The National Theatre prevented Stopera from becoming The National Theatre

It would have been so nice: The National Ballet together with The National Opera at The National Theatre, like you have in the capital of any self-respecting country. But so that didn't happen. The home of our National Opera and Ballet clubs is now called 'Nationale Opera en Ballet'. The National Theatre made sure of that, which, like the Nederlands Dans Theater, is not in our capital Amsterdam, but in its residence in The Hague.

A spokesperson for The National Theatre stated, when asked: 'There was talk at the time that they wanted to go by the name the National Theatre. Of course, they contacted us then and we did not give our consent. Therefore, the theatre is not called the National Theatre. We have no problems with the National Opera and the National Ballet. And indeed we can live with the name as the theatre has it now.’

How past quarrels lead to complicated diplomacy in the present. Because the hassle between 'Dutch' and 'National' was created by separations and quarrels. The kind of quarrels and compromise solutions that also led to the separation between capital Amsterdam and seat of government The Hague. Unique in the world.

The Nederlands Dans Theater came into being when dancers and choreographers could not express their desire for modernisation at the National Ballet. The Nationale Toneel came into being when artistic director Hans Croiset in 1986 saw his long-cherished desire to remain boss of the country's first company denied. That company, The Public Theatre, was created when Action Tomato put an end to - yes - in 1969 the Dutch Comedy. So he fled to The Hague, where he took the Haagsche Comedie transformed into The National Theatre. The Public Theatre continued as Toneelgroep Amsterdam.

And so now the Dutch National Theatre is sitting in the Koninklijke Schouwburg blocking the National Ballet and the National Opera from sitting together in the National Theatre. Also because that other Hague club, Het Nederlands Danstheater, was probably not waiting for the name change from Het Nationale Ballet to Het Nederlandse Ballet. The name The Dutch Theatre on the façade of the Stopera, nobody liked that at all.

Whether 'Opera and Ballet Amsterdam' passed the review, and what Toneelgroep Amsterdam thought of it, more on that perhaps later.