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Much has already been said about Almere, that it is ugly, for instance, or too car-oriented. There are also few cities in Europe where the four-lane roads extend as gloriously to the shopfront as in Almere. I'd like to add a note of praise. Coming from the station, walking across an artificial dune of car parks and fast-food chains, skimming past...
'My love for opera is rooted in my youth. Emotions you feel as a young person become almost tangible in opera. While listening, I often experienced a catharsis.' Director Serge van Veggel zooms in on depression and delusion with the production Opera Melancholica. Starting point is Philip Glass's The Fall of the House of Usher, presented as a form of 'anatomical...
In the trailer for the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which kicks off on 22 January, film images crumble into abstract shapes and colour patterns. It has to do, I understand, with the wonder of the irrepressible urge to make stories. Once, a cave dweller put a painted hand on the rock face. In the digital age, we conjure stories with coloured pixels. The...
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...
Becoming a writer without being able to use your fingers to type - Bianca Mastenbroek (44) no longer turns her hand to it. Last year, she won the Thea Beckman Prize for her historical novel Hendrick, the Dutch Indian. Looking back on a jubilee year: 'This prize is the crowning glory of my work'. For anyone who has yet to read your book Hendrick, de Hollandsche Indiaan,...
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,...
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....
'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...
A week before the end of 2019, Culture Press' membership stands at nearly 150, up from 40 exactly a year ago. A growth of more than 300 per cent is quite extraordinary. So we have demonstrated that we matter to a rapidly growing group of decision-makers in the cultural sector. So good that they are happy to contribute to...
Sometimes you see something and only realise on the bike back how special it was. Wait a minute, the white rabbit was talking back? Humpty Dumpty was worried that I did catch it? Not only did I watch a Virtual Reality (VR) installation today, the installation looked back! Never before have I experienced a VR work in which I...
With much fanfare, Netflix's The Witcher was announced. Except for some comments about Superman in a white wig, there was and is a lot of interest in the film adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy book series. Successor to Game of Thrones. With the way that one ended? No thanks! I'm not familiar with the books or the games myself, but Netflix's description...
Art has always needed explanation. Even 'easy' art, even 'art that sells itself'. Art has needed that explanation ever since the first caveman found out that her sooty smudges on the cave wall looked very much like a bison. Actually, this is why it is wrong to speak of 'explanation' and 'need'. Art and story are one, since the...
From February 2020, Vanja Kaludjercic will succeed Bero Beyer as festival director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
'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...
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
In the ongoing series of interviews with leading figures from Amersfoort's cultural sector, I interviewed D66 alderman Fatma Koser Kaya. It turned into an animated conversation. Strangely enough, De Stadsbron, Amersfoort's local journalism site, is not allowed to promote the interview from Facebook, the editors announced yesterday. It is unclear why. Here is an excerpt, the whole story of course on De Stadsbron: 'I believe...
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 ...
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,...
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...
'How many more talented creators do we have to lose to other sectors because they cannot reconcile the undervaluation with the quality of their product? People choose eggs for their money in the long run, when children need to be fed or mortgages paid. The sector is hollowing itself out if we don't take better care of our talent.' Thirty leaders in the cultural sector speak out
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...
For De Stadsbron, I interviewed Patrick Nederkoorn, comedian but in a previous life also politician, about his city, Amersfoort: You had a decisive role in politics here for eight years. In your programme, you reckon with that a bit. You argue that you were very much on form, and sometimes sold content where later you didn't... at all.
The 32nd edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam has opened with Sunless Shadows. Confessions of young women jailed for complicity in the murder of their father or other man in the family grow into a haunting statement about oppressed women in a male-dominated society. The only Dutch film in the international competition is Rotjochies by Maasja Ooms.
'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...
Real writers debut before the age of 30, some publishers say, but there are also publishers - and authors - who do not care about such conventions. Fortunately, because Niets is gelogen (Nothing is Lied), the debut novel by art historian Sacha Bronwasser (b. 1968), who is also a former art critic for de Volkskrant, is a great read. A book in which art, looking and feeling play a leading role. Funeral map Main character is...
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