Skip to content

new york

Biodesign

Happy jerk or depressed bacteria? Biodesign is the future, according to William Myers

What idiot could come up with that, one of the attendees wondered: that you can make electrical circuits by combining the DNA of an algae with that of a hamster? Just a question that comes to mind when walking around the exhibition Biodesign, on show in Rotterdam from 27 September to 5 January (2014). And then there's... 

Oudolf's sturdy sprites replace floating trestles in Rotterdam harbour

Piet Oudolf, the Dutch garden artist who changed the face of New York, is best known in the Netherlands as a glorified plant book author. After many major cities worldwide, Rotterdam is the first city in the Netherlands to have a park designed by the now 69-year-old designer. And immediately it becomes clear what we have missed so much in our 'public green space' all these years. So it is absolutely right that Oudolf is awarded the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund Prize in November.

Last we...

You can now log in to continue reading!

Welcome to the Culture Press archive! As a member, you have access to all, over 4,000 posts we have made since our inception in 2009!

(Recent posts (under three months old) are available for all to read, thanks to our members!)

Become a member, or log in below:

ellen edinoff

Dance pioneer Ellen Edinoff matured the dance world

Dancer Ellen Edinoff died in her hometown of Amsterdam on Tuesday at the age of 70. Together with her husband Koert Stuyf, Ellen formed a unique dance couple in the 1960s-'70s that evoked reactions in extremes. Thanks in part to them, the Dutch dance world came of age. Ellen battled her illness for the last three years. She was still able to make a comeback on stage in 2012.

American Ellen Edinoff met Koert Stuyf in New York. They settled in the Netherlands where they worked on...

You can now log in to continue reading!

Welcome to the Culture Press archive! As a member, you have access to all, over 4,000 posts we have made since our inception in 2009!

(Recent posts (under three months old) are available for all to read, thanks to our members!)

Become a member, or log in below:

Departure of business leader Nederlands Dans Theater Van Leer for personal reasons

On the day that a vote was to be held in The Hague on the new Spui Forum, it has been announced that Robert van Leer is leaving as business director of Nederlands Dans Theater. Van Leer is resigning for purely "personal reasons", according to the press officer of the renowned dance company.

Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo disappoints with storm painting at @hollandfestival

So there is figurative music. Music that, like a figurative painting, offers a fairly accurate depiction of reality. Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo's composition 'Hurricane Transcriptions' is such a picture: 17 strings from the rather peerless ensemble Kaleidoskop do a nice impression of Hurricane Sandy that hit New York last year, and Lee Ranaldo sings a song to go with it.

Disappointing? Pretty much. Actually as disappointing as the performance of...

You can now log in to continue reading!

Welcome to the Culture Press archive! As a member, you have access to all, over 4,000 posts we have made since our inception in 2009!

(Recent posts (under three months old) are available for all to read, thanks to our members!)

Become a member, or log in below:

Reisopera 2.0 presents itself and blows dust off gala

With a real gala, the Reisopera 2.0 presents itself. And immediately strips the gala of its stuffy image. With thanks to the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble.

Because opera gala? Well, we hoist ourselves into our tux, exchange pleasantries, mean or otherwise, in the lobby with the other invited guests, and are presented with an hour and a half of excerpts from operas, sung by soloists in the neatest attire.

This is how it goes at most major opera houses. Milan, New York, Berlin - the gala with which the ...

You can now log in to continue reading!

Welcome to the Culture Press archive! As a member, you have access to all, over 4,000 posts we have made since our inception in 2009!

(Recent posts (under three months old) are available for all to read, thanks to our members!)

Become a member, or log in below:

Chamber - Medhi Walerski

NDT in motion: on stage, the silver screen and behind it

Being active on social media like Facebook or Twitter is now a must for any dance company. But broadcasting a dance performance (live) via 600 cinemas worldwide is no mean feat either. NDT (The Hague) has been chosen by Pathé theatres to join the illustrious list of The Metropolitan Opera (New York), The National Theatre (London) and the Bolshoi Ballet (Moscow) as a partner in high-level performing arts.

Ivo van Hove is God. According to New Yorkers.

Anyway: while Amsterdam's city newspaper Parool was embarking on a campaign against the Dutch capital's city company at the behest of the Flemish publishing board, the same Toneelgroep Amsterdam was winning the hearts of New York audiences with a production of the already years-old 'Roman Tragedies', which a few here did not even like overall: http://www.wijbrandschaap.nl/2007/06/romeinse-tragedies-hf2007ta/

No sour sounds in America so far. This sam...

You can now log in to continue reading!

Welcome to the Culture Press archive! As a member, you have access to all, over 4,000 posts we have made since our inception in 2009!

(Recent posts (under three months old) are available for all to read, thanks to our members!)

Become a member, or log in below:

Their carnival is already more fun, too. Brazilian arts budget grows by 10% a year.

Brazil has 10% more to spend on arts, sports and entertainment every year, plus an extra 600 million this year. street art in Brazil If we in the Netherlands ever start growing the economy again, we can choose between the Chinese and Brazilian models. In China, growth goes mainly to puissant wealthy entrepreneurs, and wealthier citizens buy en masse... 

41st International Film Festival Rotterdam opens with disturbing French drama 38 Témoins

Compared to previous editions, you could almost call the choice of opening film that kicks off the Rotterdam Film Festival tonight almost un-Rotterdamian. No wild young debut, exotic Asian or artistic crossover this time. The French book adaptation 38 Témoins, which has its world premiere in Rotterdam tonight, is the seventh feature by Walloon actor/director Lucas Belvaux and has already been acquired... 

Big plus for the writer who can also narrate #wu12

Helon Habila His voice is low, and when he talks, he does so calmly and thoughtfully. He regards his humour - very British - as a side effect that is more accidental, than intended. This makes Helon Habila a perfect guest for the opening night of Writers Unlimited, the Hague literature festival better known as 'Winternachten'. The Nigerian can... 

Miraculous play on age-old techniques mirrors Stravinky's music in 50,000 litres of water and 50 minutes

Thai and Vietnamese puppetry. Acrobats, Chinese shadow play and Japanese costumes. A Chinese conductor for a Dutch orchestra, a Canadian directing team and, as the main work, a scant 50-minute opera by a Russian composer, based on a fairy tale by a Danish writer who took his inspiration from China. Loosely.

That, and fifty thousand litres of water, are the ingredients for The Nightingale and Other Fables at Amsterdam's Muziektheater. A performance...

You can now log in to continue reading!

Welcome to the Culture Press archive! As a member, you have access to all, over 4,000 posts we have made since our inception in 2009!

(Recent posts (under three months old) are available for all to read, thanks to our members!)

Become a member, or log in below:

Rush to festival featuring Dutch youth theatre on Broadway

In the country where Jan Klaasen is only allowed to beat up Katrijn with a hot-air balloon, because a puppet show clubbing is not good for delicate children's souls, Dutch professional youth theatre turns out to be unexpectedly in demand. In short, a genuine Dutch youth theatre festival in New York has already sold 2,500 tickets, and it is still going strong. Of at least two of the four productions... 

The 1 per cent and the concert hall; classical music as a henchman of the rich against 'the 99 per cent'

While anti-capitalists were plotting to occupy Amsterdam's Beursplein this week - if you can at least put the protesters under that heading - in the US, anger over THE 99 PERCENT shifted to the concert hall. The discussion flared up in response to two events. Wall Street was occupied; and the Metropolitan Opera received $182 million in donations in one year, a record amount.... 

Record amount of donations for New York Metropolitan Opera, but ticket sales down for years

The New York Times reports that the Metropolitan Opera in New York has brought in record donations this fiscal year. The tally stands at $182 million. This is 50 per cent more than the previous year. However, revenue from ticket sales has been declining for a few years. In addition, since general manager Peter Gelb took office, spending patterns are soaring.... 

Neutral Hero: Like a steam locomotive tugging slowly over you #dekeuze

'I will never go to anything undergrounds again,' sighs a lady as she leaves the auditorium. She looks pained, after more than an hour and a half of Neutral Hero by director Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players. The paper description of the show may therefore lead a potential visitor astray. A 'country opera' sounds far too... 

Grassroots Arts Centre in Lucas

Small arts initiatives in the US are going to have a very hard time

Opponents of government support for arts and culture quite often cite the United States of America as an example of how things can be done differently. There, according to these people, no tax money goes to art and culture, and art is there despite this. Others point out that America does have government support for art, and that much of the top art in the US is partly... 

You'd be interested to know what Spalding Gray and Christoph Schlingensief would have had to say to each other.

Cover of Spalding Gray At the Holland Festival, two minds wander. The loudest is that of Christoph Schlingensief, Germany's most independent filmmaker, theatre-maker, activist and enfant terrible, always good for controversy. After being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008, he processed his anger and fear in Eine Kirche der Angst vor dem Fremden in mir, presented in 2009 at... 

Moma shows video artwork previously barred from Smithsonian by American Christians

As recently as November, the Smithonian patronage-funded National Portait Gallery removed the work, following protests by US Catholics and Republicans. They found the video, titled 'A fire in my belly' by New York artist David Wojnarowicz, who died in 1992, offensive. Yesterday, the Metroplitan Museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York announced the work they had given the... 

Russian soul dissected: religion and vodka create moral dilemmas

photo Sl-Ziga

By Willem Jan Keizer

Rotterdam - Thanks to conductor Valeri Gergyev, we get more insight into the huge reservoir of Russian composers. Rodion Shchedrin for example. Last year a piano concerto of his was performed, Sunday night in de Doelen it was his opera for the concert stage 'The Enchanted Wanderer', after the book 'The Enchanted Wanderer' by Nikolai Leskov. The opera is dedicated to conductor Lorin Maazel, who also conducted the premiere in New York in 2002.

Despite Dillane's splendid role, soporific Tempest shows failure of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project #hf10

 By Wijbrand Schaap (photo by Joan Marcus) You can have Bach's St Matthew Passion performed by 15 canaries, an electric guitar, a drum kit, a ukulele and a accordion, and it will still be beautiful, because it is Bach. Similarly, you can have Shakespeare's up-and-coming British plays performed by a group of Americans, and it will... 

Private Membership (month)
5 / Maand
For natural persons and self-employed persons.
No annoying banners
A special newsletter
Own mastodon account
Access to our archives
Small Membership (month)
18 / Maand
For cultural institutions with a turnover/subsidy of less than €250,000 per year
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
All our podcasts
Your own Mastodon account
Access to archives
Posting press releases yourself
Extra attention in news coverage
Large Membership (month)
36 / Maand
For cultural institutions with a turnover/subsidy of more than €250,000 per year.
No annoying banners
A special newsletter
Your own Mastodon account
Access to archives
Share press releases with our audience
Extra attention in news coverage
Premium Newsletter (substack)
5 trial subscriptions
All our podcasts

Payments are made via iDeal, Paypal, Credit Card, Bancontact or Direct Debit. If you prefer to pay manually, based on an invoice in advance, we charge a 10€ administration fee

*Only for annual membership or after 12 monthly payments

en_GBEnglish (UK)