Amsterdam, 10-12-2012 - Last weekend the Babelfestival began at the Ostade Theatre, an initiative of the Diamond factory. Founded two years ago, this production group offers young creators the chance to develop small-scale musical theatre. This weekend sees the premiere of Black Perfume, by Russian composer Anna Mikhailova and the Dutch director Annechien Koerselman, to the story Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov.
The discussion was and is endless, but now we have figures. Thanks to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science's new 'key figures', we now know how much the state (all of us) are spending for the opportunity to experience art: per inhabitant, the state spends 38.90 per year on subsidies for dance, theatre, museums, youth theatre, opera and orchestras. So that's just over 3 euros a month. Indeed something to get into each other's hair about, we think.
The big question was how many of those seven Golden Calf nominations Plan C would manage to cash in. To everyone's surprise, this petty crime comedy that attracted less than 7,000 visitors in cinemas had garnered even more nominations than
What a festive opening film it was! The Dutch Film Festival's choice of Nono, the zigzag child had of course to do with the fact that Dutch family films will be specially put in the festival spotlight this year. But even apart from that theme, it was an unmissable kick-off. Because we may like to grumble that the weather was not...
"That fairytale world has never been my world," director Ivo van Hove declared before the premiere of Schreker's fairytale opera Der Schatzgräber. Remarkable, as Van Hove and his regular scenographer Jan Versweyveld were previously responsible at De Nederlandse Opera for Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Janáček's The Makropulos case - also fairy tales rather than grand dramatic works.
The Netherlands Opera opens the season with a rarely performed opera by Franz Schreker, which mixes pagan and Christian themes. The brilliant music is countered by the chilly direction, preventing identification with the characters.
Antony, Dafoe and Abramović together on one stage, directed by Robert Wilson - it promised to be the hit of the theatre season. But Abramović's private life does not really lend itself to a triumphant or compelling narrative.
Youth these days mostly evokes the thought of danger. Society suffers from a distorted ideal image that leaves real children little room to play. Eventually, therefore, they rebel in Enfant. But until then, the very young performers still mainly have the role of adjunct or capstone, complement or extension of the nine adult dancers. The new...
In about a year's time, the Strut choir and the Irish folk band The Henry Girls on one stage. Artistic director Donna Risa: "I expect a wonderful interplay.''
Apartheid activist Martin Bosma started talking about it during one of his many hilarious appearances in the second chamber, but, as is often the case, was wrong. He said art subsidies were an invention of the Nazis and therefore pernicious. We knew better, because researcher Benien van Berkel is thorough and deals with facts. From her doctoral research...
In the debate Burger King & Citizenship give Patrick van der Hijden, David van Reybrouck, Chris Keulemans and Samuel Vriezen Their views on the state of the citizen. Public may, but need not, participate. Below is the column State of Indulgence, recited by Patrick van der Hijden - as a kick-off to the debate.
"Our life was invented in the 18th century.
Members of the upper classes - the elite - had their own homes, often with gardens. They sent their children to school, which then started further education. They had free time and generally arrived at their appointments on time, due to the watches they wore and the train barges that left on time (they complained when delayed). Citizens who lived outside the city commuted - by carriage, that is. They drank coffee to stay awake. They visited restaurants with menus. They were vaccinated against smallpox and had pets. A great source on that life is the diary of Otto van Eck, who started it at the age of 10 under pressure from his Enlightenment-obsessed parents, in 1791. I borrow the above examples from that.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, this life is not lived by a small minority, but by a large part of the Dutch population. These do have to do without staff. That, in fact, has been replaced by technology.
The cut-away Metropole Orchestra is getting some air from the minister. She is willing to use the necessary friction costs to support the transition over the next four years from the Media Budget, provided it stays there. That is, the orchestra may use its own severance payments to be independently 'on the market' from 2017. As much as it shows...
Positive news to start with: in The Hague, the municipality is doubling photographer/filmmaker Anton Corbijn's contribution to his youth culture fund Haagse Bluf by €75,000. Corbijn explicitly told the fund not to interfere in the subsidised cultural sector. So compensation for the cuts need not be expected. In Arnhem, the alderman is satisfied with the...
House amends gift deduction in cultural sector (...) A majority of the House wants to limit the Cabinet plans for tax deductions in the cultural sector. At the same time, it should become more fiscally attractive to make donations to sports and music associations. VVD, CDA and PVV submitted amendment proposals to this effect to the Giving Act of state secretary Frans Weekers (Finance) on Tuesday. (...) The PVV felt that far too...
A clearing in the forest. It could be idyllic, but from the forest come suspicious noises. Men are singing and pulling tractors. The echoes of explosions echo. It's all just fake. It's just theatre - which nevertheless inspires fear. Daria Bukvic, a newly graduated director from the Maastricht Drama School, created a play about her mother. Who...
This year, the Holland Festival brings the extraordinary French-Algerian co-production Nya, which combines achievements of modern and classical dance with hip-hop and, in addition, Ravel's Bolero sounds alongside Houria Aïchi's Algerian evergreens.
Johan Nijenhuis' Foeksia de miniheks has become the big audience favourite of Cinekid, the festival for film, television and new media for young people. Friday evening, it was announced at the awards ceremony that Foeksia had won both the general audience award (Z@pp Cinekid Lion) and the audience award for best Dutch children's film. Foeksia the Mini-Witch, based on the book of the same name by Paul van Z...
Where were the producers? On Tomorrow's Maker's Day, the Netherlands Film Festival screened 48 graduation films from the Film Academy and other art schools. So the hall should have been full of film producers to scout all that new talent, but no, exactly today the Film Fund had organised a meeting with those Dutch producers. Not so convenient. What did those...
She has 14 first names because her father liked to name his whole family and she was an only child. She is an in-demand actress, but Gonny Gaakeer has also been a girl with a grandmother. A beautiful grandmother, who in the last years of her 95-year-old life fell over more and more often and bore the ugly wounds of it. Gonny tells her story, and...
The Russian soul. So there is something about that. And you get something from that when you see a Chekhov play (if done well), or read one of his short stories. Or when you read the works of Tolstoi, Dostoevsky or any other inhabitant of that vast nothingness east of Poland. Or seeing the paintings, which a few...
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