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Zvizdal - Chernobyl so far so close, by Berlin/The Zuidelijk Toneel

If you have nothing but love - Zvizdal is stunning highlight of Festival Boulevard #tfboulevard

I experienced by far one of the most impressive theatre experiences of my life on Friday 5 August 2016. I was a guest at 'Zvizdal - Chernobyl so far, so close' by the Flemish company Berlin, in co-production with Het Zuidelijk Toneel. I saw this 'documentary installation' in an empty factory hall in Den Bosch, where the work is a beautiful resting point in... 

Poubelle, fragment of cover

Poubelle by Pieter Waterdrinker: MH17 and the stench of Europe

The Netherlands is commemorating the MH17 disaster this month. Two years on, the question of guilt is still not unequivocally answered. The protagonist of Pieter Waterdrinker's novel Poubelle has less trouble with that: who holds himself mostly responsible. A conversation with correspondent novelist Waterdrinker: on modern European history, the Russian mentality, Great Literature and the shit of contemporary Europe.

The Dark Ages: beautiful investigative theatre by Milo Rau. #HF16

Bij  'The Dark Ages'  denken we aan de ruwe rauwe donkere middeleeuwen, met kerk en koning en zonder hygiëne. De Zwitserse regisseur Milo Rau verwijst met zijn voorstelling, die nu in het Holland Festival te zien is, echter naar een veel recenter stuk Europese geschiedenis. In een recent interview met de Cultuurpers zegt hij hierover:
“De Verenigde Staten van Europa zijn too big to fail, maar ik heb idee dat we afstevenen op een moment van catharsis  waarna heel veel zal veranderen. Ik wilde dat...

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'The European is an orphan' - Milo Rau on The Dark Ages #HF16

Swiss playwright Milo Rau created a theatrical trilogy about the demise of the European ideal. The second part The Dark Ages is now at the Holland Festival. Rau combined his actors' painful, personal life stories with themes from the works of Chekhov, Shakespeare and the Greek tragedies. With a Freudian sauce: 'Countless people who are The Dark Ages have seen ask me: 'Milo, is something wrong with your father?'

Composer Marie Jaëll: French flair, Russian drama

Had her name been Marc, Marie Jaëll (1846-1925) was undoubtedly considered one of the important French composers of the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. But then again, she was once a woman - so unimportant. Praised during her lifetime by none other than Franz Liszt, she was soon forgotten after her death. At most, she lived on in the by... 

Susan Neiman chief guest at Winternachten 2016: Why the atomic bomb really fell on Hiroshima

Propaganda is not just something that occurs in, say, Russia, but also in the West - more so than we ourselves realise. For example, is it widely believed today that the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan to capitulate and thus end World War II, nothing could be further from the truth. In that respect, Germany goes... 

Arvo Pärt's music: not always a warm bath

What titles come to mind when you hear the name Arvo Pärt? Sonatina opus 1; Symphony no. 1; Perpetuum mobile, or Fratres; Für Alina; Spiegel im Spiegel? My guess is the second set, because it was with pieces like these that Pärt conquered the world in the late 20th century. Audiences flocked in droves to immerse themselves in his sonorous sound world, but... 

Autumn of reflection

Movies that Matter will not only see you at the festival in March. The film event, organised by Amnesty International, will also tour several film houses in the Netherlands this autumn. It kicks off in October with the screening of Hubert Sauper's documentary We come as friends. In his earlier film Darwin's nightmare, this award-winning Austrian showed... 

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.... 

Where did Rachmaninov's success come from?

Actually, Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was a bit of an oddity, an anachronism. He bit into the composition style of his great example Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who died in 1893. When contrasting Rachmaninov with some of his contemporaries (Dmitri Shostakowich, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Strawinsky and overseas Charles Ives, George Antheil and Edgard Varèse), it is only right to notice... 

World Press Photo wants to start selling photos. To help photographers.

Een betere plek om persfoto’s te vertonen dan een kerk is er eigenlijk niet. Tenminste, zolang het zo’n Nederlandse kerk als die in Naarden is. Witgepleisterde muren, geen afleidende beelden en schilderingen. En dan toch die gewijde sfeer die een beetje hoort bij wat al die winnaars van World Press Photo 2015 uitbeelden: verschrikkelijke verhalen, glorieuze overwinningen en mysteries die… 

Photo: Viktor Vassiliev

Russian Cherry Garden in Amsterdam: 5 important things learned #HF15

There was an air of more expensive perfume in the foyers than at a Dutch gala premiere. The women were younger and smoother, or had a better botox doctor than usual. The jewellery looked very expensive, as did the dresses. Russian sounded everywhere. It seemed as if Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg had been moved for a while to PC Hooftstraat, a few hundred metres away.... 

photo Filip Van Roe

Appointment of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui turns ballet world upside down  

Contemporary choreographer Sibi Larbi becomes the new director of Ballet Flanders in Antwerp. A striking and unorthodox choice. Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, meanwhile, may stay away from De Munt in Brussels. What's up Belgium?

Geld is wat op is in België. De laatste ontwikkelingen, mede vanwege bezuinigingen ingezet, doen stof opwaaien in de Belgische danssector. Protest bij de Keersmaeker enerzijds en vrees bij pure balletliefhebbers anderzijds. De wijziging zou vertaald voor Nederland zoiet...

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Fifa executive turns out to be art expert

That it smells a bit like rotten fish in the Fifa offices is well enough known. The men's club of upstart youth team managers has refined its own revenue model considerably. So now it appears it is no longer just about beautiful women, cocaine, money and other things you put in brown envelopes, but about art. And then it gets interesting. According to a further... 

The Eastern Bloc Book. An indispensable travel book for a vanished empire

So it really does exist. A high road through the mountains of Romania. Completed in 1974. Viewed by my father in the same year, while his 'guide' told him not to walk too close to the edge, because he would not be the first to crash over the edge. After which his 'guide', the secret agent that every western journalist... 

Can art institutions learn from the success story of a Rotterdam hair salon?

It is a little after ten o'clock. I'm on my way to the bakery on Rotterdam's Nieuwe Binnenweg. I pass a coffee shop, a bicycle shop, an off-licence. I also pass the hairdresser's where about 12 men are waiting in front of the door. An hour before the doors open. "Yes but wait... A hairdresser that doesn't open until 11 o'clock... 

A performance that really makes you feel the futility of war. Demarrage by Charlotte Caeckaert on @tfboulevard

Flemish actors can speak. Flemish actors usually don't need microphones to make themselves understood over a storm, or from 100 metres away in the open air. Charlotte Caeckaert is one such actress who can do all that, and such technique is a joy to witness. She also writes lyrics, and that's where things go a little wrong.... 

Meanwhile, the Manifesta continues as usual in Petersburg. Is that choice?

Ongeveer tegelijk met de trein van Donjetsk naar Charkov arriveerde gisteren een persbericht in mijn mailbox van de Manifesta. Onze culturele trots in Sint Petersburg.  Deze weken organiseert het Nederlandse festival een audiotour door Rimini Protokoll, het vermaarde sterk politieke gezelschap uit Duitsland. O. En, als derde item: er is vanavond een gesprek over wat de Biënnale vermag in tijden van politieke onrust.
In die aankondiging geen woord over het neerhalen van 298 vrije wereldburgers do...

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Reinbert de Leeuw in Zomergasten, not in Muziekzomer

Over ruim twee weken start de NJO Muziekzomer, met meer dan vijfenzestig concerten uitgevoerd door jonge musici, verspreid over meer en minder voor de hand liggende locaties in de provincie Gelderland. Vanuit heel de wereld stroomden honderdzestig jongeren toe om van 1 tot en met 17 augustus hun kunnen te vertonen. Wie dan in Gelderland verblijft, kan hun aanwezigheid onmogelijk missen.
Er zijn optredens op voormalige fabrieksterreinen, zoals het Zoetenlaboratorium in Arnhem, het Zwitsalterrein ...

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