It was like the wind hated me;
it tore at me like a hound at its meal.
Newspaper flew about like trees in a hurricane;
the doors opened and closed
like a man realising he’s gone mute.
The smell was like sour milk left lone.
On the ground was a bouquet of roses and bluebells;
butterflies in a deep black void.
The only [...]

On Saturday, 22 November, the Pathe Buitenhof spoils us with a further live broadcast from New York, bringing La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz to The Hague. Subtitled ‘a dramatic legend’, Berlioz’ musical creation feeds on the ancestral quest for right, wrong and the transitions thereof, whilst this particular staging makes use of the [...]

Claiming to stage a novelty performance of Mozart’s Requiem in this day and age is either boisterous or daring or foolish or all of the aforementioned, to say the least. And yet, the consummate musicians gathered under the aegis of Musica Poetica, a very young baroque orchestra rapidly gaining the respect of their peers worldwide [...]

Crammed into one sentence, one could say that James Benning is an unknown celebrity in the world of filmmaking – unknown to most, he is a star of his sub-genre, a magical department of cinematography called so unimaginatively ‘experimental film making’. Between 20 –26 November, the Filmhuis in The Hague shows a selection of Benning’s [...]

I dragged my kids to O’Casey’s at 6.30 am, to be together with fellow human beings when I first hear the news. I remember the Transylvanian December 1989 with painful clarity; when history unravels it is best to be un-alone, that is: in company. This morning Noordeinde was still and the pub was half full. [...]