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PODIUM ART

Anything for which people enter a stage.

Ekaterina Levental: 'I come from the very bottom of society, didn't even have the right to be here, was even less than a junkie.'

Singer, harpist and theatre-maker Ekaterina Levental (Tashkent, 1977) came to the Netherlands as a refugee in 1993, where she built a successful career. Together with her partner Chris Koolmees, she made the triptych De Weg, De Grens and Schoppenvrouw, in which she sings of her own difficult road to happiness. With her pocket performances, she holds up a mirror to us: 'We are quick to judge a... 

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The new defence: don't talk but bring! (How a dinner argument leads to genius insights)

I am sitting at the dinner table at my parents' house. We are celebrating my mother's birthday with the whole family. I am there, but I am not quite there. In fact, I am so incredibly tired at the moment. As I jokingly tell my friends, "I can't say boo or boo anymore and am running on my gums". Suddenly, the conversation turns to... 

Read More "The new defence: don't talk but bring! (How a dinner argument leads to genius insights)

Eurovision Song Contest had the Metropole Orchestra, but chose students.

Where is the Metropole Orchestra? A unique orchestra, the only one in the world that can pull off the complete repertoire from classical to pop and jazz? The orchestra that used to accompany the Dutch acts at the Song Festival when everything was still live? The orchestra, which as recently as December was on tour with our new Song Contest candidate,... 

Read More "Eurovision Song Contest had the Metropole Orchestra, but chose students.

What is the remplaçanten-cao and why is it so bad that the NPO applies it to the Eurovision Song Contest?

[update: they get even less, see post below] We received confusing news last weekend. The occasion was the festive announcement by the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest that a special symphonic happening would take place at the final in Rotterdam. Invited were third-year and master students from Rotterdam Conservatoire, part of Codarts, as well as young professional musicians. For the performances... 

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(update: Song Contest response and nuanced message) Playing with the Eurovision Song Contest Orchestra? From 100 euros per day

In the first version of this post, we assumed 100 euros for 8 days. We turned out to be misinformed. The application of the remplaçants' collective agreement, mentioned in the explanation by the Song Festival, gives a bit more leeway, although its hourly and daily rates are still controversial. But 1,000 euros for eight days is now apparently the going rate.... 

Read More "(update: Song Contest response and nuanced message) Playing with the Eurovision Song Contest Orchestra? From 100 euros per day

Conductor Elim Chan: 'I can't walk away from the music.'

'When I unexpectedly had to conduct the "Dies Irae" from Verdi's Requiem Verdi, I felt how raw and impactful music could be. I knew immediately: I can no longer run away from music.' Elim Chan is moving like a rocket and will make her debut with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra on 17 January. In 2014, Elim Chan (Hong Kong, 1986) was the first female... 

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Lera Auerbach decries 72 demons: ''We know exactly what the right decision is, but often choose against our intuition''

Guts cannot be denied the Russian-American Lera Auerbach (1973). After all, you have to be 'a bit crazy and a bit of a genius to write a full-length choral work on a text limited to a list of 72 angel names', as one reviewer noted in 2016 after the world premiere of 72 Angels for the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet.... 

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A Christmas Carol van Carl Davis en De Dutch Don't Dance Division

A deep bow for Gesamtkunstwerk A Christmas Carol by Carl Davis and The Dutch Don't Dance Division

So this: 'It is not easy to compete with YouTube, Netflix and other entertainment giants lying at our fingertips...' Wise words from Jiří Kylián in the foreword to the programme booklet of A Christmas Carol. The renowned choreographer sees The Dutch Don't Dance Division at the Zuiderstrandtheater creating something magical with their latest production: with limited resources in this multimedia... 

Read More "A deep bow for Gesamtkunstwerk A Christmas Carol by Carl Davis and The Dutch Don't Dance Division
Foto: Sanne Peper

From Fleabag to Game of Thrones à la Hollandaise, Alum does us all a favour with The Dutchmen.

In the days when Europe was still a loose collection of city-states and duchies, where groups of men, for want of football, went on raids a few times a year to burn houses and rape women, a language emerged in the marshlands of the Rhine delta. We know this because plays were written in that language, which is among the earliest preserved... 

Read More "From Fleabag to Game of Thrones à la Hollandaise, Alum does us all a favour with The Dutchmen.

Kersjes Prize winner Lodewijk van der Ree: 'Language strongly determines the sound of a choir'

'An inspired conductor, with an intelligent approach to the score, a clear stroke and the ability to draw a choir into his vision. So says the jury of the Kersjes Prize about Lodewijk van der Ree (1986), who received this year's conducting prize. I have worked with him many times before and can wholeheartedly endorse this statement. Carte... 

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Being engaged does not only mean presenting interesting work, it is also about those you show it to.

A man walks down the theatre corridor with his daughter in a wheelchair. Stops at an usher. Hesitates, then says: 'I don't want to nag, but she can't go on the disabled toilet. I'm looking for a place to change her.' So this usher, he helps search. Moments later, they are behind a rack in the pantry. Sugar sachets, coffee, speculoos, tins.... 

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Why measuring leads to knowing less and measuring even more. On the futility of trend reports and indices

They have learned something at Boekman. The foundation, which since this year has had the honour of managing the culture index, understands that trend graphs say precious little. We have observed this several times on this site, and the researchers now confirm this wholeheartedly. So this year the club is doing things differently. For the past few months, sixty wise men and women have been... 

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Threatened theatre directors speaking: 'It literally hurts me when I hear that something like this is going to be abolished.'

'I didn't know you could also be digitised away in this sector, but so you can.' Susanne Visser and Annemiek Lely sounded the alarm on Saturday 7 December. Their jobs as ushers at theatre performances are in jeopardy. Companies would rather keep people engaged through podcasts, and such an usher only costs money. On Monday, December 9, we obtained... 

Read More "Threatened theatre directors speaking: 'It literally hurts me when I hear that something like this is going to be abolished.'

Open letter from theatre directors: 'Spectators want human contact'

Over the past year, we, Annemiek Lely and Susanne Visser, heard various noises about boring introductions and useless fringe programmes that would add nothing. Such comments pass the revue in the artist foyer, at the bar or find their way onto social media. 'I want after-shows led by a local presentation talent instead of a drawling dramaturge,' wrote an already established director 

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'At many theatres, you don't have to arrive if you don't bring your own audience.'

I spoke to Peter Pluymaekers, artistic director of Theatre Group Zep, about what it is like to make theatre for vmbo students. The occasion was the not-so-jubilant performance of Cleopatra. Listen to the podcast on anchor: 'I'm always a bit reluctant to do Shakespeare. I find him difficult, and young people often find him corny. I felt the same about the... 

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New parents are born every year! (Why theatre programmers need to take much more risk)

With red cheeks, I hang up the phone a little bewildered. Just now I had a telephone appointment that took a completely different turn. I had a brief conversation with a theatre programmer who is still unknown to me. She unfortunately told me not to programme anything with our impresario, because there was really no need for artistic performances in her city. This lady stated that her... 

Read More "New parents are born every year! (Why theatre programmers need to take much more risk)

'It is crucial that people who mature here - also as artists - can stay connected to Amersfoort'

For De Stadsbron, Amersfoort's journalistic background site, I chart the cultural sector of the Keistad. On that site now, an interview with Friederike Weisner, director of Theatre De Lieve Vrouw. 'According to Weisner, the lack of a university or college ensures that the need for knowledge is visible: 'You will always have to be innovative as a city. There ... 

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Musicians in plastic and a rock-hard snare drum - Forty years of orchestra de ereprijs celebrated with 4 new compositions - one for each decade

As an intro, the percussionist of orchestra the prize of honour played a cadenza of air beats. When he unexpectedly gave a cutting blow on his snare drum, everyone was startled. Thus, with Bewegung ohne Bewegung for cello and ensemble by Jan van de Putte, opened the anniversary concert of the ensemble founded in 1979 by Wim Boerman. Last year,... 

Read More "Musicians in plastic and a rock-hard snare drum - Forty years of orchestra de ereprijs celebrated with 4 new compositions - one for each decade

Why I am suddenly hugely in favour of live music in any theatre performance.

I went to Rotterdam Zuid to see Shakespeare. The play was called Cleopatra and someone had tried to turn it into a feminist manifesto. That is something like making a rhinoceros jump through a hoop: the British bard relates to feminism as Thierry Baudet relates to Greta Thunberg. So it had not succeeded, and the reviewer of... 

Read More "Why I am suddenly hugely in favour of live music in any theatre performance.

Performing arts happy with Chamber's clamour

Modest cheers in the performing arts world. A motion tabled on 18 November by Corinne Ellemeet (GroenLinks), together with PvdA, CDA and D66, forces minister Van Engelshoven to investigate the consequences of the cuts to the Performing Arts Fund before the subsidy is distributed. The House approved this on 26 November. Wonderful, you might say, because if clear... 

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'Once you become suspicious, you develop more and more anxiety' - Meriç Artaç addresses fear and mistrust in her chamber opera Madam Koo

'A new piece is usually only heard once, then it disappears into a drawer forever.' Such a sigh I often hear, in all tones. Not only from composers, but also from ensembles, concert organisers, musicians and even subsidy providers. Good news, then, that Meriç Artaç's opera Madam Koo will be repeated twice this month, Wednesday 11 December in CC... 

Read More "'Once you become suspicious, you develop more and more anxiety' - Meriç Artaç addresses fear and mistrust in her chamber opera Madam Koo

After the budget debate, the performing arts sector will have to be even more patient. Until spring.

The culture sector will have to be patient for a while yet. Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven had no intention of changing any of her policies on Monday 18 November, during the discussion of the culture budget in the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Culture. Despite a fairly widely supported desire, especially from the opposition, to do something about the 8.6 million cut in the... 

Read More "After the budget debate, the performing arts sector will have to be even more patient. Until spring.

With sound. Honours for Marga Klompé; Action Tomato finally buried during commemoration.

The myth just had to end. Nan van Houte, former director of Amsterdam's small theatre Frascati, has buried Action Tomato. During Requiem for Tomato, on 4 November 2019, she made it crystal clear that this legendary event has been measured too big by our theatre historians. In 1969, when a few tomatoes were sent to the al... 

Read More "With sound. Honours for Marga Klompé; Action Tomato finally buried during commemoration.

'Wikileaks has never been caught at a single fault' - Iris ter Schiphorst writes Assange: Fragmente einer Unzeit

'There is an information war going on right now, which shows how important data is. The Assange case is the most poignant example of this.' Dutch-German composer Iris Ter Schiphorst wrote a piece about Julian Assange, the now controversially declared founder of Wikileaks. She is on a mission with this: 'Although Wikileaks has never been caught at a single fault, Assange has been accused of... 

Read More "'Wikileaks has never been caught at a single fault' - Iris ter Schiphorst writes Assange: Fragmente einer Unzeit

Why the magnificent annual figures of the theatre and concert hall managements make it clear that the system must be turned around. 

Things are once again going insane for Dutch theatres and concert halls. Every year, the directors, gathered in the VSCD, manage to come out with truly fantastic figures in the autumn. This year too, the cheers are unrelenting. Everything is growing. The number of jobs, and the number of volunteers, for example. (both up by 3% in... 

Read More "Why the magnificent annual figures of the theatre and concert hall managements make it clear that the system must be turned around. 

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