Every week, Bor Beekman, Robert van Gijssel, Merlijn Kerkhof, Anna van Leeuwen or Herien Wensink take a position in the world of film, music, theater or visual arts.
Now that the concert season is almost over, it’s time for predictions. What will the next season look like? Welcome to Merlin’s Big Glass Ball, the 2022 edition.
Well now. A few months ago, I heard programmers complaining about the state of classical music. Ticket sales were not going well, they said. The fear was that it will take years before the public returns to the concert halls as en masse as before corona. But there is quite a discrepancy between the statistics and my own findings: the concerts and operas I attended in recent weeks were almost all (virtually) sold out. In this tail of the season – you still have a month and a half – you will enjoy it, confirms the bulb.
Because of course there will be another wave in the fall. The cabinet thinks ‘fat yolo’ (you only live once) and will spare the concert halls. However, tours are canceled again and you don’t dare come anymore. Which is a shame, because the Concertgebouw Orchestra, for example, has recruited a whole trio of good conductors. Riccardo Chailly and Kirill Petrenko return. Teodor Currentzis makes his debut. Reviewers have whined about this at press conferences for years and are finally getting their way.
Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Joana Mallwitz and Barbara Hannigan also drop by. The conductor base is happily feminising further, and the time has come when music journalism no longer has to dwell on this – not even for politically correct considerations. The Concertgebouw Orchestra will also announce a new chief conductor. It will be a Finn. (I won’t say which one, I prefer the other one.)
Speaking of change: Paul Witteman disappears from the tube. At least he stops with the program Podium Witteman† The last broadcast will be next Sunday. Witteman is 75 and has lasted eight seasons. Now you are of course wondering: how to proceed? The crystal ball says that the broadcaster (NTR) will not turn up again with three men and that co-presenters Mike Boddé and Floris Kortie will do it with Jet Berkhout. The viewer is a bit older and does not like major changes, so a revolution is not forthcoming. It’s alright Stage Classic to be named. According to the crystal ball, the Dutch celebrity cult will be completely passé next season.
Furthermore, from next season on, there will be plenty of work behind the scenes on Dutch-language operas. You will see the results a few seasons later. The bride for sale van de Nederlandse Reisopera (music by Bedrich Smetana, retranslated by Anne Lichthart) was such a success that more well-known titles will also be subjected to a Dutch translation or translation. Care will be taken from now on to ensure that no musical accent is placed on an unstressed syllable. Every translator and director will realize that every opera that has held that repertory is still being played because the music is so good.
Also Wagners The Ring of the Nibelungen is provided with a new text. About what happened to the lines ‘Hojotoho! Hojotoho!/ Heiaha! Hey!’ is going to happen, the crystal ball is inconclusive, but maybe ‘yolohoho’ is an idea.