Author: Henriette J. Runte (Dr. J)
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JAZZ CAT ALEXANDRA ROTMANN
“I don’t want to be the second Lady Gaga, the fourth Britney Spears, or the third Amy Winehouse. […] I want to be the first Alexandra Rotmann!” Alexandra Rotmann is a 25-year-old, German-born jazz belle, with a swanky voice and the attitude to go with it! Her father, a bass-baritone…
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When contemporary classical music enthralls
– Leon Gurvitch’s Echoes of Chagall – Some might claim that keeping certain forms of classical musical and artistic performance alive is a chore, the losing battle of some “opera and ballet”-loving old folk. And yet! Last night, the Recital Hall of the Elbphilharmonie, the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, Germany was…
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In Search of John Neumeier: Understanding a Long-Admired Hero of Mine through the BJB
In the summer of 2000, I took a group of some 30 students from the University of Kansas to the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris to see John Neumeier’s ballet, Illusions: like Swan Lake. This was at the end of a thrilling exchange program filled with visits to the Comédie…
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Are Opera and Ballet Really Boring?
From prehistoric rituals to modern theaters, the arts have always helped us make sense of ourselves and our world. Opera and ballet are among the richest expressions of our shared human need to communicate. The past few days have been a whirlwind of social media reactions to comments made by…
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Caroline Monnet’s Short Films: A Search for a Sense of Society, both Ancestral and Contemporary
Caroline Monnet is an Anishinaabe French artist from Quebec, who combines sculpture, painting, garment development, and fashion, with dance, music, and film. She is a multidisciplinary artist whose person and work reflect her rich ancestral heritage, one rooted on the one hand in her indigenous background and on the other…
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The Golden Splendor of Fabien Dettori
Fabien Dettori brings photography and painting together and concentrates on offering visual creations that can be sorted into two of the most prominent traditions in fine arts: the female nude and still lifes. Fabien Dettori offers some large-scale paintings that evoke neoclassical lines and figures, and portray magnificent modern art…
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Discovering India in Hamburg
It was at the recording of my live podcast episode on the role fashion and cuisine have played in diplomacy since the reign of Louis XIV that I met Soumya Gupta, then newly appointed Indian Consul General to Northern Germany, who had not long before arrived to Hamburg. The former…
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Two Highlights from 2025: Die Unsichtbaren (The Invisibles) and The Snow Queen
Two of the opera houses I have frequented most in recent years are the Hamburgische Staatsoper and the Semperoper Dresden. As we prepare to slide into 2026, and as I mentally survey the many performances I attended in 2025, concerts, ballets, operas, and theatre productions alike, two events continue to resurface as particularly…
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An Interview with Artist MARIE DE VILLEPIN at the Galerie Melbye-Konan
Marie de Villepin’s work is in permanent va-et-vient, oscillating between the angelic, the spiritual, the delicate, and, on the opposite pole, the demonic, the brutally real, and the rough and chaotic. Whether as a model for Givenchy, or as a musician with the band PINKMIST, or yet again, as a…
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Music Nights by Gurvitch
My impressions from last night’s musical salon, organized and hosted by Irina Gurvitch, featuring the composer and pianist Leon Gurvitch and the very talented, young jazz singer Alexandra Rotmann: Starting with the reign of Louis XIV and marked by writers and philosophers like Rousseau, Voltaire, Kant, or Goethe, the Age…
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Jumelage Open Air
SOMETIMES WE ARE FILLED WITH HOPE: This weekend, I had the privilege to MC the celebrations to the 70th year of partnership and twinning for the cities of Schwarzenbek, Sierre, Cesenatico, Aubenas and Zelzate. This celebration was a breath of fresh air in today’s turbulent times. True sharing and friendship,…
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Maestro Matthias Pintscher and the Kansas City Symphony in Hamburg
From the Heart of the Midwest into the Heart of the Hansestadt Hamburg! It was an honor to accompany several members of the diplomatic corps of Hamburg and Northern Germany to the performance of the Kansas City Symphony at the Elbphilharmonie last night. The French Consul General Valérie Lübken, the…
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Bastille Day in Hamburg
The diplomatic community in Hamburg has embraced me over the past few years and has supported me, not only in my cultural endeavors but also in my personal search for belonging and cultural identity. As an expat and a TCK, I belong to several cultures and tremendously enjoy the rich…
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Celebrating US Independence Day with the US Consulate General in Hamburg!
US Consul General Jason Chue delivered an emotional speech that looked back on his 3-year diplomatic term in Northern Germany. He reflected on the central common values that unite the USA and Germany and emphasized the significance of transatlantic friendship and cooperation. This was Jason Chue‘s last speech as US…