High praise for Curlew River; less for De Keersemaeker and Mendes #hf10

 Curlew River Photo: Bertrand Stofleth

For every independent journalist in the Netherlands, there are about 15 information officers. It is therefore obvious that these spokespeople largely determine the image in the media. Could that be why newspapers and television programmes around the Holland Festival the announcements are far more numerous than the critical post-announcements?

A glance at last week's papers tells us that Amal Maher's Ode to Oum Koulthoum and Sam Mendes' Bridge Project were eagerly awaited. Afterwards, everyone turned out to be pleasantly surprised by the unusual musical opening by Egyptian beauty Maher, and reviews of Mendes' As You Like it have been lukewarm to critical. Im the Volkskrant reviewer Karin Veraart calls the performance mostly "neat", while Wed-reviewer Hanny Alkema (read only for subscribers) struggled against sleep for an evening, and was only kept on task by Shakespeare's language. About The Tempest, the final part of Mendez's diptych, reviews will not appear until next week. In newspapers then, here a review can already be read.

Keeping Still by Anna Teresa de Keersemaeker also generated critical responses. Besides the critical note from our contributor Maarten Baanders For example, NRC reviewer Francine van der Wiel was very strict:

The 2007 piece is minimalist in a way that requires a lot of patience from the viewer. Without that attentiveness, there remains of Keeping Still left little more than a few pretty images. De Keersmaeker leaves the audience sitting in the dark for a long time, listening to her footsteps. Agonisingly slowly, her body emerges from the mist created by visual artist Ann Veronica Janssens in the Transformatorhuis on Amsterdam's Westergasfabriek grounds.

Volkskrant critic Mirjam van der Linden mainly lacks suspense:

Here is someone who wants to share with us what touches her, in a way that is almost private. That modesty continues in her dancing. Her turns, hops and jumps are unmistakably hers, but it is as if she is dancing the memory of those movements. It is beautiful because vulnerable, but also distant and of the same level of tension. That is the great flaw of Keeping Still - part I: everything is of the same gentle poetry, with little contrast and thus little surprise. Even Ferrier's dramatic, in this barrenness almost bombastic voice that eventually blares from tape is quickly silenced again.

Curlew River, the remake of the 1964 world premiere of Benjamin Britten's fate music drama, has elicited many reactions. Sighs can be found on Twitter from the likes of Marjet van Zuijlen, who notes that the festival got off to a splashy start, and so did the water in the Curlew River:

MarjetvZuijlen : Holland Festival splashy start. Alma Maher was unforgettable and Curlew River impressive. Tonight Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.

At NRC Handelsblad the nestoir of opera criticism Kasper Jansen describes the play and has a nice adjective left for Michael Slattery:

The boy's fate is associated with Christ's suffering and death. Monks are given the stigmata with red paint. The mother's face - a phenomenal role by American tenor Michael Slattery - is also painted red: her madness is a stigma.

In the Volkskrant, Bela Luttmer is even more enthusiastic if possible, as far as the paper goes:

It is precisely against this background that the suffering of Madwoman, the vulnerable human being, is given beautiful relief. Like the other characters, a pilgrim transforms into a wandering mother. A wig with long black hair, a dress and a pot of red paint for the face suffice. American tenor Michael Slattery lets the Madwoman's pain shine through beautifully in his richly ornamented vocal lines. The roles of the Ferryman (William Dazeley) and the Traveller (Ivan Ludlow) are also impressively well cast.

In the composition, Gregorian chant has the final conciliatory word, but Olivier Py also incorporates criticism of the church in his staging. The cross at the head of the procession returns as an oar to cross Curlew River, but also as a dagger that threatens the boy's life.In the end, there is reconciliation with death. The boy's spirit blesses the mother in fragile tones and delivers her from her madness. The fragility of Grégoire Boinay's child's voice gives the finale an almost painfully theatrical power.

Most newspapers end the week with a preview. In this case, that is the opera A Dogs Heart. This adaptation of Bulgakov's novel by opera composer Alexander Raskatov. We are curious to see the results. Those who would also like to feature in this column and on the twitter stream opposite would do well to send their tweet fitted with hashtag #hf10 and possibly also the title of the show.