Brussels and Celtic Music

The Brussels Brontë Blog posts a chronicle (with lots of nice pictures) of the recent Brussels Brontë Weekend. A total and spectacular success:

After nearly 6 months of planning, organising and promoting our weekend, this year started off with a Brontë evening in Waterstone’s, the English bookshop in Brussels, who kindly provided a specially set-up space and provided drinks and nibbles. This was our test, to see how many would turn up to our event this time. We were actually quite surprised to see a great turn-out; some 60 people turned up, and some had to stand, as the chairs were all taken! (...)
Saturday included a one-day conference entitled "The Brontë sisters in Brussels" organised by the public library Bibliothèque des Riches Claires, with assistance from us. This event was mainly down to them and so we had to wait and see how it would all go. (...)
With still more people turning up for this day, the number of attendants was about 100. To our surprise the mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, was present and opened the conference day, with lively banter, switching easily and naturally from English to Dutch to French. (...)
In a relatively short space of time, only two years, we've grown from about five people to around 60, and new people are joining all the time. The Brontë weekend attracted a very large number of new members. (Selina)

EDIT: Some more pictures can be found on the Brontë Parsonage Blog.

More things from the Brussels Brontë Blog. A post about Anois, a Dutch band of Celtic Music which has a special relation to Emily Brontë:

A Dutch band, called ANOIS (the Gaelic-Irish word for “now”), is at the moment working on a CD which is to combine Emily Brontë poems and Celtic music. We were contacted by Veronica Metz, who is the main vocalist of the band, and who composes and performs most of the songs.
Anois was founded at the end of 1996 and is based around the vocals & compositions of lead singer Veronica Metz. The band has in the past been inspired by the writer J.R.R.Tolkien (“Lord of the Rings”) but also by other musicians such as Deanta, Enya, Loreena McKennit and Clannad.
For their present project on Emily Brontë Veronica and her band have given their personal musical interpretation to a number of Emily Brontë poems.
A few of the poems used are:

- I know not how it falls on me”
- Tell me tell me
- Song to A.A. (“This shall be thy lullaby”)
- Song (“The Linnet in the rocky dells”)
- Remembrance (“Cold in the earth …)
- Stars
- No coward soul is mine (Marina Saegerman)

The Times reviews The Rough Guide to Classic Novels by Simon Mason. Jane Eyre figures in its selection (we don't know if Wuthering Heights does, but we rather suppose so):

The blurb encourages us to treat the guide as a map through unknown territory, helping us to expand the landscapes of the mind. But Mason's clever plotting makes this a good book for those who have already travelled to these parts.
All the titles are organised under 12 thematic headings including “Love, Sex and Romance” (Jane Eyre, Lolita, Goethe's Elective Affinities, 1809) and “War, Violence and Conflict” (Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, 1688; A Farewell to Arms, Yeshar Kemal's Mehmed, My Hawk, 1958). (Margaret Reynolds)

The Manitou Messanger reviews the 25th anniversary spring season presentation at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis by the Zenon Dance Company. The reviewer had a Bertha experience:

The program features modern dance world premieres by two emerging New York choreographers. Sean Curran's "Hard Bargain" highlights both the athleticism and sensitivity of Zenon's male dancers. Jeanine Durning's "Where are these days, again?" conveys psychological struggle set on four female dancers. Durning's work included flailing limbs, men's underwear, obsessive counting and characters that reminded me of Bertha from Jane Eyre. (Margaret Wade)

And... a Hungarian translation of Shirley online and a Portuguese translation of Emily Brontë's The Old Stoic, Les roses de décembre... visits Haworth (in French). Finally, via Tribune de Genève, we have noticed the presence of a Charlotte Brontë Boulevard in the ongoing 22ème Salon International du livre et de la presse de Genève.

Categories: Books, Brussels, Music, Poetry, References, Shirley, Translations