Over the weekend there was dissent across the land in response to planned government cuts to the cultural sector. Apparently, over 100,000 people demonstrated on Saturday in 70 towns and cities in the Netherlands against government proposes to cut €200 million in the arts and culture budget. Ironically Sean and I spent the weekend sucking up the culture in The Hague, attending three concerts in four days. On Thursday we saw Mor Karbasi the young Israeli Spanish-based Ladino singer of Moroccan – Persian roots who sings in a beautifully high range albeit in a language that no one can understand. Ladino is the Judaeo-Spanish language that the Jewish people exiled from Spain by the Inquisition stopped speaking when they settled in Israel. Through music some hope to revive the dialect. Karbasi has a wonderful sweet voice and personality, looks stunningly Spanish, moves in a flamenco style and has great hair!
Image by retorta_net via FlickrBlindnote was the next ensemble we saw perform, at the same venue – Korzo5HOOG, temporary lodgings for the Korzo Theater. Blindnote is a collaboration of Belgian world musicians who perform in the dark and concert profits go to an NGO “Light Up” that supports blind children in Africa. While it seems bizarre to mix a Senegalese hoddu player with a Turkish lute player, Mexican percussionist, Madagascan singer, and Armenian duduk player, it really worked. The duduk sounds beautiful, the Turkish lute player also sang original material, the Madagascan women could do extraordinary tricks with her voice and who would have thought that a Mexican with a tambourine would have got such a huge round of applause. He had astonishing dexterity, rhythm and skill. Even more bizarre is the concept of performing in darkness. At the beginning of the concert the room was pitch black and one of the performers tripped on an electrical cord as he made his grand entrance. Sean and I nearly burst out laughing. Sometimes a performer or their instrument would be spotlighted, but listening to a concert in the near dark makes you concentrate and raises the suspense, you have no cue as to what sound will resonate through the room next.
The trip to the Korzo5HOOG was interesting. We hadn’t been there before and got lost the first time, getting off at the wrong tram stop and consequently finding one of The Hague’s red light pockets. Standing at the shadowy end of a pedestrianized street in the dark, we spy dozens of lurching men, leering left and right at the illuminated shop windows featuring various Roxannes in their scant underthings. Sean diverted his eyes, poor thing, and we marched straight outta there.
Image by Rob Hogeslag via FlickrThe final concert we attended was the bargain €5 koffie concert at the Dr Anton Phillips Zaal in The Hague (including a cup of coffee!). TheViotta Jeugdorkest, a youth orchestra joined Musica, an amateur symphony orchestra and performed a world premiere of 'Cleopatra Passing', penned by the Dutch composer Gerard Beljon for two orchestras especially for the occasion. I really enjoyed the magnificent piece that lent an impression of the majestic passing of Cleopatra’s caravan, whopping cymbals and drums with a mood of the exotic and mysterious. Sean looked bored during the first piece and told me he prefers his Richard Strauss. How lucky then that they played a Richard Strauss composition for the second of the four symphonies played.
On Sunday we discovered an “Amazing Aziatisch Supermarkt” or an Asian grocery shop. Indeed it was amazing! Albert Heijn the supermarket chain that has 30% of the market and is my regular for shopping on The Fred, does not have quite the range of Asian food products that I can buy in Sydney and Sean has been pestering for spicy foods. In the centre of The Hague, the “Amazing Aziatisch Supermarkt” has everything we need for Thai green curries and noodle stirfries. We stocked up on curry pastes, chilli sauces and some fresh exotic vegetables including baby pea eggplants.
Tonight however it’s windy and cold and I have prepared a traditional Dutch dish, with all the ingredients being in plentiful stock and standing by at Albert Heijn:
Boerenkoolstamppot met Rookworst.
Boorenkool is curly kale. Stamppot is mash potato mixed with vegetables, in this case curly kale and Rookworst is a smoked sausage that you buy in a packet from the Unox brand, part of the Unilever multinational. Unox is the label that manufactures soup and sausage products that Dutch people like to eat. Even though this is a traditional dish, I am led to believe from the TV commercials that it’s still quite trendy to serve up stamppot and rookworst with hip young Dutch things all smiles as they bop around and plop pink Unox sausages onto lumps of green mash. The verdict from Sean and I was lekker maaltijd!
No comments:
Post a Comment