red Kimono: a fine painting but mediocre musical theatre #HF12

It begins beautifully. Prominently displayed on stage is Breitner's painting The Red Kimono. And not a copy, but the real thing, which is further underlined by the Stedelijk Museum's large number of crates, on which the musicians of the Hexagon Ensemble are also placed. Actor and dancer Michael Schumacher casually walks up to it and looks at the painting for about a minute - the average time a museum visitor looks at a painting.

Far too short, mene...

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Iván Fischer sets new Wagner standard

That Pierre Audi does not shy away from religious symbolism is well known, but the true miracle with Parsifal by the Netherlands Opera is in the pit. There, in the hands of master conductor Iván Fischer, the Concertgebouw Orchestra sets a new Wagner standard. Despite a gigantic orchestral strength, almost chamber music-like lightness, extraordinarily transparent and, thanks to careful tempo choices, with wonderful dramatic tension. Five hours long.

And that's just as well, because dramatic tension is...

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Faustin Linyekula stages the "fundamental resemblance between Negroes and ballerinas" with "La Création du Monde" (Fernand Léger, Darius Milhaud), #HF12.

The 1923 Afro-Cubist dance classic can be seen at Music Theatre today and tomorrow, commented on by Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula. "Europeans have no idea that they are denying the shared history of Africa and Europe. Belgium is part of everyday life in Congo, but Belgians hardly know anything about Congo, or it is the clichés about poverty 

How a Martian looks at opera

Or: the familiar becomes utterly alien here. Or: embracing meaninglessness as the first principle. One hundred years after his birth, John Cage takes centre stage in HF weekend.
Ever since Reinbert de Leeuw played it in the fastest talk show on Dutch television, John Cage's 4'33" has been a well-known composition in our country. For exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds, the musician does not play a single note and the audience hears nothing but the ambient sounds.

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No-nonsense audience does not care for tour de force of anti-pale dance in Révolution

Eleven poles are atmospherically lit like a nightclub. Dancers enter and make their way to their work stations. They will walk around their poles in a two-hour shift. They are not the only ones: audience members also start walking, towards the exit. Yet the dizzying repetitions of the hard-working ladies are effective. However, the transcendental minimalism will turn into a... 

Enfant terrible Boris Charmatz puts finger on sore spot with confrontational choreography about the elusive child

 With enfant, choreographer Boris Charmatz broaches a difficult topic: how do we as adults deal with ourselves, and how do we deal with children? Charmatz draws on the French philosopher Lyotard, who pondered the "inhumanity" of adults and saw real people in children. The current image about physical contact with children is distorted and it is... 

Micha Hamel's Requiem is beautifully spatial but lacks substantive urgency #hf12

In his Requiem for tenor, narrator and ensemble, Micha Hamel makes the most of the space of Amsterdam's De Duif church. Musicians play on the altar, from the balconies, mingle among the audience and push out a piano. - But what does Hamel really want to say? In front of a sold-out house, Micha Hamel's Requiem premiered last night. He ... 

Rare and exceptional performance "Lang" by Kat Válastur knocks you out with wonder and sucks you into maelstrom

Kat Válastur claimed that it is almost impossible to describe the dynamics of her performance with words. She is right. It is rare skill how with only two dancers in one place, so much can be depicted and the audience is sucked into a maelstrom. photo: Nysos Vasilopoulos In the small auditorium of Theatre Kikker, mechanical thuds sound and two giants appear in the middle of the stage.... 

SYLPHIDES

Imaginative artwork SYLPHIDES looks at what moves people, starting with the breath

Every festival begs for volunteers, and in the early days of Springdance, there were not even any paid staff at all. That's also saying something. As Springdance merges with Festival aan de Werf after 30 years, the theme of this latest edition is 'scupltured bodies & body sculptures'. At SYLPHIDES, this aptly applies. "How people move doesn't interest me, I want... 

Young dance makers meet and develop talents in travelling dance workshop Europe in Motion

 Europe in Motion is a travelling talent development programme and acts as a battleground and meeting place for young choreographers. What is urgent in dance is discussed for a week to encourage dance makers in their artistic development. This second edition, with partners Dance4 (Nottingham), iDans (Istanbul) and Imagetanz (Vienna), ends in Utrecht. Springdance previously featured dance from high-tech laboratories in Israel (Batsheva Dance... 

Two young female choreographers fulfil promise with Batsheva Dance Company at Springdance Festival

With two performances, "The Toxic Exotic Disappearance Act" and "House", Batsheva Dance Company shows impressive, sublime dance mastery and fresh dynamics. But also restlessness, searching and confusion. The era of happy, harmonious dance is over. A lecture on dance, prior to the performance, emphasises that contemporary dance need not compulsively oppose other dance movements. This artistic... 

Springdance Journal: "Dutch dance is very well behaved compared to what we have seen here"

Our team agrees: Springdance really took off on Saturday. With Ibrahim Quraishi's installation 'Wildlife Take Away Station' for sure. Reviewer Daniel Bertina made his own recordings, which will appear in his review. And it was even more tasty for him at '(M)imosa. Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (M).... 

Ruben Brugman interviews Russel Maliphant on the Rodin Project

"I love it when movement moves people," says British choreographer Russel Maliphant in this interview after the performance of The Rodin Project. In the Hekman foyer of Utrecht's Stadsschouwburg, our colleague from Danspubliek.nl put the creator ven the Rodin Project through his paces. It is interesting what Maliphant has to say about the first part of... 

The Dodo will once again monitor Brave Dancers

This year, Springdance will be held for the last time. After almost 30 years, it was time for something new, if only because the wind in The Hague is suddenly coming from the right and that is bad for business. At least if you want to show innovative art. That is why Springdance is merging with the other Utrecht-based... 

Eastern orchestras settle 40% rebate on musicians' salaries and union is sidelined

[recap] In order to avoid having to merge ánd bring in an extra half a million each, the orchestras in Overijssel and Gelderland made very ambitious plans. Which bear striking similarities. Both orchestras requested and received money from the province, albeit much less than requested. In theory, this would compensate for the reduction in the state subsidy, but that provincial money is mainly meant to reform the organisation. However, it is not enough for that. Not nearly enough...

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