Timebank - Reward for participation

Via the Brussels Ouderenplatform (BoP), I, and other persons, participate in the community project of Orfeo & Majnun. Every two weeks we receive lessons by professional choreographers of the Royal Theatre of the Mint in Brussels. We are halfway in the production of Orfeo and Majnun and by the end of June we, and the other groups, have to perform for public.

There are six of us from the BoP. We know each from our role as a figurant of the dancing company ‘Peeping Tom’.

The benefit of being in a production of the Munt-theatre is that quite often we can get a complimentary ticket for, eg the concertini’s on Friday. One hour of wonderful classical music.

Since the renovation, this always takes place at the Mint-Theatre, in the concert-hall above the entrance, also known as Grand Foyer. You can reach that beautiful place by elevator, but I prefer to take the 42 steps on the beautiful stairways. You already get a feeling of comfort in this ancient building. After the stairs you continue on the red tapis till you enter the nicely decorated music-hall, where the time has come to a standstill. You have to be early as the best seats are rapidly occupied. Then you have time to smell the nice antiquity atmosphere, to look at the beautiful decorated ceiling, the old parquet in herringbone design and the various ornaments.

The chairs are not that comfortable as they are small and placed close together. But that is caused by the fact that most of time it is ‘full-house’.

At 12.30 hour the musicians arrive In my experience they are always top-musicians. Even the music pieces of modern composers like Olivier Messiaen (1908- 1992), which I don’t like so much, they play the difficult pieces of music very well.

I am looking forward to one of the next Fridays, on which day they will play music pieces of well-known classical composers, like Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and Robert Schumann.

After one hour the concert is over and everyone goes home with a lot of satisfaction.

This all thanks to the Royal Theatre of the Mint who provides the complimentary tickets. You even can receive free tickets for opera’s.

Last month I saw an opera, named ‘The Diologues of the Carmelites’, a French opera of Francis Poulenc. That was a wonderful experience.

J. Ko van der Meer, Januari 2018

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Ko is one of the seniors who participates at the dance workshop directed by choreographer Ehsan Emat. He is very fund of the Concertinos that take place every Friday at 12h30 pm at the Grand Foyer of La Monnaie. Ko can get tickets for this concerts as a participant for Orfeo & Majnun project. This is part of Timebank, a reward device that values time and effort invested by volunteers.

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