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Flemish Level or GeenPeil? Civic cabinet redirects Flemish government's cultural policy

While in the Netherlands hate blog GeenStijl swayed the votes of 400,000 concerned Dutch people to its own anti-European tune, Flanders came up with something new: the citizens' cabinet. A thousand ordinary Flemings spent three months working online and offline on recommendations for culture minister Sven Gatz's cultural policy. In the end, a group of one hundred and fifty citizens was chosen to come up with a text. These were submitted yesterday to the... 

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Utrecht post office big loser at 'recumbent concert' Canto Ostinato

Early this year, it still looked like the monumental and striking Main Post Office on Utrecht's Neude would stay closed for good. There was even talk of a sale to a private individual who would build luxury flats in it, thus permanently obscuring the hall of the people, where many a Utrechter once cashed her cash cheques... 

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Flow is a matter of hard work and lots of practice

It is only a few months until Sinterklaas, so you would expect the Dutch people's rhyming muscles to be on edge again by now. But nothing could be further from the truth. During the Drongo Festival, an event on multilingualism in the Utrecht Jaarbeurs, MC Akwasi demonstrated this flawlessly. With his Dutch-language raps, he fits well into the current wave of... 

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Soviet design - does it exist?

The first thing I think of when I think of Soviet design are the magnificent posters showing muscular men with bared bodies and sturdy women in wide skirts harvesting immense fields of grain, or enthusiastically operating heavy machinery in huge factory halls. So the first question that the Moscow Design Museum asks in its press release is right on target: why do we know so little about design... 

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Eline Vere's wrong choices

Who has not read the book before, in Dutch at secondary school? Eline Vere, Louis Couperus' debut novel, is one of the classics of Dutch literature and was on the reading list for a long time. The novel, which appeared in 1888 as a serial in daily newspaper Het Vaderland, tells the story of Eline Vere, a 23-year-old woman from a well-to-do family, who longs... 

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How cool is it to be fluent in Berber and Dutch as a five-year-old?

Always wanted to learn Old Irish or Sranan Tongo? Still prefer to learn to rap with Nitrogen? Do you wonder how aid workers communicate when they are deployed? In a couple of days, the Drongo Festival will start, two days covering all facets of language. You can take crash courses in Chinese, as well as listen to all kinds of lectures. We take a sneak preview with... 

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7 bridges - 5 concerts

Next Tuesday, 29 September, the 7 Bridges Festival begins in the heart of Amsterdam. It is an initiative of pianist Edward Janning, driving force behind the Erard Ensemble playing on authentic instruments. In five concerts, he will take us past the Amstelkerk on the Amstelveld, Museum van Loon and Museum Geelvinck on Keizersgracht, the Stadsarchief on Vijzelstraat and the Goethe Instituut... 

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Ryan Adams' 1989 is the best concept album of 2015

Early this year, alt.country darling Ryan Adams posted a short snippet of a Taylor Swift cover on twitter and facebook. More was said to be on the way. A joke? A clever ploy to get the tens of millions of 'swifties' as Taylor's fans call themselves to listen to his music too? Neither, it turns out, now that Ryan Adams' 1989 is on the digital shelves: there will be... 

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Dutch Film Special (3): Beauty film, eh! Dutch in Toronto

How is Dutch film doing beyond its borders? Just before the Dutch Film Festival breaks loose, its big international brother in Toronto (TIFF) kicked off. Red carpets, big stars and ditto premieres. It may be slightly less well-known here than Cannes, but the TIFF is at least as important. For example, in the run-up to the Oscars. Not a bad thing, then... 

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Spotlight on Chopping Board and Psalms Pump

Cimbalom and harmonium are not the first instruments you immediately think of when you think of classical music. Yet, the ever-adventurous Ludwig collective puts precisely these mavericks at the centre of two concerts, on Saturday 26 September at the AVROTROS Vrijdagconcert in Utrecht and on Sunday 27-9 at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam. In 1915, Igor Stravinsky and a friend visited a... 

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Farewell and nostalgia define 33rd Night of Poetry

Listening to a short poem is sometimes hard work. This was evident during the Night of Poetry, held for the 33rd time on Saturday 19 September. At a poem that ends in brief toneless silence from the poet after four short sentences, the experts separate themselves from the amateurs in the audience. Clap quickly, before the next poem is over. Or. 

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Italian grandfather of arthouse cinema

With Michelangelo Antonioni - Il maestro del cinema moderno, EYE has once again managed to put together a flawless and solid film exhibition. George Vermij visited the exhibition on the Italian master filmmaker and looks back on his influential oeuvre. In Dino Risi's road movie Il Sorpasso (1962), the passionate and extroverted Vittorio Gassman takes on a young and reserved Jean-Louis Trintignant... 

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Cooking for Richard III: 'Of course we tie off our sauces with a little blood'

Eating on stage. That's the standard 'Theatre Dinner', but more exciting. Especially if Shakespeare's Richard III is played during dessert. Toneelgroep Oostpool, the Arnhem-based company that has been going strong in recent years with striking performances, goes one step further again in exploring the ultimate audience experience. Sjim Hendrix, not only a cook, but also an artist and... 

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Masses in the Kloosterkerk (photo Christiaan de Roo)

Mozart, Kortjakje and the princess

Last weekend 250 years ago, nine-year-old Mozart arrived in The Hague with his parents and sister Nannerl. He arrived on 11 September 1765 to perform at the stadholder court. Due to illness, the Mozarts ended up staying for nine months and the young composer wrote several works here. Harpsichordist and conductor Jörn Boysen organised the festival Mozart in The... 

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Alexander Khubeev wins Gaudeamus Award 2015

This year, too, the Gaudeamus Award went to an Eastern European. In 2014, Ukrainian Anna Korsun won the coveted competition for composers under 30; this year, the €5,000 prize goes to Russian composer Alexander Khubeev* (1986, Perm). This was announced on Sunday 13 September in TivoliVredenburg by Henk Heuvelmans, for many years the driving force behind... 

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Matthijs Rümke (1954 - 2015): inspired and committed theatre talent will not go to waste

'Young people can very well decide for themselves where they want to go or not go. And it just so happens that most of the time it is not to the theatre. So what? That will come naturally. Young people make their own choices, and that more often includes a house party than a play. Dragging them inside is counterproductive. And above all, no compulsory book-list performance,... 

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Rotterdam's Gergiev Festival delivers a brand new masterpiece

'Rachmaninov's melodic gift is impressive and makes the composer very popular'. This is how Valery Gergiev pithily sums up the quality of Rachmaninov's music. The Gergiev Festival that centred around this composer this weekend emphatically sticks to the popular works: the piano concertos and symphonies . Yet it omits many compositions that could have given these works more framework.... 

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My Fringe 2015 in 3 performances

Those who do not want to open the theatre season in 'Black Tie' and with a gala would do well to go to the Fringe Festival. Already in its tenth year, the festival is bouncing in all directions, this year with 80 performances. Unselected, untamed and unjudged, as they call it themselves. In other words, sometimes you see something wonderful and sometimes you... 

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The figures are in. And they don't say anything at all.

We had already announced it. This period is all about positive framing by the arts sector. Good news has to be spread, although people don't really know why. After all, there are no shareholders to be kept happy, only concerned art lovers. Enfin. On Wednesday 9 September, NRC journalist Daan van Lent presented the result of an investigation into the... 

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Father - Tom Grec

Standoffishness in Peeping Tom's Father at Dutch Theatre Festival

A Korean in a military suit singing karaoke, a crotchety dancer mewling with her knees kneading the floor, eight elderly people sweeping in and a son who turns out to be the father. Don't try to interpret this performance, the line of believability is miles behind you. Welcome to Father. 'Nothing is taken for granted anymore, boundaries blur, the old... 

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