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.