Things we do for members and partners.
A surfing Dutch marketing guy noticed in South Africa that a disease was thinning the population indiscriminately. That made him care. Now, as an undisputed highlight, dance4life is celebrating its tenth anniversary at The Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
It will be a total experience, as if you were briefly in another world. 'Mirror Mirror' by Conny Janssen Danst is set in a former submarine hangar of the Rotterdamse Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM). The audience is taken there by boat.
After seven concert seasons, the broadcasting series takes 'The Friday of Vredenburg' farewell to emergency venue Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn, better known as 'The Red Box'. From September, the concerts will again take place in the restored Great Hall of the otherwise brand-new TivoliVredenburg. The concert on 6 June will feature the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Groot Omroepkoor, conducted by Antony Hermus. They will play music by Beethoven, Richard Strauss and a brand new piece by Wim Laman, Requiem Songs.
William Forsythe, dance innovator, and widely regarded as one of the most important choreographers of our time, is quitting the company to which he attached his name on September 2015. The New York Times reports that. He will still remain associated with the company as an advisor, but the real management will probably be taken over by Jacopo Godani, a former student of the legendary choreographer.
Barely five months between first audition and first performance. That was all the time the makers and local residents had for the Volksopera Ondiep, which experienced the first of two performances on Friday 23 May. It was a warm May evening, touching at times, sometimes dreadful, but fun anyway: classics by Verdi (most of them), Bizet, Puccini and Offenbach, set to Dutch text and sung by complete amateurs. Accompanied, for once, by the Groot Omroepkoor.
Much has been written about it. And much talked about: the Reinbert de Leeuw biography by Thea Derks, which Reinbert de Leeuw did not allow to be published. Now Thea Derks, a member of the Cultuurpers cooperative, gets to explain her side of things to Peter Gielissen, also a member of the Cultuurpers cooperative. Nice story turned out. On Lezen.tv
The news: today it is hot, tomorrow the fish will be wrapped in it. In his video opera The News gives Jacob ter Veldhuis/JacobTV it a second life by putting it in a new context. 'These days, news is infotainment, dipped in sentiment.' Next Friday, the Dutch Travel Opera the premiere at the Wilminkteather in Enschede.
Nobody had foreseen, let alone wanted, the commotion caused by the performance series 'The Funeral' in the St Willibrordus Church in Utrecht. The apostolate of St Willibrordus Church feels that the church has been 'desecrated' and no longer wants to hold Masses there, now that Dries Verhoeven is performing 'The Funeral' there for ten evenings with the help of Sens Uitvaarten. These are theatrical funeral masses, with which he has buried the welfare state and social support for art, among other things. But hurting someone with this was never his intention: ''If I seek provocation at all in the project, it is the one with the spectator.''
The digital canvass battle in cinema is still some time away. For now, moviegoers are benefiting, according to research.
About two years ago, the digitisation of the Dutch cinema business was completed. All cinemas and film houses have been projecting digitally since 2012. In the projection booth, the disappearance of 35mm equipment meant a landslide.
Tonight, the 67th edition of the Cannes Film Festival opens with Grace of Monaco, a biopic with a major lead role for Nicole Kidman. Jury president of the world's most important film event is New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion. Three of the other six jury members also
his women. Does Cannes have something to make up for?
Straight lines, single-coloured surfaces. Red, yellow, blue and white. Representing the essence of reality. That was the aim of the painters of De Stijl in the first half of the last century. At the same time, Hendrik Valk also had this ideal.
The Valley of Astonishment. Titles don't come much prettier than that of 'The Valley of Astonishment'. Theatre legend Peter Brook's tentative last play is coming to Amsterdam. The Holland Festival gave me and two journalists from Parool and NRC, respectively, the opportunity to talk to the already legendary director when he was alive. Pretty special, because the man who enchanted an entire generation of theatre-makers and audiences with performances such as the nine-hour Mahabharata in Avignon, is considered a deity among theatre connoisseurs and enthusiasts.
370 million cost to renovate the Rijksmuseum. All but a tonne. 5.5 million less than the last estimate from 2010. Which again it was almost quadruple the original budget, which still assumed 134 million. But that was before the crisis over those stairs and that bicycle route, and before all kinds of construction companies went bankrupt, and before the whole thing was in danger of collapsing anyway.
The Holland Festival, we have been doing that for years. It is definitely the highlight of the cultural season. At the Holland Festival, you see how the international art world hangs out. In recent years, under the skilful leadership of Pierre Audi, the whole thing has become a lot less elitist and pompous than it used to be. A ticket often costs a lot less than An evening of André Rieu in Maastricht, to say the least.
It will be hard to choose how we will musically fill our next weekend: will we stay in Amsterdam for the Amsterdam Marimba Weekend, or do we travel to The Hague, where Day in the Branding is devoted entirely to the string quartet? In short: are we going to string or strike? Those unable to choose can visit later this month at Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Slagwerk Den Haag - they just both do it!
I will be talking to Peter Brook in Paris on 7 May 2014. For people who have studied theatre, this is something very special. The man once wrote a very clear and manageable booklet that is on the shelf of all theatre people: The Empty Space. But he was also the director of performances where more people attended than there were ever seats. In other words.
Best lastig, marketing in de cultuursector. Voor een deel werk je in een markt waarvan men tegenwoordig denkt dat wat mooi is, zichzelf wel verkoopt, en voor de rest van de tijd moet je concurreren met een overvloed aan aanbieders. En dat ondanks de pogingen van de regering om het cultuuraanbod drastisch te decimeren. Of misschien wel dankzij. De markt…
To perhaps the most beautiful music written by Strauss, Arabella descends the stairs and hands Mandryka a glass of water. Their engagement is thus sealed. Behind the love couple, however, an inky black space opens up into which both disappear.
The noble art of cable pulling is one of the most profitable activities in Dutch media land. This was evident on Tuesday 15 April in the Amsterdam court. There, Dutch writers, represented by Lira, versus the major cable companies and producers, represented by some very expensive lawyers, from the office towers on Amsterdam's nearby Zuidas.
Even een korte tijdje vooruitdenken en je bent waar Google wil dat je bent. Alle kunst, overal ter wereld bereikbaar via je beeldscherm, je tablet. Zelfs de obscure kunst. Of sterker: mee te maken in je google glass of je Oculus VR bril. Je kunt nu al kunst in musea bekijken, maar dan zonder een rondleider die je vertelt wat je moet zien. En hoezeer we dat in het dagelijks leven ook niet op prijs stellen, soms is het best fijn om aan de hand van een gids door onbekend terrein te lopen. Zonder je vakantiegeld eraan te geven.
'Harry Partch knew exactly what he was doing. He chose very specific bourbon bottles to fill in those 43 steps in the octave. So he made music that is very accessible, but also very elusive. And that's what good art should do.'
Update: performance The Freudjes has been postponed for now, until probably later this year.
'I think it's theatre. Psychoanalysis is theatrical.' Lineke Rijxman is fascinated by psychiatrists. Not because she walks through their doors herself, but because psychiatry is a rewarding subject for someone who makes theatre. That is why it had to happen: a play about Freud. But not about Sigmund himself, or his family. The play "The Freuds (No Family)' is about three sisters in today's busy life overflowing with pills and abbreviations. 'We talk about depression so easily. You already say you get depressed when you run out of chicken satay at the butcher's.'
Just imagine being a screenwriter. Or a journalist for a documentary programme. So you won't get a penny for your work in the Netherlands. Really. The broadcasters are already not generous. But then. Indeed, all the money that cable companies earn from the television viewers of the Netherlands disappears into the pockets of a few US companieswho in turn share it with a few broadcasting bosses, producers and some other big earners. All those bosses have nothing to spare for the people who think up and write all that. This makes it very easy to make a profit.
It's still kind of a secret, but the website is already online. Without reference to the people behind it, but then again, we know that. So we can break the news: it CPNB (that book week club) collaborates with the booksellers and publishers on a revolutionary platform for ebooks. This project, titled 'Leesid' should put an end to the chaos of DRM-shit, lots of different readers and tablets and bizarre ownership rules the Dutch electronic book reader still has to live with.
Film tip for this week: Spies & Glistrup, a Danish shell comedy with a dark edge about the heyday of an illustrious anarchist duo from the 1970s. Even for the broad-minded Denmark of the time, they were extreme. According to director Christoffer Boe, they left a lasting mark on Danish society.
Because yes, the good Danes had not experienced anything like this before. Simon Spies, made stone-faced with a holiday travel empire and always surrounded by pretty girls,
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