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Nicolas Mansfield

From 'artistic director' to 'deputy artistic director': what is Josef Fuchs' position at the Netherlands Reisopera?

by Wijbrand Schaap
29 September 202129 September 2021
3 min read
ACTUAL, Featured, OPERA, PODCAST, PODIUM ART, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

Vorige week maandag, 20 september, presenteerde de Nederlandse Reisopera het programma voor het komende seizoen. Het woord werd gevoerd door Josef Fuchs, die door de algemeen directeur a.i. Nina Hiddema werd geïntroduceerd als nieuwe artistiek leider van het gezelschap. Een feestelijke gebeurtenis, die in het kleine gezelschap (een paar journalisten en wat collega’s) lichte verwondering veroorzaakte. In een interview (hieronder…

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Opgelost(?): Ombudsman Trouw geeft onzorgvuldigheid toe.

by Wijbrand Schaap
7 May 201830 March 2022
5 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, MEDIA, OPERA, PODIUM ART

Dit was de mail van de redactie van Trouw, d.d. 9 mei 2018: “De heer A. Bakx heeft al sinds 2014 het telefoonnummer en emailadres dat we nu van hem hebben, onder deze naam. Wij gaan er dan ook vanuit dat hij A. Bakx is.” Werd ondersteund door een mail aan Erwin Roebroeks, waarin sprake was van een telefoongesprek met…

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Dutch Reisopera 2018-19: We're waiting for the curtain to rise!

by Thea Derks
21 February 201830 March 2022
4 min read
For members only, OPERA, PODIUM ART

We're sitting in the opera house; We're waiting for the curtain to arise With wonders for our eyes; We're feeling pretty gay, [...] A feeling of expectancy, A certain kind of ecstasy, Expectancy and ecstasy... Sh's's's's. "Curtain!" With the above words, Charles Ives sang of the excitement of a child going to the opera for the first time. A similar enthusiasm shows...

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Speed and humour in Reisopera's Don Giovanni

by Thea Derks
5 March 201729 March 2022
5 min read
For members only, OPERA, PODIUM ART

When the Commendatore suddenly rises from his bier in the mortuary, Leporello recoils violently. He smacks painfully against the back wall, as if struck by a gust of hurricane-force wind. This cartoonish image is just one of many hilarious moments in Don Giovanni by the Nederlandse Reisopera. This production was performed after its premiere Saturday 4 March in the...

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New Year's Eve lottery winner overturns culture cuts

by Henri Drost
12 January 201728 December 2018
3 min read
ACTUAL, INTERNET, MEDIA

A usually reliable source reports that the winner of the New Year's Eve lottery wants to dedicate a significant part of her prize to culture. In this way, she wants to undo the cuts made by Rutte I. Six million will go directly to the Dutch Travel Opera. Another four million is earmarked for a new integral performance of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen. Also scheduled is a revival of Tristan und Isolde...

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Bold. @martinbosma_pvv provokes threat unknown Dutch. #ikwilook

by Henri Drost
21 December 201629 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Geert Wilders was quick off the mark, after the attack in Berlin, in posting a photoshopped picture of Angela Merkel with blood on her hands. The message was all too clear. Even more opportunistic and shocking was the list posted half a day later by Martin Bosma, media and culture spokesman. Bosma's tweet included a list of names. Caption "These...

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24 miljoen voor cultuur erbij! Of 80 euro! Of 0,0015 euro!

by Henri Drost
30 August 201630 May 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, PERSONAL

Het is in deze verkiezingstijd maar hoe je het brengt en berekent. Die 24 miljoen extra voor cultuur, waarvan Pechtold triomfantelijk repte met als aanvulling dat ‘de tocht door de woestijn na 2016 voorbij is’, heeft vooralsnog evenveel waarde als de roemruchte 1000 euro van Rutte: eerst zien, dan geloven. En aangezien Pechtold er verder geen enkele toelichting bij gaf,…

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Nicolas Mansfield: Today I feel more European than ever. #Brexit

by Nicolas Mansfield
25 June 201630 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, OPERA, PERSONAL, PODIUM ART

24th of June, 2016. What a day. I spent it at the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in The Hague. Speaking with civil servants about the achievements, plans, challenges and dreams of the Dutch National Touring Opera. All in the shadow of something I find difficult to process.

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Nicolas Mansfield 'Dutch Travel Opera still needs €500,000'

by Ewa Maria Wagner
21 April 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL, OPERA

The past and future of the Netherlands Reisopera are dominated by money worries. Nicolas Mansfield, director, during the season presentation on 20 April last in the foyer of Theatre Carré, stressed not only the necessity of a national opera company's existence but, above all, the necessary quality requirements to keep attracting audiences. And quality cannot exist without decent...

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Nederlandse Reisopera, Orkest van het Oosten, Consensus Vocalis én 600 meezingers geven les in de hoofdstad: verbinden doe je zo!

by Henri Drost
8 December 201530 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, MUSIC

Strak en messcherp? Welnee. Maar daar gaat het deze middag ook helemaal niet om. Hier wordt het feest van samen zingen gevierd, met als eindresultaat een uitvoering van Händels oratorium die je niet op cd wilt, maar die een verrassend hoog niveau heeft en die je bovenal voor geen goud had willen missen. Veel is er geschreven over de problemen…

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Orchestra of the East reinstated: HET Symphony Orchestra has 'new' name

by Henri Drost
30 November 201518 March 2016
8 min read
ACTUAL, MUSIC

Van Nederlands Symfonieorkest met internationale ambities terug naar provinciaal orkest met vooralsnog helemaal niets. Nu, op de ijzersterke oorspronkelijke naam na dan. Het zou een reclamespot voor Telfort kunnen zijn. Daartussen zitten vele verloren rechtszaken, de groteske protestnaam *****Symfonieorkest en het al even schreeuwerige HET Symfonieorkest. Het is de ultieme capitulatie van het ooit door zo’n beetje alles en iedereen…

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“Dit stuk draagt de geschiedenis al met zich mee”

by Henri Drost
4 November 20154 November 2015
4 min read
ACTUAL, OPERA

Terezín, 1944. In de meest deplorabele omstandigheden denkbaar voltooit Victor Ullmann de opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis. De kampleiding verbiedt na enkele repetities een eerste uitvoering. De niet mis te verstane allegorie op Hitler en diens ondergang leidt tot een van de zeldzame vormen van censuur in het kamp, dat de nazi’s als een voorbeeld aan het Rode Kruis toonden.…

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Half-hearted advice puts touring opera companies at odds with each other

by Henri Drost
10 April 201530 March 2022
4 min read
For members only, OPERA

There is too little money for two travelling opera companies. Quality is at risk, something must be done. But the Culture Council does not offer a solution.

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Municipal politics remain powerless over cultural policy content, this time in Enschede

by Henri Drost
30 January 2015
5 min read
ACTUAL

Municipal cultural politics are often about 'bricks and mortar'. People put up a cultural building and then pray/hope that fantastic things will happen there, which the city council, in turn, has no money for/power over. Take Enschede. In a council meeting in which it was decided to reinvest in cultural bricks by means of a €475,000 loan, there was actually some unrest. No, not about those bricks, but about...

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Timeless staging of St John Passion grips at throat

by Henri Drost
23 March 201411 July 2016
3 min read
OPERA

The main character of Bach's St John Passion? Jesus, of course. Wrong. It is the narrator, the evangelist, especially in Dale Duesing's wonderful staging, especially when interpreted by Robert Burt. Where in ordinary performances of the Johannes the evangelist's recitatives mainly interrupt the arias and choral passages, here they form the dramatic core. We truly see John's passion.

Read More "Timeless staging of St John Passion grips at throat

Nederlandse Reisopera with a musical. With Sanne Wallis de Vries. In Royal Theatre Carré.

by Henri Drost
17 February 201430 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, OPERA

No, the company is not afraid of competition. Nor of cooperation, as evidenced by the jubilantly received Fairy queen with Veenfabriek and Combattimento, the orchestra led until recently by Jan Willem de Vriend.

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Tristan und Isolde at Reisopera, something special happens here

by Henri Drost
23 September 201311 July 2016
4 min read
MUSIC, OPERA

A Brünhilde who does not burst into flames but endures the Götterdämmerung with a baby in her arms, a Senta who does not jump off a cliff but is shot by Erik together with the Holländer. No one really looks surprised anymore. And Isoldes who do not die in the Liebestod are no exception, but Tristan who rises from the dead, as it were, by Isolde's notes reaching into heaven, stands diagonally behind her and sings along soundlessly?

Read More "Tristan und Isolde at Reisopera, something special happens here

Tristan und Isolde is the ultimate declaration of love

by Henri Drost
18 September 201311 July 2016
6 min read
ACTUAL, MUSIC, OPERA

"That sounds different. A bit sad."

I just played F, B, D♯ and G♯. Better known as the Tristan chord. But on guitar. My audience consists of 15 toddlers.

Read More "Tristan und Isolde is the ultimate declaration of love

Ed Spanjaard unleashes primal forces in Götterdämmerung Reisopera

by Henri Drost
3 October 20128 July 2016
6 min read
ACTUAL, MUSIC, OPERA

The closing applause after the premiere of Götterdämmerung stormy, is an understatement. It seemed as if the completely sold-out auditorium wanted to surpass the primal forces extracted from the Gelders Orkest by Ed Spanjaard. History was made here: on stage, by the soloists and choir, in the orchestra pit and behind the scenes, for six hours and 20 minutes.

Read More "Ed Spanjaard unleashes primal forces in Götterdämmerung Reisopera

Is Jan Willem de Vriend naïef, of liegt hij glashard?

by Henri Drost
23 March 20128 July 2016
6 min read
ACTUAL, MUSIC, OPERA

We schreven al uitvoerig over de Ajax-toestanden in Enschede: orkest en opera liggen met elkaar overhoop over een onverwachte operasubsidie-aanvraag van het orkest. Geschrokken door de ontstane commotie heeft een aantal van de betrokkenen inmiddels gereageerd. Verdomd jammer alleen dat die reacties niet op één lijn liggen.

Read More "Is Jan Willem de Vriend naïef, of liegt hij glashard?