Anything for which people enter a stage.
Toneelschuur, Don Carlos (stage) Nina Spijkers brings Friedrich Schiller's classic play back to its essence. No lavish scenery depicting the Spanish court, but canvases peeled off layer by layer. playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XtUxD2zQ3E M31 Foundation, Nederlandse Reisopera, Theater na de Dam, Der Kaiser von Atlantis (opera) Forty years after its world premiere at Theater Bellevue, Victor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis will be...
Throughout the year, the public broadcaster spends a lot of time on sports. For World Cup, Tour or Games, cultural broadcasts are cancelled for weeks without pardon. If you can't beat them, join them, Paul Witteman must have thought, or perhaps the viewing figures were disappointing, because on 1 May he devoted an entire Podium Witteman broadcast to cycling. Don't. The reason for the cycling special is...
Some time ago, I discussed with broadcaster MAX the idea of phoning random residents in music districts to ask what they thought of 'their' composer. Would they spontaneously burst into an ode to, say, Carolus Hacquart, Cornelis Schuyt or Henriëtte Bosmans? Unfortunately, this playful plan never materialised, but lo and behold: a number of musicians joined hands....
Last Sunday, 24 April, clarinetist George Pieterson died at his home in Amsterdam, aged 74. 'George was an iconic player with a big musical heart,' says his former student Frank van den Brink. 'He invariably went full steam ahead and whichever recording you listen to, his playing is always remarkable. You didn't necessarily have to put up with his...
How do you get children moving? How do you stimulate their creativity? How do children learn to dance if they have little experience with dance, or other expressive artistic expressions? ICKamsterdam is developing a toolkit for dance teachers in primary education: Sensorium. By stimulating the various senses - eyes, ears, touch and nose - the body is invited to respond with movement. I am in a...
Majesty, Dear Willem Alexander, Last year at the Koningsdag concert, one of my favourite musicians played: violinist and composer Oene van Geel. On that occasion, his band zapp4 played together with a musician from my old world: recorder player Walter van Hauwe. In addition, surprising programming with David Kweksilber Big Band, leading lady Claron McFadden, tap dancer Peter Kuit and more. Great musicians...
Even before the welcome applause has died down at the Zuiderstrand Theatre on Saturday 23 April, pianist Manuel Sanguino begins Bach's Partita BWV 826. Crystal-clear runs sound in his right hand, while his left hand shapes the contrapuntal counterpoints just as smoothly. Even the faster passages are beautifully phrased and distinguishable note by note. Sanguino is one of the...
The past and future of the Netherlands Reisopera are dominated by money worries. Nicolas Mansfield, director, during the season presentation on 20 April last in the foyer of Theatre Carré, stressed not only the necessity of a national opera company's existence but, above all, the necessary quality requirements to keep attracting audiences. And quality cannot exist without decent...
Most impressive is the moment when the orchestra falls silent and Romeo tries desperately to storm the white wall behind which his sweetheart Juliet has disappeared. Time after time, he runs up the steep slope, only to slide down defeated each time. His wild jumps and trotting make his black coat tails flutter high, as if he were a tipsy bird in...
The historic Doelenzaal in Amsterdam, home to Internationaal Danstheater, will have flats. Those currently sitting there will have to leave. Doelenzaal sold The users of the Doelenzaal can all leave: International Dance Theatre, Omscholingsfonds Dansers, Dancing on the Edge, Musicians without Borders and Windmill Film. Because the building's new owner wants flats. The Doelenzaal, a design by architects Beirer and Bekkers who...
Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes is not a rewarding play to direct or perform. For that, the image of man that the American (1905-1984) portrays is simply too morbid. The Nationale Toneel, directed by Antoine Uitdehaag, unfortunately fails to add sufficient psychological layering to it. In The Little Foxes, successfully filmed in 1941 with Bette Davis in...
'No barbaric act can ever erase press freedom,' French President Hollande tweeted immediately after the bloody attack on the editors of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in January 2015. German Chancellor Angela Merkel walked side by side with him in a mass demonstration for freedom of expression. But that was the reality of the time. Now she stands ...
"This was actually a mixtape," says Yassine Boussaid, Saturday 9 April 2016 after his concert, "as my cousin used to give me, for the long way back from Morocco to Amsterdam. Yassine is the business leader of the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra (AAO). Together with artistic director Mohamed Chairi and director-writer Mohamed Aadroun, he puts together concerts at breakneck speed....
Last year, Julia Wolfe (1958) won the Pulitzer Prize with her oratorio Anthracite Fields. In this poignant piece about the plight of miners, she draws on American folk music. She composed it for the co-founded Bang on a Can All-Stars, a New York ensemble that became known for its rousing mix of rock, mimal music and...
This write-up may begin somewhat strangely, but the end is going to evoke very different images: All sorts of things are set in motion internally when I find myself in the smallest room of my house. This is because - besides nice, sweet cards from friends and family - there are clippings hanging on the door, theatre guides, newspaper sections and smart magazines lying around. So...
The music video once attracted famous directors to music, and vice versa, music video directors later turned out to be great filmmakers. But despite youtube and vimeo, the music video has lost impact and importance in the last decade. This is not surprising, because where once MTV determined which (music) images we got to see, we now determine that ourselves. MTV now only broadcasts music on theme channels...
The Orchestra of the East is allowed half a million in red. That is the outcome of the 'Urban Commission' in Enschede. In a fortnight, the city council will formally take the decision, but with the commitment of a large majority, any debate will be wasted time then and the proposal would be better added to the list of hammer pieces immediately. That would have been a month...
This was our April fool's joke for 2016. Thanks for sharing! During renovation work at the Stadsbank van Lening building on Amsterdam's Oudezijds Voorburgwal, a manuscript of a work of poetry that has since been attributed by literary historians to Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) has recently turned up. It concerns a rough, unfinished version of a play entitled 'Alva' and is dated around...
At five, he started playing the violin, and after only six months he gave his first performance. At 17, he was the youngest participant ever to win the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition. In 2002, Vadim Repin, born in Novosibirsk in 1971, played at Willem-Alexander and Máxima's wedding concert, together with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Three years ago, Repin started his own...
'Write about that!' How many times have I heard or read that as a cultural journalist. From very good and interesting people, of course. People who make beautiful things, too. But also people who assume that I, as a writer on a website, will therefore immediately hop on a train to a remote corner of the country...
On 4 March 2016, her debut CD Varmints, a mixture of new-classical, electronica and avant-pop, was released and Scottish-Canadian Anna Meredith (b. 1978) was showered with praise. 'One of the most innovative minds in modern British music,' wrote one critic. 'Vibrant and kaleidoscopic,' wrote another. 'Exceptional soundscapes of synthesisers, beats and other things' reposted a third. A fourth felt...
As soon as soprano Miah Persson enters the stage, we hear a loud, electronic crack. Is a branch breaking here, one of composer Michel van der Aa's (Oss, 1970) favourite sounds? Or is it a stone crashing into another after all? Boulders play a major role in his latest opera Blank Out; at the end they crush with thunderous roar
Grzegorz Marciniak, a music maker worth following. And I have been doing so since 2006. That's when I first saw and heard his work performed in The Hague by the then Woof collective. I made contact, it clicked. In 2007, Picca premiered. A work Marciniak wrote for yours truly (recorder solo). And also at my most recent experience, February...
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