Der Tagesspiegel 06.03.2007

Christine Lemke-Matwey travelled to Riga to hear one of world's leading young conductors, the 28-year-old Latvian Andris Nelsons, (more here) conducting Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" – despite the somewhat problematic acoustics of the National Opera House. "Nelsons might turn the most incredible pirouettes in the pit since Carlos Kleiber, cuddling up fairy-armed with Siegmund (Jirki Antila), Sieglinde (a daisy-fresh Elisabet Strid) and the wild wide world, playing the Dervish here, and the quiet shoulder-shrugging Torero there with Fricka (a very deliberate Martina Dike): it just refuses to ring right. Not enough upper tones, no stomach. And yet musically, this evening is one of the most exciting that the season has to offer in many a land, for far and wide."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 06.03.2007

The SZ celebrates fifty years of African independence. On March 6, 1957, the British Gold Coast gained independence and renamed itself Ghana. The writer Amma Darko is proud of her country's constitutional face today. "Today we can simply shout out what we don't like about President Kufour and then get back to work. When, after taking office, Kufour declared Ghana bankrupt and opted for the 'Heavily-Indebted-Poor-Countries number' Ghanaians shook their heads in disbelief. How could he do this to us? The shame, the humiliation! The people retaliated immediately. A crossroads near the president's house in Accra soon was soon dubbed the HIPC crossroads."


Spiegel Online 06.03.2007

Actress Sibel Kekilli, who shot to fame in Fatih Akin's "Head On", talks in an interview about her criticisms of Islam and her frustration at always being treated like a foreigner in Germany. Recently in a podium discussion in Berlin, Kekilli stated that "violence was part of the Islamic cultural heritage." And she stands by what she said: "It can't be denied. Most honour killings are justified by the perpetrators with reference to Islam. Islam is cited as one of the grounds for female genital cutting, although it's not prescribed by Islam. Men who beat their wives say it's written in the Koran. Of course the relevant passages can also be interpreted in other ways, even if unfortunately they're not as a rule. People try to justify their acts of violence with religion. And the peace-loving Muslims have to suffer under the extremists." Kekilli blames the Germans as well as the Turks for the slow pace of integration: "I'm tired of explaining that I'm a German citizen, that I was born here and that I'm still not accepted here. For most Germans I'm still a guest, although I was born here and live by the constitution."


Die Tageszeitung 06.03.2007

Three collectors are presenting works by Sigmar Polke in the Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden. Georg Patzer finds the rooms too small and the catalogue too sparse, but feels these shortcomings are made up for by the works themselves. "There are the more mysterious pictures like the realistically-painted, plump and floating sausages, or an example of Polke's arithmetic skills, '1 + 1 = 3', which a bank decided not to purchase in the end, for fear of unsettling its customers. Then there's his very lovely collage 'So sitzen Sie richtig' (how to sit properly) on printed fabric, blending Francisco de Goya's aquatinta engraving 'Ya tienen asiento' with Max Ernst's 'Une semaine de bonte.' Ernst's snake flees before Goya's young woman and the balancing chairs fly through the room – all that painted on fabric printed with little dogs. A true whirlwind of art history."


For everyone who doesn't receive Venezuelan TV, Gerhard Dilger describes the popular "Alo Presidente," Hugo Chavez' one-man show which airs five days a week. "Chavez takes a map and explains his trade policies with the small countries of the Caribbean. Then with the aid of a chart he shows the rising food prices and stresses the need to deal firmly with speculators. And between all that he suddenly bursts into song or pokes fun at President Bush."


Frankfurter Rundschau 06.03.2007

Sociologist Trutz von Trotha compares the German's relationship to their children with that of the French, diagnosing a tendency on the part of former to be too "child centred." Germans, he says set such high standards that they end up not wanting to have any children at all. The French, on the other hand, see things more pragmatically: "After giving birth, French mothers focus on getting back in shape and looking attractive. Unlike the Germans, French mothers are not afraid to subject their children to rigid daily schedules, and recommend letting babies have a good scream so that they will sleep all the more soundly – something that meets with contempt and abhorrence among German mothers."


Die Welt 06.03.2007

In an interview (with pictures), artist Gregor Schneider tells Uta Baier why he now intends to put his black Kaabaesque cube, which was barred from being erected on St. Mark's Square at the 2005 Venice Biennale, in Hamburg. "The fascinating thing about the Kaaba in Mecca is that it is an unknown space for me, and one of the most beautiful and secretive spaces of the human race. That's one aspect. But the black cube we are talking about is a sculpture which has not been built. Only when it has been built can we look at it and experience it physically."