Better to die standing than to live kneeling. The statement is fresh in memory after the murder in the Lange Leidse Dwarsstraat, as a mantra in praise of Peter R de Vries, his fearlessness, non-conformism, straightforwardness and honesty. This same statement jumps out even from the first paragraphs of the introduction to the biography of poet Jef Last, written by Rudi Wester.1....
In 1987, British cello legend Jacqueline Du Pré succumbed to multiple sclerosis, aged 42. Although she had not played concerts for 15 years, a wave of grief washed over the world. In her short career, she had achieved more than many a musician in his or her entire life.
With northern Italy cut off from the outside world because of corona and looking increasingly desolate, we are reminded of an interview we had a few years ago with writer Davide Longo about his book The Vertical Man. A book à la The Road by Cormac McCarthy, in which Longo outlines a desolate world that has changed dramatically as a result of...
'I get up with you and I go to bed with you,' I said jokingly. We stood in his kitchenette, where he made coffee for himself and tea for me. Reinbert's big startled eyes told me that my ironic remark had landed in the barren soil of his deadly seriousness. - It was not the first and not the last
With his new book The Discovery of Elsschot, Elsschot biographer Vic van de Reijt wants to get the whole of the Netherlands reading Elsschot's books. Seven reasons why these classics are timeless fun. 1. You can finish every book by Elsschot in one day 'In 1970 I bought his Collected Works for nine guilders, I remember it well. At the time...
Learning is less about what you learn than from whom you learn it. Not that what you learn doesn't matter, but you simply learn more from an inspired person than from a teacher running down his list. Fortunately, I have had many good teachers. Some of them are now demented or dead, with almost all of them...
Het blijft wonderlijk hoeveel emotie intelligente animatie kan genereren. In Another day of life (vanaf 14 maart in de bioscoop) wordt de Angolese verslaggeving door de legendarische Poolse journalist Ryszard Kapuściński groots in getekende beelden gevat. In combinatie met live footage en welgekozen archiefmateriaal levert dat een hellevaart van 85 minuten op die op meerdere niveau’s valt te waarderen. Kapuściński…
As good and fluent as writing poems and songs was for him, everyday life fell on him with difficulty. Writer Willem Wilmink grew into a folk hero of Twente, but remained a child at heart, according to the biography by literary critic Elsbeth Etty. 'Someone who, according to his best friend Herman Finkers, couldn't even hold a pair of scissors.'
On Wednesday 16 January, Reinbert de Leeuw will present his cycle Im wunderschönen Monat Mai at Paradiso. A unique opportunity to see him at work once more in his globally believed masterpiece. In 2003, he surprised friend and foe alike with this composition inspired by songs by Schumann and Schubert. Was that not swearing in church? Arnold Schoenberg had the Romanticism...
Accompanied by Asko|Schönberg, Katja Herbers sings parts from Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, Reinbert's adaptation of classics by Schubert and Schumann. The poignant lyrics get a witty twist in the last song. In 'Röslein auf der Heiden', the 'victim' is not the fragile little flower from the original but Reinbert himself. "Und der wilde Knabe brach Reinbert auf der Heiden; Reinbert wehrte...
Usually when I speak to someone who calls themselves a playwright, they say they are 'only' a supplier of a 'half-product'. I never get that answer from a young actor, and certainly never from a director. It is they who make theatre out of the half-products supplied by writers. Actors and directors prefer to be addressed as 'theatre-makers'. Nothing wrong with that....
De naam van Sedje Hémon (1923-2011) zal niet bij iedereen onmiddellijk een belletje doen rinkelen. Zij was een van de eerste kunstenaars die multidisciplinair werkte, door composities te baseren op haar eigen schilderijen. Haar schilderij-partituren werden recent getoond tijdens Documenta 14 in Kassel en Athene, maar haar muziek is al bijna 4 decennia niet meer uitgevoerd. Het Haagse Ensemble Modelo62 zet Hémon…
In the early 1990s, I am sitting in a small auditorium at The National Theatre in London. Before the performance starts, someone on stage asks if you want to greet the visitors next to you. This immediately creates a different, more intimate dynamic in the auditorium. On a sleek stage with only a few props are four actors and an Arab musician. Yoshi Oida...
Op 25 januari 2018 zijn de Musical Awards uitgereikt met, zoals we gewend zijn, veel vertaalde heropvoeringen en geijkt repertoire. Ook viel op dat er waardering is voor nieuw Nederlands werk. Menig schrijver zal juichend op de bank hebben gezeten toen ‘Was Getekend, Annie M.G. Schmidt’ in de prijzen viel. Belooft dat iets voor de toekomst? Kan de hedendaagse (kleine)…
Met lef en gevoel voor humor verfilmde Michel Hazanavicius de artistieke crisis van beeldenstormend cineast Jean-Luc Godard. Een bevrijdend levenslustige ode aan een moeilijk genie in de vorm van een tragische liefdesgeschiedenis. En natuurlijk ook Godard herzien in EYE.
Well, we're not big on hypes and traditions here, but still. The dark days around Christmas are very dark this year, so why not something with lists. This year, no list of toppers from the editors, but random entries from random readers, in random, if slightly alphabetical order. Motto of the reader question was: which things...
Beethoven and Bach brought the true music. Karl-Heinz Stockhausen the future. The rest, from Beatles to hoempa, was 'jazz', commercially capitalist and therefore pernicious. Very briefly, this is what we should know Theodor Adorno from. Paul R. Kooij now plays this art-philosophical sharper in a performance by Mirjam Koen. Just when the division based partly on Adorno's thinking between...
The Zuiderstrand Theatre is having a nice time. When the theatre was built on the coast, there was a lot of resistance and grumbling from Scheveningers. 'That bunker' it was called. But with the (reprise) hit 'Harde Handen', free after Heijerman's 'Op hoop van Zegen', this own production touches a sensitive chord. For and by Scheveningen On Scheveningen, much has changed. The fishing village with...
De driedelige cd-box met koor- en ensemblewerken van György Kurtág is in één woord overweldigend. Diens zieldoorklievende klanken worden subliem vertolkt door Reinbert de Leeuw c.s. Ook de opname is onberispelijk. Deze box is nu al historisch, een monument voor de Hongaarse grootmeester, die afgelopen februari 91 werd. Kurtágs existentialistische muziek werd al vanaf midden jaren ‘70 in ons land…
Woensdag 20 juni lanceerde Kajsa Ollongren de website Forbidden Music Regained in de Uilenburgersjoel in Amsterdam. De hoofdstedelijke loco-burgemeester en wethouder cultuur citeerde ruimtevaarder Neil Armstrong en noemde het project ‘a giant step for mankind’. Ze vervolgde: ‘De website is ook belangrijk voor de stad Amsterdam, want we kunnen en mogen niet vergeten wat zeventig jaar geleden in onze stad…
'Everyone has an Apple. Everyone has a Corneille. Nobody has a Van Merwijk. So the question is whether Van Merwijk is any good. Nobody knows that. Then the challenge is for a few great people to buy a Van Merwijk. After that, everyone wants to have a Van Merwijk. When that happens, I'll go back to making other work, because I want...
De roman Haar naam was Sarah (negen miljoen verkochte exemplaren) maakte Tatiana de Rosnay wereldberoemd. In Parijs draagt ze zelfs een pruik als ze niet herkend wil worden. Dat ze kampte met anorexia hield ze jarenlang geheim. [bol_product_links block_id=”bol_592be29ab4765_selected-products” products=”9200000075700087,1001004010207707,9200000077515228,9200000011255053″ name=”a4m” sub_id=”de rosnay” link_color=”003399″ subtitle_color=”000000″ pricetype_color=”000000″ price_color=”CC3300″ deliverytime_color=”009900″ background_color=”FFFFFF” border_color=”D2D2D2″ width=”549″ cols=”2″ show_bol_logo=”0″ show_price=”1″ show_rating=”1″ show_deliverytime=”1″ link_target=”1″ image_size=”1″ admin_preview=”1″] Acht levensvragen…
In Aan het eind van de dag, de nieuwe roman van Nelleke Noordervliet[ref]Nelleke Noordervliet (1945) debuteerde in 1987 met de roman Tine of de dalen waar het leven woont. Daarna schreef ze vele romans, novellen, verhalen, essays, toneel en columns. Ook bekleedt zij diverse bestuurlijke functies binnen de culturele sector.[/ref], is zeventiger Katharina Mercedes Donker aan het woord. Deze ex-minister en…
‘Hoe kleiner de gemeenschap hoe bekrompener de geest’, zegt Krzysztof Warlikowski. De Poolse regisseur maakt deze maand zijn debuut bij De Nationale Opera met Wozzeck van Alban Berg. Het is de tweede keer dat hij dit iconische werk van de twintigste eeuw onder handen neemt. Hiertoe put hij uit zijn eigen ervaringen tijdens zijn jeugd in Stettin. Het is uitzonderlijk…
I read the biography of Jacob Israel De Haan, Onrust, by Jan Fontijn. Writer and director Gerardjan Rijnders based Salaam Jerusalem on this biography. It is this play, performed by De Nieuw Amsterdam, that really makes me realise how urgent it is to let such an almost forgotten figure as De Haan speak. Jacob Israel De Haan overturned taboos, fought...
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