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Struggling River of Fundament - grandiose recycling opera that doesn't know when to stop

From 2007, video artist Matthew Barney (The Cremaster Cycle) and composer Jonathan Bepler on a free adaptation of Norman Mailer's most maligned book Ancient Evenings. To Mailer's mythology of ancient Egypt, they added the equally mythical American automobile industry in an ambitious and operatesque film project with a demanding length of 5 hours 11 minutes.

From February River of Fundament on world tour and the Holland Festival

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Voices from the realm of shadows - retrospective Luigi Nono at Holland Festival

After impressive retrospectives dedicated to John Cage (2012) and Edgard Varèse (2009), the Holland Festival this year put Venetian composer Luigi Nono in the spotlight. Under the title 'Trilogy of the sublime', the imposing Gashouder was the epicentre of three full-length concerts, short 'Nono interventions' sounded in the Rijksmuseum's subway, a two-day symposium was organised around Nono, and his widow Nuria set up an exhibition entitled 'Maestro di suoni i silenzi'.

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'Fix it yourself.' Culture minister puts fate of amateur arts in hands of municipalities and citizens

In March this year the Culture Council sounded the alarm. Unique under the new leadership, which is usually extremely docile when it comes to cultural cuts. But what happens to music schools, children's drama schools, libraries and amateur orchestras is otherwise entirely up to the citizens themselves, and their local councils. This is the minister's response to the chamber.

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How it feels to single-handedly make a decision that turns the world upside down

That Serbian Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Austrian crown prince in 1914, thus triggering World War I, was until recently in the Netherlands no more than a dry historical fact. But now that it has been a century since this attack, this young freedom fighter is still getting a face in our country. But what De Warme Winkel is doing in the performance 'Gavrilo Princip' is much more than 'giving a face'.

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Audience put in their place

Although both performances were created in very different ways, parallels can be drawn between 'Romeo and Juliet. To Romeo and Juliet‘ by Karina Kroft and 'Crastest Ibsen II - People's Enemy' by Sarah Moeremans / Noord Nederlands Toneel. Director Karina Kroft and actor Joep van der Geest in conversation about their relationship with a classic play and their audience.

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BEST RELATED SECRET #1: Susanne Marx, Karin Spaink and Girl Loos in Eastern Bloc

Susanne Marx is at Oostblok, the former Muiderpoort theatre in Amsterdam, for two days with the performance 'Girl Loos'. You could call 'Meisje Loos' a critical family performance: for young and old, about growing up and playing with obligatory roles, male-female, white-black, dancer-rapper, harp or beatbox. Genderbending as a theme for the whole family, with a fringe programme featuring Karin Spaink, Linda Duits, Machteld Zee, Rickie Edens and Alex Bakker perform and engage in conversation. 

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Isabella Rosselini is endearing with her animal stuff. 4 missed opportunities in Bestiaire d'amour at @hollandfestival

Every Holland Festival there is at least 1 performance which a lot of people wonder why it is programmed. This year, that honour falls to 'Bestiaire d'Amour' by and starring Isabella Rosselini. We take a moment to look for answers.

Read More "Isabella Rosselini is endearing with her animal stuff. 4 missed opportunities in Bestiaire d'amour at @hollandfestival

7 confusing reasons why the stage version of The Fountainhead rattles, but you should still go.

Topical again, now that Toneelgroep Amsterdam is reviving the play, my review from 2014. This week, the stage adaptation of The Fountainhead premiered. The book is terrible, the performance rattles, the actors win only narrowly. The content, however, creates even more confusion, which is why I won't stop you from going to see it. And Hans Kesting, of course. I put it this way.

Read More "7 confusing reasons why the stage version of The Fountainhead rattles, but you should still go.

Disappointed dinner guests get money back. Yummy gesture from the Holland Festival

Visitors to the film Napoleon, last Sunday at Ziggo Dome, who had thought of booking dinner at one of the intervals, will get their money back. This was decided by the Holland Festival after a commotion arose on the internet, and beyond, about the caterer's lousy service, and the rather poor quality of what was on offer. Visitor Marc Veerkamp said the following on facebook:

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Wandering through the dunes with literature @Oerol Festival

Literature is starting to conquer its place at Oerol, which makes sense because poetry and prose are everywhere. The landscape inspires writers and poets to write beautiful texts and at the same time, through literature, visitors take in the environment in a poetic way. What forms of literature can you encounter on Terschelling? 

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National Ballet performs enchanting Tempest

To make it 450e birth anniversary of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Krzysztof Pastor created a full-length choreography for the National Ballet, loosely based on The Tempest (1611). The performance is part of the Holland Festival. Dramaturge Willem Bruls adapted Shakespeare's last play about the island exiled prince Prospero and his daughter Miranda into a script in which the story is told four times, from as many perspectives. The result is enchanting.

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78 M€ download damage and 6 more things I learned about copyright

78 Million euros is the turnover lost by the film and DVD industry in the Netherlands due to illegal downloading. This was recently revealed in a press release announced. Yesterday, it was also one of the topics at a discussion afternoon organised by Film Producers Netherlands (FPN) on copyright developments.

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Alain Platel deals firm death blow to traditionalists in #hollandfestival

Talent alone won't get you there. You also need a bit of luck. That luck happened to Alain Platel so often by now that you almost start to doubt your own wickedness. Still. Those who not only count a composer like Fabrizio Cassol among their friends, but who also gave singing prodigy Serge Kakudji a chance, deserve a bit of luck. What the trio has now achieved with 13 musicians from Kinshasa is downright revolutionary. And a death knell for those who believe that north and south can never really meet. I experienced it on Monday, 16 June. And it still echoes. 

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Bitter tears, screaming loneliness. Kušej does Fassbinder @HollandFestival 2014

Nice 'old-fashioned' Holland Festival: a special set-up that confronts the audience with the implications of their own position and viewing behaviour. And that's just as well with Fassbinder's 'Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant'. Melodrama was no stranger to the German theatre and film wizard. The bitter tears are of a fashion queen and her entourage, clinical is the setting, wafer-thin the story, and yet unusually exciting how this lady drama develops.

Read More "Bitter tears, screaming loneliness. Kušej does Fassbinder @HollandFestival 2014

Tis Pity! Holland Festival brings the best show to the smallest audience.

Language is music. Sometimes we forget that. Then we think language is a way of conveying objective meanings. Kind of silly. Language is food for all the senses. No strumming is needed under that. That's pure opera without embellishments. The English-language performance 'tis Pity she's a whore' I saw at the Holland Festival yesterday proves that. Even if you don't understand the seventeenth-century phrases, it is a joy to listen to.

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Warhorse is almost perfect: 6 reasons to go. Or stay away.

Saturday, June 14, went off in a flood of evening gowns, dinner jackets, Dutch celebrities and Gooische Tanks War Horse premiered. A play about a war in which the Netherlands was neutral, and of which there are memorial stones in every village in the rest of the world. You can go and see it. Or not. We have listed six arguments.

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'I did not have sexual relations with that woman', no way: surprising Don Juan at Theaterschip Deventer

In an immaculate virginal white uniform, Don Juan gives a slick press conference for his wedding to Elvira. We hear the famous words with which Bill Clinton denied the Lewinsky affair. Actor Ischa den Blanken's grin speaks volumes when he says: 'These allegations are false.' We know: he is lying.

Read More "'I did not have sexual relations with that woman', no way: surprising Don Juan at Theaterschip Deventer

Hunting for art in the Bijlmer with Google Maps

After co-organising FATFORM, a radical series of art events in Amsterdam Southeast - with furious crossover exhibitions and performances on the roofs of an abandoned shopping centre and a car park, the collective around creative production agency Vinger.nl has thrown itself into the new edition of the Open Art Route 2014. And it will be something.

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On M2M and genius theatre makers who completely miss the mark

One of the rules of thumb of contemporary theatre art reads as follows: There is no middle ground in a production with an insanely long title. Such a production is either fantastic or dies of its own pretensions. At Judson church is ringing in Harlem (made to measure) / twenty looks of paris is burning at the judson church (m2m) is the latter.

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Ragged ritual defies permanent display: Germaine Kruip at the Stedelijk @HollandFestival 2014

"You know ma'am, that big red painting? Turn right before that". A young attendant shows us the way. At first glance, it's nothing. A man in semi-uniform, black trousers, white shirt, slowly turns on his axis. Sol Lewitt's mural, number 1084 from 2003, lends him the necessary decorum. Around the corner hang Barnett Newman and Andy Warhol. Would the man care? In this 'hall of fame' of conceptual art, the man's spinning stands out a little timidly. Some visitors remain standing, leaning against white walls or sinking down on the polished wooden floor. Those who take their time watch the spinning of the man and his fellow dervishes slowly take possession of the Stedelijk.

Read More "Ragged ritual defies permanent display: Germaine Kruip at the Stedelijk @HollandFestival 2014
dance education

Dance course explodes. Sudden vacancy management dance course Royal Conservatoire

The dance course at The Hague Conservatory of Music has exploded. Sort of. Nancy Euverink, director of dance education is in fact stepping down from the Royal Conservatoire (KC). And not only that. Deputy director Tom Bosma is not staying on either. Who will take over after the final performances and in the new season is still unclear. An international vacancy has been posted.

Read More "Dance course explodes. Sudden vacancy management dance course Royal Conservatoire

4 ways to quiet a room: Jelinek strikes at Holland Festival

This year's trip will go to India and Nepal. Because that seemed nice to him. Visitors to the Dutch premiere of Jelinek's Die Schutzbefohlene were looking forward to the summer. Next year they would visit a friend in Vietnam. Little hassle to get a visa. As a white European, the whole world is yours. You can go anywhere. The man did not realise how privileged he was.

Read More "4 ways to quiet a room: Jelinek strikes at Holland Festival

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