A Brünhilde who does not burst into flames but endures the Götterdämmerung with a baby in her arms, a Senta who does not jump off a cliff but is shot by Erik together with the Holländer. No one really looks surprised anymore. And Isoldes who do not die in the Liebestod are no exception, but Tristan who rises from the dead, as it were, by Isolde's notes reaching into heaven, stands diagonally behind her and sings along soundlessly?
"That sounds different. A bit sad."
I just played F, B, D♯ and G♯. Better known as the Tristan chord. But on guitar. My audience consists of 15 toddlers.
Still competing at the top and successfully entering Europe with 60 per cent less budget. Impossible, cries many. Only with a new stadium, argues another. And with extra investments in the winter break. But it can be done, according to a few.
In one year the AKO and Libris prizes? The front pages of newspapers would be full of it, not to mention the dozens of pages in book supplements. Composer Michel van der Aa has to make do with small announcements, tucked away in newspapers, while receiving the Grawemeyer Award and the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize is a never-before-seen double.
The final applause after the premiere of Götterdämmerung stormy, is an understatement. It seemed as if the completely sold-out auditorium wanted to surpass the primal forces extracted from the Gelders Orkest by Ed Spanjaard. History was made here: on stage, by the soloists and choir, in the orchestra pit and behind the scenes, for six hours and 20 minutes.
We never actually pat ourselves on the back, but so once every few years it is allowed. For instance, when you are 'top story' within an hour on the global twitter story website 'storify.com'. Of course, we often have a sudden surge in visitors, and certainly last September was a top month with 15000 visitors, but something like this, more than 500 visitors in not even an hour....
Festival Grenswerk was told on Tuesday 21 February that it must stop after three successful years because it does not match the ambitions of Stichting Enschede Promotie. The festival set up in 2009 was given a thick set of demands by the alderman that it could not meet after a scathing report by this revamped VVV.
It looked like it was going to be something. With a church of huge Lego blocks and a programme that seemed to matter. But alas, Grenswerk, the festival that was supposed to bring the region around Enschede together, is no more. After three years. And it won't stop until 2013, like most arts institutions, but already in 2012. Too much had to change for that to happen. The municipality suggested...
This week, the National Travel Opera begins rehearsals of Mozart's Le nozze di figaro. In the bin, the brand-new Netherlands Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend. Business as usual, as both companies have been working closely together for years and are united in the National Music Quarter Enschede. Only: orchestra and opera company have not been talking to each other since last week.
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