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Things we do for members and partners.

Culture Council: The Netherlands underestimates its own music theatre culture. (Why opera still seeks talent abroad)

The Performing Arts Fund is failing to professionalise and make the music theatre sector sustainable. So says the Council for Culture in an advice leaked yesterday on the future of music theatre in the Netherlands. The advice presented today to the rest of the Netherlands therefore wants to transfer more different music theatre makers and companies from the Performing Arts Fund to the Cultural Basic Infrastructure. This partly... 

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Why you shouldn't miss 'Im wunderschönen Monat Mai' at Paradiso

On Wednesday 16 January, Reinbert de Leeuw will present his cycle Im wunderschönen Monat Mai at Paradiso. A unique opportunity to see him at work once more in his globally believed masterpiece. In 2003, he surprised friend and foe alike with this composition inspired by songs by Schumann and Schubert. Was that not swearing in church? Arnold Schoenberg had the Romanticism... 

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Petra Gerritsen goes to a concert almost every night off. 'You're with your own group. But how bad is that?'

'I work five nights a week and so I have to find out specifically when I can go to a concert. Sometimes I take time off for it. And then they do say, "hey, are you going to a concert again already?", and I say, "of course I'm going to a concert again". But I don't think it's extreme either.' Petra Gerritsen is process expert 

Read More "Petra Gerritsen goes to a concert almost every night off. 'You're with your own group. But how bad is that?'

Fred Wondergem: 'There is always more that you don't see than what you do see.'

'When I look in the auditorium at a classical concert now, I do think: it's full now, but in 20 years eighty per cent will be dead. So the bottom has to be fed, and TivoliVredenburg does that well. They do it, for example, with Out of the Blue, which is a programme where you get great food and by a special host 

Read More "Fred Wondergem: 'There is always more that you don't see than what you do see.'

Lower House gets less say on arts subsidies. (If the minister gets her way)

Some people read Christmas stories over Christmas, others the interview supplements of newspapers, and a few do so with policy documents. So, quite a few people have read our Culture Minister's 'Advice Request' in the past few days. I, at least. Those who 'officially' cannot have done so are the members of the Culture Council, because the whole package came... 

Read More "Lower House gets less say on arts subsidies. (If the minister gets her way)

The Netherlands has a cruel history. This is how Theatre Group Alum makes it palpable in '1619, make it short'.

Never knew I would feel a tear welling up for the fate of a 17th century Council Pensionary. Yet that happened on Friday 21 December, at the premiere of '1619, make it short...'. With this final volume, author Erik Snel puts a crown on his trilogy on the Eighty Years' War. Was volume 1 (1600, battle of Nieuwpoort) mainly a cheerful accumulation of... 

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Until the fool is out. Wonderful reconstruction of his family history by Bart Meuleman

The first time Belgian writer Bart Meuleman's father starts talking about his origins, during a car ride, it hardly leads to an in-depth conversation. But it does lead to a tilt. 'My father became someone else,' Meuleman writes. 'Issues preceded everything he ever did, or omitted to do, or said, or concealed as a father. They had moulded him into... 

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Forty times a year to TivoliVredenburg: 'You get everywhere if you love music, eh.'

Peter Vossen says he experiences live concerts on average twice a week. Not just in TivoliVredenburg, although he visited there almost 40 times last year. 'I also see a lot of free concerts on the streets and in cafés, of course.' Jazz is his great love, but he also attends soul, funk, Latin or pop concerts. Regularly, he can be found 

Read More "Forty times a year to TivoliVredenburg: 'You get everywhere if you love music, eh.'

Three CDs you wouldn't have wanted to miss in 2018

The end of the year is approaching. So the lists fly around our ears again with 'most beautiful', 'best', 'most unforgettable', 'most moving'... fill in the blanks. I think compiling top-soaps is actually a typically male thing, but I'm not that bad. Here are three CDs you wouldn't have wanted to miss this year - in no particular order. Louise Farrenc: Variations for Piano Biliana Tzinlikova,... 

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The Culture Index goes regional. Cherry-picking season has begun

It took about a day for the PVV Enschede branch to discover the message. Quite fast for a club that is usually not very interested in art. Anyway, this one detail at the presentation of the regional culture index was of course grist to the mill of the far-right local party: Region Enschede has the biggest mismatch between amount of subsidy and... 

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Man stronger than Fate? Forget it! - Oedipe by George Enescu at #DNO

Anyone wishing to pass through the gates of Thebes must solve the riddle of the Sphinx. Those who fail die an irrevocable death, their bones fading into the charnel field around her. Oedipus challenges her, determined to save the city. 'Name someone or something more powerful than Fate!', oracles the Sphinx from her single-engine plane. 'Man!', jubilates Oedipus. To which. 

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Performing artists miss out on million in European grant due to 'administrative inability'

'Indecent and rude,' is how Miep van Diggelen, former chairman of the board of the Performing Arts Social Fund (SFPK), calls the actions of the board of that same fund. That board, or at least about five members of the seven-member board, decided - outside the official meeting - to withdraw a subsidy application they had initiated earlier, without having read it. The promising... 

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Why something needs to happen soon for amateur theatre in Utrecht

The Utrecht Centre for the Arts is bankrupt after a long ordeal. It was cut back. There is no more room in the Netherlands' fourth city for a large, centrally organised music and culture school. Nor for pottery, painting and video filming. The city council has found a solution. For the soon-to-be homeless UCK students, the municipality thinks... 

Read More "Why something needs to happen soon for amateur theatre in Utrecht

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"; Chihuly's glass masterpieces dominate the Groninger Museum

According to those in the know, he is a master of glass creations: Dale Chihuly. Dynamic, colourful and fascinating. It is not just glass art, but installation art. The world-famous American artist's works are a feast for the eyes. Sensations of light and colour. Although the name may not ring a bell right away for most people, there is a good chance... 

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Introdans programma Moderne Meisjes

No discussion of women at Introdans, because they have Modern Girls.

Dance pioneer Lucinda Childs is actually the reason I went to Modern Girls. I am a lover of that. Of her work. But as a bonus, I got Regina van Berkel. With Frozen Echo. Why is it important for Introdans to bring a programme of work by female choreographers only? Huh? That's the feeling I got. With Van Berkel's Frozen Echo. Right from... 

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A late poem for Kunsten92, the minister and the Culture Council.

I had so promised not to write anything about it, that meeting of Kunsten 92 about the regional profiles. After all, I still have to write a few Saint Nicholas poems for good friends, and they deserve all my attention. So for now I'll just write in rhyme. Because someone has to do it. There are now seventeen region profiles from urban regions to villages with a thousand souls, Because... 

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Why it's good that De Nederlandse Reisopera is coming to you with Die Tote Stadt.

In 1920, Erich Wolfgang Korngold experienced triumphs with his psychological opera Die tote Stadt. The work was performed in more than eighty cities at the time, with unanimous critical acclaim. The opera then disappeared from the stage for a long time but is nowadays performed again sparsely. So it is good that the Nederlandse Reisopera is bringing this almost forgotten piece back to the stage.... 

Read More "Why it's good that De Nederlandse Reisopera is coming to you with Die Tote Stadt.

Finally something to talk about with the holidays! Afke Bohle read 'Lobke and the light' with her sons, a children's book with a mission

A Quattro Mani's pop-uprecent Afke Bohle takes on the challenge of reading a book with her sons. After good experiences with Suzie Ruzie, The Green Hand series by Susan van 't Hullenaar and Tori by Brian Elstak in collaboration with author Karin Amatmoekrim. This time they plunge into Lobke and the Light, a read-aloud book with a mission. Finding words 'Where can... 

Read More "Finally something to talk about with the holidays! Afke Bohle read 'Lobke and the light' with her sons, a children's book with a mission

Cultural sector on expedition to Zero Waste: A prelude to a circular cultural sector

Eight cultural institutions started the first Zero Waste Expedition Culture this year. During this expedition, the first steps were taken in terms of waste separation and waste prevention. The Maaspoort in Venlo, Kunstlinie Almere Flevoland, Luxor Theatre Rotterdam, Museon, Paradiso, Tivoli/Vredenburg, the Zuiderzeemuseum and the Van Abbemuseum are the frontrunners in the expedition, setting an example for their... 

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The Best Listening Cultural Press PODCAST! Greg Nottrot visited Putin's dacha, where Halbe Zijlstra was not.

'How many realities can we handle? For me, that is the theme of 2018. Those ladies from North Korea who were cheering, for example. But it was also in Halbe Zijlstra who had lied about Putin's dacha.' Greg Nottrot, theatre maker from Utrecht, had set out for this year to create an end-of-year performance that would capture the zeitgeist well.... 

Read More "The Best Listening Cultural Press PODCAST! Greg Nottrot visited Putin's dacha, where Halbe Zijlstra was not.

'There are far too many books being written and no one is earning from them anymore.' (But we do rank 1 in Japan.)

A good selling book earns an author an average of 10 to 15 per cent of the selling price. Bestsellers go towards 20 per cent. But how much does it really yield? KVB Boekwerk, the research arm of the Royal Booksellers' Association wanted to find out. Jurriaan Rammeloo presented the first preliminary results of his research on 27 November. Not something to be very happy... 

Read More "'There are far too many books being written and no one is earning from them anymore.' (But we do rank 1 in Japan.)
programma V lighfoot kylian foto: Rahi Rezvani

Will Kylián's work return to NDT? (The 3 questions everyone is asking now that Paul Lightfoot announces departure)

Paul Lightfoot, artistic director of Nederlands Dans Theater, announces his departure from 2020. A remarkable decision. Just recently, the energetic leader was on stage at Zuiderstrandtheater to properly wave off Gerald Tibbs, former artistic director of NDT2 to his retirement. But there are some questions. 1: Why the day after a departure of his own... 

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The story called man. Frank Westerman's riveting new book

'Yes. I envisioned our trip differently. We were going to look for little people and big rats, dwarf elephants and giant storks, for what is considered normal and what is not.' When Frank Westerman (1964) finally visits the Indonesian island of Flores in the research for his book We, Man in the company of his daughter, they come across the mass graves in which the... 

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'Our body is a battleground.' Why dying should become normal again, according to Erasmus Prize winner Barbara Ehrenreich

We work out at the gym, diet like crazy and get screened for diseases as a precaution. Modern man does everything he can to get as old as possible. Wouldn't it be better to come to terms with the fact that we are mortal, American writer Barbara Ehrenreich wonders in her book... 

Read More "'Our body is a battleground.' Why dying should become normal again, according to Erasmus Prize winner Barbara Ehrenreich

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