Fantastic Women with Bauwien van der Meer and Caecilia Boschman

Fantastic Women

According to initiator Bauwien van der Meer, Fantastic Women is a performance that plays with the 19th-century recital form. The motivation behind the piece is the fact that the majority of the American population chose a sexist with no political experience as president, despite the other presidential candidate being a highly experienced, intelligent woman.

Fantastic Women premiered on November 9, 2018, during the November Music festival in Den Bosch, with Caecilia Boschman on piano. The performance features new music by Aleksandra Bajde, Rozalie Hirs, Anda Kryeziu, Kate Moore, Georgia Nicolaou, Barbara Okma, Annelies Van Parys, Calliope Tsoupaki, Renske Vrolijk, and Yiran Zhao.

“Grab ’em by the pussy” als True Love

Many men who struggle with impulse control regarding their sex drive confuse lust with love. Such men categorize women into two traditional roles: mother or whore.
Contrary to what they might think, these men also form an archetype: the boorish brute. Sometimes they hide behind a mask of good manners and cultural refinement—but sometimes not.
In any case, they always abuse their power.

Men nowadays get away with this kind of behavior less often, as evidenced by the #MeToo movement. However, the outcome of the November 2016 U.S. presidential election seems to contradict this trend.

The incomprehensible paradox, in which a misogynistic presidential candidate wins the election while other men see their reputations destroyed by the #MeToo movement, serves as the inspiration for my contribution to Fantastic Women. Under the title True Love, quotes from a boorish election winner are paired with scandalous fragments from the diaries of cultural connoisseur Samuel Pepys (1633–1703).

It is remarkable how these gentlemen, separated by 350 years, seem to shake hands. Their texts—both degrading to women—merge seamlessly.

True Love was composed on commission by Bauwien van der Meer with support from the Fonds Podiumkunsten, the Eduard van Beinum Foundation, and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.