Evening in Brussels - Zàpisnik zmizelého (Leos Janacek)

A short evening with poems from an unknown tchech poet put on music by Leos Janacek. The title means something like 'diary of one who disappeared'. The text are over 20 small poems found in a booklet of a person who disappeared. Leos Janacek saw these poems when they were published and put them on a musical score for piano, tenor, mezzo and a small choir (3 persons here): a remarkable piece. First an actor said the different poems and afterwards the singer came on scene and sang the whole series afterwards. A nihilistic setting which the piano in the middle of the scene. Remarkable color-lightning and superb voices. Especially the poem where the mezzo and the little choir were singing together was of a astonishing tenderness. Also the piano-play was of a high quality. 8 out of 10

Evening at the ballet

Twelve Seasons of Cie Michèle Noiret at the 'théatre Les Tanneurs' and music 'Tierkreis' of Stockhausen played life.
I am starting being difficult now. For me there was no structure in the piece, or if there was one I couldn't find it. Not that it is necessary. I loved some projections of water/clouds on the walls. And on the dance-level (even if for me it was more body-motion/movement than ballet) there were 2 moments I liked : first when 2 groups of three dancers where building stand-still positions where 2 of the 3 dancers are holding each-other without falling, the third one comes in and hold one of the 2 dancers so the other can go away, en so on ... difficult to explain but beautiful to see. The second moment I liked was the solo of a female dancer where she moved (body-motion) in a light-circle. There was one thing very special : they used electronic devices attached to their bodies to make effects on sound, light, projections, but for me they only 'tried' it out, they never developed further the use of one of those electronic devices. 4 out of 10

evening at the theater - De Monstruos y Prodigios, la historia de los 'Castrati'

Saw a Mexican piece at the 'De Bottelarij' about the castrate singers from the baroque period till the beginning of the 20th century. A good piece mostly spoken in Spanish, but hints of French and Italian. A soprano sung/played the part of the castrate. 8 out of 10 I loved the part when a men in the audience, which at the end seemed to be part of the program, started to insult the actors and they reacted by throwing little sandwiches (little soft breads in Belgium) to the audience, and we throwed them back.

Day in Hilversum (The Netherlands)

Went for the office to a training at a firm in Hilversum and took a long walk in the evening through the city to see a bit of the architecture. I was lucky ... the first realy sunny days over here in western Europe.

Saw a few buildings from Dudok (influenced by the school of Berlage - another famous Dutch architect). I surely liked the town-hall of hilversum. Architectural cubes put together and covered with creamed colored glazed bricks/tiles with some hints of bleu and black. Very structural and very beautiful.

Day in Brussels

After late breakfast went to the major exhibition of Marcel Broodaerts in the 'Paleis voor Schone Kunsten'. A experimental guy who in a first period made sculptures with eggs and mussels and went more into Literature-Experimental-Art afterwards. Visited afterwards the Errata-Hotel of the Flemish Government. What a beautiful weekend !!!! Thanks Hubert !!!

my anniversary

Went to art @ belgium at the big exhibition halls in Brussels. Galleries from all over the world exhibited their best contemporary pieces and I was curious what is the art-market for the moment.I was disappointed. I love photography, but almost one third of the complete exhibition where photographs. Too much for my taste. There were a few sculptures that I liked and at the most another 10 art-pieces caught my attention.
In the evening I was invited for a dinner at Armand & Co and afterwards we went out in Brussels. My god this was ages ago!!!

Paper problems

Have been halted by the police on the highway for paper-control... and yes I missed one paper: the 'assurance'-paper or the green card as we call it over here. For one reason or another the latest one was not in my car. So they decided to take me with them and escort me to their office. They said to me I could get my car back when I showed them the missing paper. You can imagine my astonishment : no car for the weekend as all offices and companies are closed !!!
Even when I asked them if I could pass on Monday showing them the paper or if they wanted to speak with a woman of the car-assistance-company who was on my portable-phone and who could say it was my car, they wouldn't listen. So I was there in the middle of nowhere without car. You had to see the smile on the face of the officer when he asked me how I felt without a car !!! I thought they were there to help us !! Now I know that there are bad people in the police !!!
So I took 2 busses, went a few miles on foot and was taken by a gentlemen in a car for a few miles, then again 40 min on foot: all in all it took me 4 hours to get home. Searching all the papers, everywhere in my house: nothing !! Put some phone-calls to friends to explain everything. I had a concert that evening with modern music of Luigi Nono, but I was to down to go... phoned it off. Luckily on Sunday friends were coming over so I could cook a little dinner for them and my son (whom they gently fetched for me). Monday morning went to the office (40 min on foot, bus 1 hour, metro 30 min, foot 15 min) to get to the office and ask for a copy of the document (luckily the secretary had one) and went to the police-office with a colleague. Showed my paper and could get my car.

Evening at the opera

'Yevgeny Onegin' of Tchaikovsky at 'De Munt' in Brussels. Good voices and a wonderful acting of the chorus. 6 out of 10

Evening at the opera

This time it was 'The lighthouse' a modern opera of Peter Maxwell Davies at the 'Lunatheater' in Brussels. The singers were Michael Bennett, Robin Adams and Kelvin Thomas.
A good contemporary setting and music I adored. I am moving further and further to modern opera. Verdi and Mozart are too 'easy' for me now. 8 out of 10

Evening at home

Started a new painting : oil on wood. I would like to make a series of oils representing the process of healing. For this I think I would paint a surface in a color and containing a distortion or better said a 'cutting' in the surface from which other colors are coming out. The surface is 'self'-healing itself by creating his or itself over the cutting. a bit complex to explain, but as soon as I got pictures I'll put them here. This painting's surface is a mixing of turquoise and other blues with a bit of white mixed in it, the wooden panel is horizontal and on the left hand is the cutting. I painted already one healing-arm, but I think another 2 will follow.

Evening at home

Prepared 7 wooden panels with primer ... I am going to paint this week ... and I think it will be modern ...

New exhibition

There I go again with the next exhibition. 19 oils are on show in a private collection : Dawn of Childhood, Creatures of land, Creatures of Water, Algues, Chaos 1 and 2, Autumn rain and wind, The guardian, Meeting 1 and 2, The unexpected visitor, Wotan und Loge auf Brünhildes Felse, Midday in the canyon, Here comes the flood, Here comes the flood too, Open abscess, Stigmatization 1 and 2. This is the first time I give a solo-exhibition in a private exhibition : we will see the result.

At last !!!!

Sold my first paintings : Electra and Salome (see gallery), two older paintings.

Evening in Brussels

Manfred Honeck conducted the Orchestra of the opera-house 'De Munt'. On the program : Musique funébre pour cordes 'à la mémoire de Bela Bartok', Concerto for orchestra of Bela Bartok and the 5th symphony of Tchaikovsky. Perhaps I wasn't in the mood, but the only one that I realy liked was Bela Bartok's Concerto, even I thought that I liked it more the last time I heard it.

Evening at the ballet

'Rain' of Anne-Theresa De Keersmaeker on the 'music for 18 musicians' of steve Reich. (9/10). When De Keersmaeker let her dancers move on music of Steve Reich it is like ... speechless !!!! A few negative points are : too much running in circles and the ladies are sometimes to 'baroque' in their jumping-movements. The scenic part (ropes making an almost broken-circle-spiral-curtain) gives it a plus.

Evening in Brussels

Went to the 'Messa da Requim' of Verdi at the 'Paleis voor Schone Kunsten' in Brussels. Good production with the mezzo Michelle DeYoung and the Bas John Relyea. Soprano was less good and we will forget the tenor. Choir and orchestra of the munt superb and superbly conducted by Antonio Pappano. After all 7/10.