Dingen die we doen voor leden en partners.
While I was walking around Manchester with some cultural sector leaders, minister Ingrid van Engelshoven sent a letter to the House, telling it how much it would cost to enable state-subsidised arts organisations to get fair pay at the current offer. So that letter contained quite a few omissions: the minister was silent on the role played by regional and...
Russian Lera Auerbach (1973) does not shy away from big challenges. And that is an understatement. Most recently, she made a big impression with her cycle Goetia 72: in umbra lucis. She composed this setting of the names of 72 demons for the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the string quartet Quatuor Danel. A CD of 72 Angels: in splendore lucis, in which...
"We are hopeful," is the reply when I speak to a colleague just before the start of the Berlin film festival. For curious as to how the choice of Carlo Chatrian as the new artistic director has fallen among German critics. Chatrian, previously director of the leading arthouse festival in Locarno, lies well, I understand. Whether this 70th Berlinale will see all that new momentum...
After its successful tour last November, the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble will tour again with The Unknown Chaplin. The second tour - from 3 March to 22 March - will take in venues in Ede, Helmond, Tilburg, Den Haag, Amersfoort, Enschede, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. www.nbe.nl/programma/the-unknown-chaplin/ Six hilarious, humorous and melancholic silent films by the great universal genius Charlie...
That gaming plays an important role in contemporary, Dutch youth culture is obvious. Yet during exhibitions and in museums, attention to this extremely popular phenomenon is usually lacking. Why does gaming remain so underexposed here? Art is such a broad concept that we can include just about anything between rock drawings and graffiti. That breadth then also matches the...
'I get up with you and I go to bed with you,' I said jokingly. We stood in his kitchenette, where he made coffee for himself and tea for me. Reinbert's big startled eyes told me that my ironic remark had landed in the barren soil of his deadly seriousness. - It was not the first and not the last
That in the Netherlands the government's distrust of citizens has reached bizarre proportions is proven by the hassle with benefits at the tax office and the state of affairs at the UWV. Or your average housing landlord where you want to report a leaky tap. Thanks to a politics influenced by false entrepreneurialism and rabid populism that treats citizens as fraudsters...
Korte verhalen schrijft Esther Verhoef (51) al zo lang als ze fictie schrijft – sinds haar zevende. Of ze nou tien of honderd pagina’s lang zijn, haar verhalen zijn Verhoef even lief als haar romans en thrillers. ‘Kijk,’ zegt Esther Verhoef, terwijl ze de flappen van het omslag van Labyrint – de verhalen openvouwt. Op de binnenkant zijn oude, op…
Fascinating front-page news and headliners for all talk shows: Matthijs van Nieuwkerk quits DWDD after 15 years. Obviously a disaster of national proportions. The book industry proclaims the end of the world, bands can no longer break through, and the successor to De Correspondent can never again meet its crowdfunding target in six minutes. An institution disappears, and everyone panics. Who...
Emerging fascism is becoming increasingly parlous. Especially among young people, I discovered recently at a concert by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw. A reading club of twenty-somethings said they enjoyed James MacMillan's Second Percussion Concerto. They joined me in denouncing the draconian cuts to culture. But suddenly it sounded carefree: 'We are all voting for Thierry.' When I was dismayed...
There are people who have a voice with which you can quiet a crowd in a whisper. Bill T Jones, choreographer and this year's associate artist of the Holland Festival, is one such person. Apart from that beautiful, heavy and full voice, he also has a presence with which he can quiet the cogs with a single hand movement. But all that would be nothing if...
From 4 to 28 June 2020, Amsterdam will host the 73rd edition of the Holland Festival. Associate Artist this year is American choreographer, director, writer and dancer Bill T. Jones. His work will include the new show Deep Blue Sea, in which Jones himself dances and, assisted by a hundred mostly local...
How many female choreographers do you know who create a full-length ballet for a top classical ballet company? - I thought. Before going to Frida, I get word that a Latin American young woman has been hospitalised. Loss of a lot of blood, and unborn child. The happy-go-lucky girl I know weakly raises a thumb from the hospital bed on WhatsApp....
What. Have. We. Terrible. Much. Too. Learning. If there is 1 thing the musical Tina makes clear, it is that. Especially at the stormy premiere, Sunday 9 February, a few hours before storm Ciara blew the last bubbles out of the Utrecht champagne glasses. An almost completely white auditorium, in Black Tie, that is, with only a few people from...
'Had I not possessed three things unrelated to music, I would have perished early on from loneliness and disillusionment,' wrote Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) at 60. Those three things were: 'Iron health, a distinct fighting spirit and a modest but independent income.' Whereas women in the nineteenth century were condemned to compose
Dutch composer Bart Visman (1962) has already written many wonderful works of his own, but makes his debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with an orchestration of 'Ondine'. This is the first movement from Maurice Ravel's three-part piano cycle Gaspard de la nuit. It forms the prelude to an integral orchestration, to be premiered next season. 'I am of the same...
In april 2020 stopt de Persgroep, tegenwoordig DPG Media omdat dat internationaal beter bekt, met regionale kunstbijlages in zijn kranten. Geen kunstreportages en interviews meer, nauwelijks recensies. Lokale boekwinkels verliezen hun podium in alle Nederlandse regio’s, want de uitgever van Volkskrant, Trouw en AD heeft een regionaal monopolie. Het bericht, gebracht door een verslaggever van het Eindhovens Dagblad, viel op…
The new year often starts with new insights and resolutions. A critical reflection can then help. We were therefore delighted to read the Volkskrant of 2 January, in which columnist and theatre critic Merlijn Kerkhof concludes that in 2020, he wants to enjoy all that the Netherlands has to offer in terms of culture a bit more often outside 020. And that is only right,...
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 childhood. 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...
Dansperformance Uniform van maker Nastaran Razawi Khorasani, een groot succes op Oerol 2018, wordt hernomen. De voorstelling wordt her-maakt, gaat in première op zaterdag 15 februari 2020 in het Maaspodium, Rotterdam en toert tot en met 10 april 2020 door Nederland. Uniform is een dansperformance over het verlangen naar gemeenschappelijkheid, een ode aan de meeloper. Uniform Wat is de kracht…
Schrijver worden, zonder dat je vingers kunt gebruiken om te typen – Bianca Mastenbroek (44) draait er haar hand niet meer voor om. Afgelopen jaar won ze voor haar historische roman Hendrick, de Hollandsche indiaan de Thea Beckmanprijs. Terugblik op een jubeljaar: ‘Deze prijs is een kroon op mijn werk.’ Voor iedereen die jouw boek Hendrick, de Hollandsche indiaan nog…
From Thursday 23 January, the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble (NBE) will play 9th Beethoven. The tour will take in venues in Amsterdam, Enschede, Tilburg, Wageningen, Drachten, Oss, Utrecht, Heerlen, Haarlem and Arnhem. In this great Beethoven year, the NBE chooses one of his most iconic works: the ninth symphony, with its famous ode Ode to Joy, on lyrics by Friedrich Schiller. In the political turmoil of around 1800, it was clear where Beethoven's sympathies lay: he was...
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français
You must be logged in to post a comment.