Wolf is Kristien Hemmerechts' first novel since her non-fiction book on breast cancer, and it is about rage. What it's like to be furious, the Belgian writer knows all about that. "When I had breast cancer, I experienced intense feelings of aggression." Why is it that some people who have experienced trauma or tragedy can give it a place,...
Dinsdag 13 maart opent het Opera Forward Festival met Das Floss der Medusa van Hans Werner Henze. Dit oratorium uit 1968 sluit naadloos aan bij het thema van de derde editie: Noodlot en Besef. Het is geïnspireerd op een waargebeurd verhaal uit 1816, toen het Franse fregat Méduse strandde op de Afrikaanse kust. De opvarenden werden aan hun lot overgelaten;…
It all starts at Orange College, of course. A fictional school with very real problems. For Sadettin Kırmızıyüz, the place where he commissions the opening part of Metropolis, a series that should eventually count four episodes. It is one of Het Nationale Theater's biggest projects over the next four years, in close cooperation with Kırmızıyüz's own company:...
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) was the four-year older sister of Felix Mendelssohn. They both received a solid musical education, with her surpassing him in virtuosity at the piano. Her relationship with Felix was intense, but also suffocating. At his hands, Fanny Mendelssohn failed to build an independent career as a composer. To this day
The greater the resistance to be overcome, the greater the achievement. This wry wisdom is expressed in the Russian narrative concert 'Living under a tyrant'. Cellist Lidy Blijdorp adds another beautiful, personal and original episode to her Cello 020 series with this programme around the life story of composer Shostakovich. She performs in this concert together with...
Tomas Ross, ook wel de godfather van de Nederlandse ‘faction’ genoemd, sluit met zijn nieuwe thriller Het verdriet van Wilhelmina zijn trilogie over Nederlands-Indië af. ,,Lezers zeggen vaak: bij u weten we nooit wat waar is en wat niet waar. Dat kun je een bezwaar vinden, maar ik vind het een compliment.’’ Arnie Springer De nieuwe thriller van Tomas…
'I admire the strength of women. I experience it as greater than that of men. Women's strength lies in the dedication with which they can deal with things. The courage to push boundaries.' Jens van Daele, in his latest theatre show 'Nighthexen 1: Jeanne', pays tribute to the strength of women and highlights their heroism from...
On Wednesday 24 January, the Nederlands Kamerkoor presents an adventurous concert at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ to kick off a short tour. On the lecterns are rarely heard music by Lili Boulanger and Ton de Leeuw. The highlight is Igor Stravinsky's famous Psalm Symphony in a version for choir and piano four hands by Dmitri Shostakovich. Ralph van Raat and Bobby Mitchell sign...
Meer dan een miljoen Nederlanders voelt zich zeer eenzaam, aldus de Gezondheidsmonitor 2012. Hieronder zijn steeds meer jongeren – alle sociale media ten spijt. Misschien zouden we deze ‘eenzaamheidsepidemie’ een halt toe kunnen roepen als we ons realiseerden dat geen van ons werkelijk alleen is. Wat we zo vaak vergeten, is dat we direct verbonden zijn met duizenden anderen: de mensen…
From 18 January, The Hague is all about Winternachten. In our opinion, this is the most fun literature festival in the west of the Netherlands. This year, it is about Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood, the motto of the French Revolution, among other things. But also about Karl Marx. Under the motto 'we the people', Winternachten is therefore about populism and secession,...
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...
How should you grieve? Is there any way to grieve, or are you at the mercy of fate? How do you deal with someone in grief? Grief therapist Julia Samuel has been helping people who have lost a loved one for 25 years. By now, she knows how to and, more importantly, how not to. In March this year, a few days before...
What would Italy be like a year after the earthquakes, we had wondered. What would be left of the centuries-old cultural heritage in this beautiful region on the border of Umbria, Marche and Lazio? Why do you never really hear about it in the news anymore? We ourselves, Vivian de Gier and Marc Brester, residents of just...
Although Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) is considered one of the most important French composers of the early 20th century, her music is rarely performed. On Friday 10 November, Du fond de l'abîme will be heard in the AVROTROS Friday Concert. A godsend, because this setting of psalm 130 is of a throat-splitting beauty. Boulanger completed the piece in 1917, a year before her death. American conductor James...
In February 2017, The Collective combined the radical music of Galina Ustvolskaya with the heavenly chants of Hildegard von Bingen. Less strange than it seems, as both were deeply religious and composed from inner necessity. On Thursday 26 October, Spectra Ensemble places Ustvolskaya alongside Karel Goeyvaerts at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. Ustvolskaya is well enough known here in the country by now, but who was...
De bezuinigingen op de kunstsubsidies zijn afgewenteld op de zwakste schouders. Minister Jet Bussemaker wond er in een van haar laatste publieke optredens geen doekjes om. ‘Ik heb vaak de veerkracht van de sector geprezen, en dat mogen we ook best vieren,’ verklaarde ze gisteren bij de presentatie van de Code Fair Practice, ‘maar ik zag ook dat gesubsidieerde instellingen…
To his own dismay, Simeon ten Holt became famous as the composer of a single piece: Canto ostinato for four pianos. This composition immediately struck a chord at its world premiere in 1979. It still sounds just about every day somewhere in the world, in all possible line-ups. From 12 to 14 October, the Noord Nederlands Orkest will present a...
Completely unexpectedly, bass-baritone Pieter Vis (1949-2017) died on Thursday 28 September, aged 68. A brain haemorrhage proved fatal to him. Just that morning, he had shared a post on Facebook from the radio programme De Ochtend van Vier. - Under his pseudonym Pyoter Riba, the Russian translation of his name. Since he discovered this social medium, he showed himself to be an enthusiastic user
A field littered with landmines. This is what life feels like sometimes. In waiting rooms, for example. Uncomfortable situations. What should you say to each other? Timorous glances shoot past each other. Hidden tension pounds against your muscles. Everyone is afraid of everyone else. And of themselves. Fobia by Davide Bellotta is one of three works with which young choreographers present themselves in the programme
Speaking of diversity, within the dominantly white theatre audience, it is also full of bubbles. Over the past two weeks, for instance, I have just let it dawn on me how little overlap there is between the audiences of the two art theatres in my city, Utrecht. At least: for a while I sort of immersed myself in the world of...
We like to be touched, we Dutch. And if we are not touched ourselves, we want to touch others. These are the two main reasons why people seek out poetry. This memorable fact has come to light thanks to research by Utrecht scientist Kila van der Starre. She will soon receive her PhD on a quantitative study into...
On 11 September 1985, the biggest train disaster in Portuguese history occurred. Near Alcafache, an international express train collided with a local boom train. Nothing was ever recovered from dozens of passengers. They were totally charred in the scorching inferno. Portuguese writer João Ricardo Pedro, in his stunning novel Underway, reconstructs how one of those missing ended up in that place where...
'When Paul moves his little finger something happens. They have a scene where Jochem draws a picture of Paul. Paul is posing naked. And that lasts. That takes a long time. You and I, as amateurs, would fill that with all sorts of poses and movements, but Paul doesn't do anything. You think. And all sorts of things happen. HIj is doing something, then, but....
If you're reading this, I assume you know what Game of Thrones is. Who Daenerys Targaryen is, and Jaime Lannister and Sansa Stark. Ramsay Bolton? We are never going to talk about that again. Nor am I going to explain that it is one of the most successful TV series of all time, based on the book series 'A Song of...
Ze bestaan al 25 jaar maar bruisen alsof ze gisteren zijn opgericht. Met de creatie van een kunstwerk bij vliegveld Eelde – vanaf vandaag live te volgen – én exposities op 25 locaties in en rondom Groningen vieren de kunstenaars van het internationale kunstenaarscollectief toyisme hun jubileum. Eigenzinnig, origineel en geëngageerd zijn misschien wel de belangrijkste kenmerken van dit internationale…
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