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Holland Opera

Dutch Film Festival, BAK and Holland Opera among those duped: Utrecht advisory committee settles old scores

by Wijbrand Schaap
6 June 202416 June 2024
5 min read
ACTUAL, policy, Featured, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

Utrecht was the first of the big cities to announce the opinions issued on cultural institutions' grant applications for the next four years. Large and well-known players like the Dutch Film Festival, visual arts institutions like BAK and IMPAKT and youth opera company Holland Opera saw their applications rejected, as did Het Huis Utrecht. At the same time, the advisory committee does recommend...

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God and Devil play a game with man - Holland Opera's Flying Dutchman: a feast for the eyes and ears

by Thea Derks
22 August 202030 March 2022
5 min read
For members only, OPERA, PODIUM ART, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

With its expressive music, stylish costumes, dazzling video images and beautiful lighting, The Flying Dutchman is a feast for the eyes and ears.

'Bring all the venues in Amersfoort together in one management group.' Bernard van Gellekom has an unorthodox vision of cultural survival at the time of Corona.

by Wijbrand Schaap
1 May 202030 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, The City Spring, PODCAST, PODIUM ART, SPECIALS, BECOME A MEMBER

'If you can put only a quarter, or even less, in a hall that normally holds 600 people, then the tickets do become very expensive, because your costs don't change. Then my popular heart starts beating again: should we really want something so elitist?' Bernard van Gellekom is an important figure in the Amersfoort pop scene. In his home...

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Shout out! The big fill-in for the new arts plan.

by one of our members
11 April 201919 August 2019
4 min read
ACTUAL, BECOME A MEMBER

The Council for Culture has just proposed the new Basic Infrastructure (BIS), and it has become a very big, in traditional terms 'prosperous', baby. Since the Council is not allowed to name names, and can only list functions, we have already made a fill-in list here, in which we list (very briefly, because little time and not knowing about everything) which existing cultural...

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Keistad Amersfoort - a kei in classical music?

by Onno Weggemans
15 September 201614 September 2017
3 min read
ACTUAL, MUSIC

When you think of Amersfoort, do you think of classical music? Um... A new initiative should change this. At the opening of the cultural season, Amersfoort Klassiek presented itself with a fine ambition: to profile the Keistad as a city of classical music. A great initiative as far as I am concerned, because Amersfoort does indeed have a lot to offer in the field of classical music. For instance, there is Amerfortissimo, the...

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Culture Council fill-in exercise offers hardly any surprises

by one of our members
19 May 201630 March 2022
8 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, VISUAL, DANS, FILM, LITERARY, MUSIC, OPERA, PODIUM ART, THEATER, BECOME A MEMBER

Champagne at BAK in Utrecht, deep disappointment at The New Institute in Rotterdam: the Council for Culture has spoken. Today, Thursday 19 May 2016, the first advice after the draconian art cuts by the first Rutte cabinet came out, and heads are rolling. Amsterdam loses prestigious presentation institution De Appel, in The Hague fellow institution Stroom has to redo its homework. The Orkest van het Oosten and the Gelders Orkest have to come up with merger plans within two years. In Utrecht, the city company Theater Utrecht will no longer receive funding despite artistic appreciation. Het Zuidelijk Toneel in ~~Eindhoven~~ Tilburg must make new plans and Opera Zuid must quickly raise its artistic quality. These are the main conclusions of the Culture Council's opinion.

As dramatic as some of this may sound, the advice is actually not, when you look over the whole battlefield. Thanks in part to

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The 10 theatre performances you wish you had seen in 2015

by Henri Drost
28 December 201528 December 2015
5 min read
ACTUAL, MUSIC, OPERA, THEATER

Although the supply has been declining for years, there are still more new shows than a person can see. So nobody sees everything, everybody misses a lot, which was the case in 2014. But these performances no one would have wanted to miss, even if two of them were not even seen in a theatre. And no dance, for that our partner was dance audiences this year too. #1...

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The five shows you must see in December

by Henri Drost
3 December 201529 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, OPERA, THEATER

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...

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Assessment error Performing Arts Fund has major implications for future grant applications

by Henri Drost
17 July 201530 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, OPERA

Those who apply for grants but do not receive them must be given insight into the applications of others who have been honoured. That is the most remarkable ruling by the Council of State in the case Holland Opera won against the Performing Arts Fund. Much more important for the company itself, of course: according to our highest court, in 2012 the Performing Arts Fund decided Holland...

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Cronyism at the Performing Arts Fund?

by Wijbrand Schaap
14 August 201230 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

In the small Dutch art world, it is impossible to put together a committee of experts which is entirely independent. Anyone with knowledge of business also has knowledge of people, or has worked at an institution that is now to be judged. Or works there now. Reason enough, then, for speculation and conspiracy theories.

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Maxima opens new home for youth opera house Holland Opera on 3 October

by one of our members
27 August 201030 March 2022
1 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Indeed, the name Xynix was somewhat outdated. And since, thanks to the efforts of its own company and Yo! Opera, which started as a youth opera festival, opera nowadays turns out to be suitable for young people too, a more adult name is appropriate: Holland Opera. The company settled in Amersfoort in a former company building near the railway station: De Verensmederij. The building, after a renovation, is...

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