Di Stefano Bio Giuseppe ‘Pippo’ Di Stefano had a unique voice. It wasn’t golden, silvery or bronze – it sounded like the Sun on a sandy beach, warming the hearts of the people in its grace. After long deliberation I used the covid period to transfer 35 years of research into the Discographical Biography of...
The biography of Hariclea Darclée The Harclea Darclée biography has been ‘in the making’ since 1997. The main text was finished in 2014. I used the time since for corrections and the design of the book, which was done by graphic designer Dick Bak. By november 2022 the book went in print in a limited,...
JACQUES BREL | THE DEFINITIVE BIO René Seghers’ Dutch language Jacques Brel biography Jacques Brel | The Definitive Biography has 512 pages, over 100 unique photographs, a fully illustrated discography and an even more unique illustrated Brel cover albums chronology. But why another Brel biography, when there are so many already? Seghers: ‘While the larger...
Franco Corelli | Prince of Tenors In December 1997 one of René Seghers first assignments for Dutch Magazine De Groene Amsterdammer was to produce a story on a Viennese 10-tenor Gala where Franco Corelli was supposed to make a one time comeback with two little Neapolitan songs. Seghers: ‘Corelli was my idol at the time...
2015-2023 I vividly remember attending a millennium party on December 31, 1999. I imagined that by 2019 we would have set foot on Mars. I envisioned a better world, where the internet prevented regimes and the forces at play from dominating the world. I am not one given to conspiracy theories, yet Wikileaks proved many...
The International Vocal Competition ‘s-Hertogenbosch Golden jubilee Book & CD The larger part of 2014 was spent on building the archives website of the international Vocal Competition ‘s-Hertogenbosch and writing, producing, and publishing their Golden Jubilee book, “Discovering Voices.” I had to research over 20 meters of handwritten archives for this, which provided fascinating insights....
The 21st Century The turn of the Century brought a change in so far, that post midnight I went home from the party where I was celebrating, in order to start writing the Darclée book. After a decade of curiosity and then also research, the time had arrived to turn the results into words. I...
The 1990s My 1990s started out with philosophy classes at Amsterdam University. Philosophy may be a useless study in terms of measurable economic value, but it definitely provides a solid background for a writer. Finally, I was also surrounded by motivated people who had something to say, although there were some odd moments here as...
The 1980s When my parents decided to move from Breda to some village in between, I lost ground for about six years, say, my entire time spend in high school. That didn’t matter much to me, since the rainbow train was there throughout to take me to a world that was better suited to me....
Activities log What to do with a blog? Vent my political opinions? Promote the philosopher in me? Try to sell myself as a free lancer of many talents? For the moment I will limit this ‘blog’ to my immediate activities. Due to the covid pandemic I had to put a full stop to my 401DutchOperas...