Martijn Padding has done something special with Beethoven's 10th. He turned the piece that the deaf composer never really wrote in its entirety into an experience that, as Volkskrant reviewer Frits van der Waa put it, made you feel what it sounded like between Beethoven's ears. According to the NRC, it sounded Impressive: the sphere of creation stripped of all heroism, as if you were passing through two centuries of...
Sometimes we are not at a concert or performance ourselves, but there is a spectator who dedicates a beautiful or critical reflection on a performance in more than a few sentences. You may submit those pieces, and if they are deemed good enough, we will repost them on The Dodo. With our heartfelt thanks, of course. Mail your pieces to: dedodo@cultureelpersbureau.nl...
By Maarten Baanders (photo by Herman Sorgeloos) Where were we? In the previous performance, Keeping Still, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker gave us an empty space as the final image. Now we walk into the hall of the Muziektheater for part 2 of the triptych, The Song and once again an explicitly bare stage stretches before us. The hall light is still on...
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 in the newspapers and television programmes surrounding the Holland Festival, the announcements are far more numerous than the critical reviews? A look at the...
By Wijbrand Schaap (photo by Joan Marcus) You can have Bach's St Matthew Passion performed by 15 canaries, an electric guitar, a drum kit, a ukulele and a accordion, and it will still be beautiful, because it is Bach. Similarly, you can have Shakespeare's up-and-coming British plays performed by a group of Americans, and it will...
We at the press do it for free, but people with really big money can buy it: the right to unsolicited advice to the Holland Festival. Today, the festival announced the appointment of a Board of Governors. People with money who like to put it into top culture. A novelty for the Netherlands. We have the names: G.J. van den Bergh and...
Those who missed it, like our Beatrix, will increasingly realise that something important happened, Tuesday 1 June, at the opening of the Holland Festival. Egyptian beauty Amal Maher performed an hour and a half of classical Arabic music at Carré, making her first small step into the Western mainstream. We ourselves were from The...
Wilfred Takken muses today on the character Jacques in the Shakespeare comedy As You Like It. The actor Stephen Dillane turns it into a wonderful Bob Dylan in The Bridge Project, says NRC reviewer Takken: When Dylan was once asked if he considered himself the "voice of a generation", he replied, "I'm just a song and dance man. Everyone laughed, but...
By Wijbrand Schaap, Photo Joan Marcus So we don't have that. In the Netherlands. So many good actors of name and fame to fill an entire Shakespeare comedy with top actors, right down to the smallest edelfiguration. Ok, we come a long way with our Pierre Bokma's, our Gijs Scholten van Aschats, a Lineke Rijxman, Mariek Heebink and Ariane Schluter, and flat Elsie de...
By Maarten Baanders (photo by Herman Sorgeloos) Calmly we stand at the door of the venue. A bit like the Holland Festival is a drag. No one suspects that in a few minutes, existence will be reduced to almost nothing. It starts with darkness. Silence. For minutes. Softly, footsteps sound. The ears are tuned to it in detail. There is singing. Mahler's...
Wereldjournalisten.nl, a site with journalistic productions by and about the multicultural society was also present at the opening concert and did understand the many cries from the audience. At one point, for instance, there was an incident where Amal Maher apologetically pointed at her - otherwise extraordinarily chic - watch. For a moment, we thought it was about that, but it was about...
State visits are hard to adjust to the cultural agenda, and when the Queen then misses her opening of the Holland Festival due to a visit to Norway planned years before, it is force majeure. And not anything else, though of course in these politically confused times it remains delightful to speculate on other reasons why the Majesty was absent from Amal...
Valhalla. Someone called it, and indeed: Valhalla. I don't mean the Teutonic version of the Eternal Hunting Fields then, but Miss Asterix and Obelix. Egyptian style. You may colour in the picture yourself with dark curls, unimaginably flawless skin made of very creamy milk chocolate, and that then set on a pair of hidden heels and strapped into a corset that accentuates everything of value. So Amal Maher is one of those women for whom a man is happy to put his chimes at the disposal of science, if it gives him the privilege of being around her for a few moments.
Beatrix does not tweet, she informed the world in her 2009 Christmas speech. A pity, because...
As every year, the Holland Festival presents previews and teasers of productions in the shop window of De Bijenkorf, on the corner of Dam and Damrak. This year will be no different. Or will it?
In the mail the following note from De Bijenkorf to the Holland Festival:
The Telegraph stresses the importance of being Dutch, while the Holland Festival lets the Dutch sing along with the Arabs
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