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'My mother's death was the beginning of my writing'

'Exciting and accessible, with great tragic content and an unexpected and poignant ending'. With those words, writer Jan Vantoortelboom was awarded the Zeeland Book Prize last week. A Quattro Mani visited him in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and talked to him about his novel De man die haast had. 'I have grown as a writer.' Writing house 'The Tortelnest' adorns the hand-painted... 

'Taking part in an invasion is a thousand times harder than writing a book about it'

Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games... Would young people still be interested in history? Writer Anke Manschot believes so. On the eve of Children's Book Week, which starts today, her exciting and gripping historical book The Leap of Normandy was published, the world's first children's novel about D-Day. Five questions for the author. Historical children's novel During a holiday in Normandy,... 

The six shows you must see in October

Opera2Day, Mariken in de tuin der lusten (opera) The young The Hague company Opera2Day produces one splendid performance after another. But at the same time it does not rest on all its laurels, opting for adventure by presenting an entirely new opera together with the Nationale Toneel. At the centre is Mariken van Nieumeghen, the girl "who lived with the devil for seven years", the music is by Calliope Tsoupaki and... 

The five shows you must see in September

Nederlandse Reisopera, Madama Butterfly (opera), 3 September to 10 October Dutch sopranos are like footballers. They fly halfway around the world, but are only rarely seen in their own country. Take Annemarie Kremer, nominated in Germany as 'Sängerin des Jahres'. The Nederlandse Reisopera is taking her all over the Netherlands in the role that brought her world fame: the title role of Madama ... 

Writer Jonas Gardell: 'I slept with death'.

With the completion of the trilogy A Story of Love, Illness and Death, about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, a heavy burden fell from his heart for Swedish writer Jonas Gardell. As one of the few in his circle of friends, he escaped the dance of death. Pure luck, he says. 'I slept with death.' Also, the last... 

Marjolijn van Kooten's 'Schijtluis' is honest and disconcerting

Cabaret artist Marjolijn van Kooten (43) has an anxiety disorder. With her book 'Schijtluis', she wants to break a taboo: if you suffer from an anxiety disorder, you should not be ashamed of it. Van Kooten writes extensively about her fears in 'Schijtluis'. It makes for a quirky and disconcerting book. Schijtluis is a diary. Openly and honestly, Van Kooten describes... 

Letter Bussemaker: butts in seats or artistic recognition?

Minister Jet Bussemaker's letter will keep tongues wagging for a long time to come. There are considerable gaps here and there between the Culture Council's advice and the minister's letter. Also in the field of film and media. A list of differences. Bussemaker notes that the film sector is changing considerably. Media consumption is changing due to the rapid rise... 

The dark side of Ibiza. Esther J. Ending on her new novel 'An island of its own'

'See, that's how it goes.' Esther Ending flips open a magazine containing an interview following her new novel An Island of Her Own, set on Ibiza, the island where she grew up. The article is not about her novel, but, unbeknownst to her, is part of a story about partying, drinking and drug use. [Tweet... 

Selectie Nederlands Theater Festival: een prachtlijst die nergens op slaat

Een prachtlijst. Anders kan de officiële juryselectie van het Nederlands Theater Festival niet omschreven worden. Keurig opgedeeld in grotezaal- en kleinezaalproducties, met ook nog eens een mime- en een locatieproductie. Tegelijkertijd slaat de selectie helemaal nergens op. Want ja, het Theater Festival geeft toe dat het voornamelijk naar toneel kijkt. En zijn er immers niet allerhande prijzen voor opera, jeugdtheater,… 

Tour de France with bow

For the sixth time in its history, the Tour de France will start in the Netherlands: on Saturday 4 July, the cyclists will start their three-week war of attrition under the Dom in Utrecht . A day earlier, the Britten Youth String Orchestra kicks off its own Tour de France, in home town Zwolle. In one week, the young musicians will give seven concerts in La... 

The five shows you must see in May

Nederlandse Reisopera, Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice (opera), 1 May to 6 June Dazzling debut by director Floris Visser at the Nederlandse Reisopera. Rather than showing a centuries-old opera about an even much older myth, he exposes the core of Gluck's opera. It results in a heartbreaking performance about mourning and the inability to accept that your loved one is no longer there.... 

Solness - the National Theatre - Mark Rietman, Anna Raadsveld - photo Kurt Van der Elst

Ibsen in a bubble - Boermans' grippingly austere Solness

A girl stands waving and around her a rain of soap bubbles descends, so many that it almost seems as if the girl is taking off. She stands swaying and her ecstasy and tears of joy slowly turn to deep despair and disbelief. What she sees cannot, cannot be true, because it destroys everything she is - to what she... 

Erkki-Sven Tüür: 'I want to tap into the listener's creativity'

He has been given many labels. From (post-)minimalist to hardcore modernist and from neo-romanticist to neo-spiritualist. 'I don't pay attention to them anymore,' says composer Erkki-Sven Tüür (Estonia, 1959). Yet he responds somewhat surly when I ask in an email what he thinks of such descriptions: 'You either like my music or not.' Via Skype, he answers eight... 

'All-rounder' Boy Edgar staggeringly portrayed

Boy Edgar was the most famous big band leader of his time, but at the same time a busy doctor and an alcoholic. A biography on this ADHD'ing all-rounder was published for the first time. An impressive, sometimes disconcerting book marred only occasionally by factual inaccuracies. By day he was, among other things, a renowned neurologist, a revolutionary abortionist and the first general practitioner in the Bijlmermeer. 's... 

The five shows you must see in March

Theatre Group Oostpool, Angels in America (stage), playlist

To call the epic about America in the AIDS era a modern classic is an understatement. Since 1993, the play has been performed all over the world with great success. HBO turned it into a disappointing miniseries, Péter Eötvös a completely unsuccessful opera. Toneelgroep Amsterdam recently celebrated triumphs as far away as New York with a five-hour version stripped to the bone, partly prompting 'Meppel-gate'. Director Marcus Azzin has been waiting 20 years to give his vision of this theatrical epic, and at Oostpool he now gets the chance, with a cast that includes only top actors.

Clark Terry: a jazz legend airs his heart

Jazz musician and teacher Clark Terry died last month. Jazz journalist Jeroen de Valk looks back on a candid interview with one of the greatest trumpet players of all time. It was only on 21 February that he fell silent, Clark Terry. He was 94 and had been in the musician's business for at least 75 years. Go figure: he made his living as a trumpeter as a young teenager and... 

Minister Bussemaker bij Introdans. Foto: EvaBroekema

Prijzenregen voor Introdans in bijzijn minister Bussemaker

De minister was erbij. Natuurlijk omdat Introdans een belangrijk gezelschap is, maar het was mooi meegenomen dat er bij deze avond met drie wereldpremières ook twee prijzen konden worden uitgereikt. En dat dat dan een ministerieel tintje kreeg. Trots op. Roel Voorintholt, artistiek leider van Introdans was door het publiek verkozen als winnaar van de Oeuvreprijs voor zijn werk met… 

The five shows you must see in February

#1 Salzburger Festspiele / Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz / Katie Mitchell, The forbidden zone (theatre/performance) - Dutch premiere 11 February, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam British director Katie Mitchell is this month's 'arsonist' at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. With performances that are as scintillating as they are transgressive. The forbidden zone is about areas long off-limits to women: science and war. The... 

Thijs Borsten (left), briefly active as a guitarist, with singer Tania Kross and his regular bassist Xander Buvelot. PHOTO MARIE-JOSE ELDERING

Thijs Borsten breaks through with unique musical concept 'The Challenge'

Thijs Borsten blurs boundaries. Under the slogan 'The Challenge', he puts completely different artists on stage together. After years of struggling, the concept is now being embraced by media and audiences. Thijs has a chance of winning his 6 minutes of fame in DWDD in the near future. Bringing artists from different cultures together and labelling such a thing as a 'challenge';... 

Africa is a feeling, says former African writer on Writers Unlimited

Nii Ayikwei Parks wants to write a book describing bad places in Africa as ideal, so that people who use his books as travel guides will be mugged and robbed and thus will learn what fiction is. With this humorous statement, the British-born and British-based writer, who spent his childhood with his Ghanaian parents in Ghana, brings some air into the evening... 

Gooische Vrouwen beat Hobbit. Cinematic year 2014, eerily stable, with five caveats

Stable, stable, stable. That refrain sounded again and again at the announcement of the cinema industry's annual figures at the New Year meeting in Tuschinski. Hajo Binsbergen, vice-chairman of the Netherlands Association of Film Distributors, informed that in 2014, with the high number of 30.8 million visitors, the passage to the cinema was almost the same as 2013. The Dutch market share was with again... 

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