Things we do for members and partners.
Saturday 13 December, the NTR Saturday matinee presents the world premiere of Unscrolled for piano and orchestra by Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo (Hainan, 1976), with pianist Emanuele Arciuli and the Residentie Orkest conducted by Emilio Pomàrico. This kicks off his three-month stay as composer in residence of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Ruo is the first to receive this honour,...
Whole generations of children have grown up with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy and their friends. The universe in which adults are conspicuous by their absence, but children's emotions are remarkably complex. And that is probably also the appeal of the television cartoon A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired exactly 50 years ago. Charlie Brown has no sense at all of...
Tight and razor-sharp? No. But that's not what this afternoon is about at all. Here the feast of singing together is celebrated, the end result being a performance of Handel's oratorio that you wouldn't want on CD, but which is of a surprisingly high standard and, above all, one you wouldn't have wanted to miss for the world. Much has been written about the problems...
This year was a celebration of two composers from two seemingly completely different planets. The Estonian Arvo Pärt (b 1935) turned eighty, the Frenchman Pierre Boulez (b 1925) ninety. One is unparalleled among a wide audience for his eloquent 'tintinnabulist style', the other is applauded by a select group of insiders for his avant-garde compositions, which the general public, however, experiences as incomprehensible...
Always nice when someone sets up a committee to solve all the problems. The Dutch theatre sector did just that a few months ago. Led by former minister Guusje Ter Horst, Rinda den Besten (former Utrecht alderman), Sadik Harchaoui (Forum) and Ryclef Rienstra (VandenEnde Foundation) examined what could be better in the relationship between theatre and the...
The National Opera, Hänsel und Gretel (opera) It is the best-known fairy tale opera of all time. Not surprisingly, as Humperdinck's adaptation of Hansel and Gretel is overtly rooted in folk music as in almost Wagnerian orchestration. It was bound to be a success. Richard Strauss conducted the world premiere; Amsterdam features International Opera Award Winner Lotte de Beer's version. She moves...
With one day to go, it's time to look at what stood out about the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. The picture of the entire festival is diffuse, as befits a fest whose programme booklet is almost three hundred pages thick. There was, as always, a sea of films about abuses and current political issues, but there were...
The man's gaze turned upwards. He looks puzzled. Why is he hanging here now? Here, in Amsterdam? He comes from Spain, doesn't he? Then he hung in St Petersburg for years. This room, as deep red and imposing in size as the ''Spanish Hall'' in the Hermitage, by the way, looks an awful lot like the room where it hung for so long. Incidentally.
Debby Petter's performance 'Bed & Breakfast' at Theatre Achterom in Hilversum had just ended. Director Gerlofke Hekelaar addressed the audience, as it had been the very last performance. After 45 years, the Achterom Theatre Foundation will cease to exist. Another theatre going under due to cuts in the cultural sector. But is lack of money the only...
A Strange Love Affair With Ego by Ester Gould was awarded best Dutch documentary at IDFA. An intimate and groundbreaking reflection on our need to be seen.
American filmmaker Les Blank stole my heart a long time ago with the short docu he made about Werner Herzog: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. And that is exactly what happened in that film. Herzog lost a bet to Errol Morris: he never thought the latter would finish his Gates of Heaven. And so...
Today's IDFA viewing tip is directly opposite yesterday's. Yesterday was uplifting and heartwarming. Cartel Land, on the other hand, is hard, raw, unpleasant and brutal. It could hardly be otherwise, as Matthew Heineman's film is about the war on drugs in Mexico and Arizona, which is just north of it. At the risk of...
Today, the appeal against the conviction of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov to 20 years in prison is due to be heard. European Film Academy appeals for help from director Nikita Makhalkov.
Next Friday is the day. Then, speakers in the fields of technology, economy and design will climb the stage in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam to talk about their 'ideas worth spreading'. This year's theme is 'the perfect trifecta', because if there is anything magical according to founder Jim Stolze, it is the interaction between audience, speakers and performers. Notable...
Today's IDFA viewing tip is for a special film about a special man, Sun Mu. That's not his real name, it means 'without borders'. And that is very appropriate for this artist. For years, he was a successful propaganda artist for the regime in North Korea. Until he ventured the great crossing. He swam (literally!) to freedom and has lived since the...
Mrs Cornelys' Entertainments. Under that remarkable title, baroque company New Dutch Academy presented a concert in a theatrical setting. The Hague's Korzo Theatre turned into a society evening. Visiting a much-discussed lady from 18th-century London. It was a feast for the eyes and ears. New Dutch Academy has a changing line-up in addition to some permanent members. The Academy keeps itself - the name...
I didn't have to think long about today's tip. Chantal Akerman's latest film runs this afternoon at 13:15. No Home Movie is about her mother, who survived Auschwitz, and her final days. And about the difficult relationship Akerman had with her mother. She tells in an interview that they were in Mexico together once
What titles come to mind when you hear the name Arvo Pärt? Sonatina opus 1; Symphony no. 1; Perpetuum mobile, or Fratres; Für Alina; Spiegel im Spiegel? My guess is the second set, because it was with pieces like these that Pärt conquered the world in the late 20th century. Audiences flocked in droves to immerse themselves in his sonorous sound world, but...
For 500 years, Hieronymus Bosch has captured the imagination. His paintings remain enormously expressive, even though we may now have lost sight of the ecclesiastical context. In the run-up to the major retrospective that the North Brabant Museum is organising next year, a selection of Dutch art historians and curators will set out to examine Bosch's paintings. What...
The first IDFA tip of the day is immediately a double bill and both films are decades old. They are in the top 10 of Errol Morris, this year's chief guest. Las Hurdes - Tierra sin Pan by Luis Bunuel is a half-hour film that made documentary history. Bunuel was also known then for Un...
'Exciting and accessible, with great tragic content and an unexpected and poignant ending'. With those words, writer Jan Vantoortelboom was awarded the Zeeland Book Prize last week. A Quattro Mani visited him in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and talked to him about his novel De man die haast had. 'I have grown as a writer.' Writing house 'The Tortelnest' adorns the hand-painted...
Het jaarlijkse Najaarsoverleg over brandende kwesties in de filmsector was geheel gewijd aan de benarde positie van de kleine artistieke film. Worden er te veel titels uitgebracht?
When the car park of the Zuiderstrandtheater is full at a pre-premiere, you know something exciting is happening inside. And that's right: Isabelle Beernaert and her ensemble present the new production Under My Skin. Dance like an Instagram account: popular, photogenic and ephemeral. Woman Actually, dance is like a Pinterest account. Because that seems to be mostly for women. And there is a lot of...
Maaike Engels (video artist and filmmaker) and Teun Voeten (war photographer and cultural anthropologist) made Welcome to the Jungle. A documentary about the utter chaos in the makeshift migrant camp near the canal tunnel in Calais, where some 6,000 people are now waiting in harsh misery for their chance to travel clandestinely to England. Welcome to the Jungle is a painful and bij...
Arab Camera film festival in Rotterdam opens on a light-hearted note from an unknown film country. In From A to B, three rich kids from the Emirates learn to stand on their own two feet.
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