Springtime in Amsterdam is a unique performance art piece recorded in 2021-2022 as a motion picture. The book is by Christof Loy, who dreams up a complex story built on 18 pieces of popular music from operettas, musical theater, and national song books. Naxos calls this “joyful”, and there is much humor here. But the overwhelming moral weight of the project is our concern for the fate of the abused woman Theresa. Her pain is excruciating, and this is underscored by Loy’s ironic use of relatively lightweight music. Seven opera singers created roles in this production. Loy rewards six of them by naming each of their characters in the book after the singers who created the roles: Annette Dasch is Annette; Thomas Oliemans is Thomas; Theresa Kronthaler is Theresa; Norman Reinhardt is Norman; Henk Poort is Henk; Sunnyi Melles is Sunnyi. The small role of Matthias is played by Barry Atsma. Loy requires all his singers to be ready to sing, speak, dance, and act at movie-star levels. It also seems that half the artists in Amsterdam got into this somehow, and there are exhaustive credits for all of them in the keepcase booklet. Marko Letonja directed the Chorus of the Dutch National Opera, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Metropole Orchestra, and the Dutch String Collective. The motion picture was directed by Loy. Stef Kwinten was director of photography. Sung in Dutch, English, and German. Released 2023, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+ with the ‽ and 💓 designations.
Meet Thomas, a failed musican/writer trying to survive in the city as a tourist guide. No doubt about which city:
There is a strange crisis under way throughout the world. It’s not Covid-19. Maybe the Internet has crashed everywhere. Thomas runs into Annette at the station where no trains are running. She’s an opera diva, but all her gigs have been cancelled. The crisis sets in motion a dreamworld universe of unexpected events, and the humor in the movie revolves around how the various characters cope with this:
Now below we are in Chapter 2, the Shimmy Duo. The whole world explodes into dance at the train station:
Thomas tricks Annette into thinking she’s at a 5-star hotel. Dasch is spectacular as the raunchy broad—next below in Chapter 4 singing “I’m a woman who knows what she wants.” The chamber orchestra in the adjacent room isn’t really there of course. So now we have a romance going with the woman running the show:
Now we meet Norman, who really is a guest at the 5-start hotel:
Norman has an embarrassing encounter with Theresa, the chamber maid. You sense right away that something terrible has happened to Theresa, and she is struggling to make it in the city. Probably she is sending money back home to support a parent or a child:
Theresa has a crushed beauty that attracts Norman. In Chapter 5, Theresa has finished her housekeeping and Norman woos her with the song “Your eyes have told me so.” So now we have a romance where the woman is not running the show:
Indeed, Theresa’s work day is only half done. Next below we see her walking to her second job. Director of photography Kwinten heightens the mystery surrounding her by deliberately shooting her with the sun at her back:
Theresa stops at a church. She prays to the Mother of God for rescue:
Her prayers continue as she dresses for her second gig of the day:
Back at the hotel, in Chapter 8, in the song about Potiphar’s wife, Annette explains to Thomas exactly what it is that she now wants:
This is Loy, so he has to work in somehow a room with chairs :
And the folks seated in the chairs see a performance in Chapter 10 of Amsterdam by Sunnyi Melles as Sunnyi:
Watching Sunnyi, Norman has a strange premonition that is expressed in an astonishing display of acting solely with facial expressions:
Theresa is now again on the job. What happens is not what she was praying for:
Potiphar’s wife got what she wanted. She’s pretty sentimental about it:
But then her agent Matthias shows up.The crisis is over and their bank accounts are plump again:
She’s instantly back at the top of her game:
But how does Theresa somehow find the courage to say goodbye?
And Theresa is leaving Amsterdam. Where else can she go but back to her village? And maybe the Mother of God has a rescue for her after all. Maybe the man who hooked her on drugs, beat her, and stalked her was killed in an accident. Or maybe the old widower who was always fond of her has written her a kind letter. He says he needs her and he doesn’t care if she was a window whore at the port. Where else can she go? Well, maybe she’s going to live at a bordello in France. This is a sad movie.
There have been a number of movies with the name Amsterdam in the title. The Internet is a morass of confused information. One wonders if artificial intelligence could be used to identify Internet material about this project from Loy. I’ve seen no impressive review of this movie. Loy’s work here is so original that there is nothing to compare it to. Maybe this review is the best guide available. I give this an A+ with the ‽ and 💓 designations.
Here’s a trailer:
OR
Appendix: The Naxos keepcase booklet is pretty good. But they don’t give you the disc chapter numbers for each of the 18 musical selections. Well, I can handle that:
No No Nanette—Ouverture
Shimmy Duo
Wenn es Abend wird
Eine Frau, die weiss, was Sie will
Sing Me a Love Song—Your Eyes Have Told Me So
Het Dorp
Casanova—Nun’s Choir and Laura’s Song
Josef, ach Josef, was bis du so keusch?
Háry János Suite— Intermezzo
Amsterdam
Einer wird kommen
Das Weib in Purpur—Mädels gibt es auf der Welt
Warum hast du mich wachgektüsst?
Music in the Air — The Song is You
Gasparone—Ach, dass ich doch ein Räuber wäre
Les Trois Valses—Je ne suis pas ce que l”on pense
Reich mir zum Abschied noch einmal de Hände
Aan de Amsterdamlsche Grachten