While we send the heaviest possible delegation of straight men to Sotchi to support Putin's human rights policies, Australia sends a song by Rufus Wainwright. In effect, Australia is thereby undermining a law against gay propaganda in Russia.
They were horrified by it. There in Rotterdam, at De Doelen. Because 'their' Valery Gergiev, former chief of the local orchestra and namesake of the prestigious festival that sometimes to be held in September, doesn't like gays. At least, that's what we all believed
Protests abound again tonight at a concert conducted by Valery Gergiev, this time at London's Barbican. Many of the protesters are demanding that the orchestra emphatically distance itself from the Russian star conductor and speak out openly against gay legislation in Russia.
The photo documentary made by photographer Rob Hornstra on the preparations for the Sotchi Olympics will be shown in Moscow after all. At least we hope so, now that after an earlier sudden cancellation a venue has been found at the Sakharov House in Moscow. Next Friday, Dutch fans can watch the opening from Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg (bring your own beer) attend. Unless
With all the critical coverage of Russia that Putin and his supporters are provoking, we would almost forget that we are in the middle of the Netherlands-Russia year sitting. A screening of Paul Verhoeven's war film will take place tonight at the Pioner Gorky Park in Moscow Black Book, as a kick-off to
Holland Festival
Gorgeous dresses, big sunglasses and high heels. It is clear that the performance by the famous Moscow theatre company Theatre of Nations also attracted a large Russian audience. Men in suits occasionally talking to their sleeves seem to testify to Russian billionaires present. But nothing could be further from the truth when suddenly Princess Beatrix steps into the auditorium with her entourage.
The Netherlands-Russia year is kicking off and what better way to start than with an exhibition dedicated to the most famous Russian of all time? At
What makes an opera a success? The eccentrics, airheads, comedians, lyricists and tragicists think they know, proclaiming their point of view at the craziest times and not even bothering to intervene in the action. Welcome to the wonderful world of Prokofiev's L'amour des trois oranges, back on stage this month at the Amsterdam musical theatre.
The previous Secretary of State for Culture, Halbe Zijlstra, made his draconian cuts cast in concrete. The 35-40 per cent cut in the budgets of orchestras, theatre companies and some museums has become law. The new minister of culture, PvdA star Jet Bussemaker, cannot change that at all an iota. And if she even wanted to: the architect of the cuts she has to allow sits in the chamber as the ruling party's group leader. No chance that he will allow his policies to go down the drain.
True story. There is laughter in classical music. At many an orchestral rehearsal, the viola jokes are all over the place. And in the Concertgebouw, you might catch some mock chuckles. But classical composers are not known for their humour. Except Joseph Haydn. The Viennese composer brought a cosy witticism to his works here and there. One of his...
She now lives in Norway, after she had to leave her homeland Iran for her own opinion. She was detained for five days, and in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, that is an eternity. Now Asieh Amini is free in a foreign land, and Oxfam-Novib is presenting her with the PEN Award. A great opening for the Writers Unlimited Winternachten Festival, which, with this presentation,...
Thai and Vietnamese puppetry. Acrobats, Chinese shadow play and Japanese costumes. A Chinese conductor for a Dutch orchestra, a Canadian directing team and, as the main work, a scant 50-minute opera by a Russian composer, based on a fairy tale by a Danish writer who took his inspiration from China. Loosely.
Photo: Pierre Nydegger To conclude. The 2011 Holland Festival could well be historic. Not only was it the festival that attracted the most audiences for years, it was also the festival that took place while a minority government of populists, nationalists and materialists proclaimed the end of art subsidies. We therefore look back on a festival in which we were able to meet with...
In conclusion. The 2011 Holland Festival could well be historic. Not only was it the festival that attracted the most audiences for years, it was also the festival that took place while a minority government of populists, nationalists and materialists proclaimed the end of art subsidies. We therefore look back on a festival in which we had a great time with our new...
That the Off Broadway musical Fela! was a success, we could actually expect. For The Dodo, we therefore did not send anyone there either: there are already enough newspapers and other bloggers eager to have a front-row seat to the New York audience favourite. You can read that they had a good time elsewhere on this site, via the blogstream
The first film from the Tiger competition for new talent that Rotterdam festival audiences got to see on Friday was Flying Fish from Sri Lanka. Director Sanjee Pushpakumara, present at the screening, was clearly overwhelmed. He himself was seeing his film on the big screen for the first time, and in front of a sold-out audience. His acceptance speech was not only touching but...
Today we posted this message, and quickly realised that the news had been released before. Only a few minutes later it dawned on us that the original post, of which this is a free translation, had already appeared on The Independent's site on 22 October 1995. Thanks to a database update and a perceptive site visitor, who...
Snow has fallen, a thick layer of fresh snow. Fake snow admittedly, but real enough to imagine yourself in the middle of Russia. There, in the city of Sverdlovsk, or Yekaterinburg, once lived the man about whom the show 'Poets and bandits' is about. Boris Ryzhy (1974-2001) turned the raw realities of his hometown into poems. He left more than a thousand poems to the world. His breakthrough came at the Poetry International festival in Rotterdam, in the year 2000. A year later, he was dead. Boris Ryzhy, 26, had hanged himself.
Theatre group De Warme Winkel makes that link with Rotterdam if only because 'Poëten en bandieten' is played there. An old factory hall serves as a backdrop for the run-down working-class neighbourhood in which Ryzhy grew up. From behind a work table, actress Mara van Vlijmen calls Rotterdam residents. None of them are at home. But on their answering machine is now one of Ryzhy's poems, which must be a wondrous experience for the listeners. The Warm Shop does not show how the professor's son Boris ended up in that poor neighbourhood. Whereas he himself talks about an environment full of drab flats in his poems, the stage setting is more reminiscent of the outdoors, with all that vast snow. The atmosphere is cosy and warm. On a float decorated with candles, a folk ensemble comes on, singing Russian songs. Old-fashioned songs, and nothing pop or punk.
By Willem Jan Keizer
Rotterdam - Thanks to conductor Valeri Gergyev, we get more insight into the huge reservoir of Russian composers. Rodion Shchedrin for example. Last year a piano concerto of his was performed, Sunday night in de Doelen it was his opera for the concert stage 'The Enchanted Wanderer', after the book 'The Enchanted Wanderer' by Nikolai Leskov. The opera is dedicated to conductor Lorin Maazel, who also conducted the premiere in New York in 2002.
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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