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On to Theatre Festival TF and International Choice Rotterdam Theatre
The Dodo has had its baptism of fire. We now know what the basics are, and therefore what can be improved. and of course there will be others with even more suggestions. We're going to take all that into our tents this July, think and sleep on that and then go with the new insights....
A Don Giovanni without Don before it, without scruples and without illusions, but with a few naked women. #hf10
By Wijbrand Schaap Once in a while, a theatre director stands up who wants to expose the emptiness around him or her. That it is about the emptiness within him (or her) himself, this young director usually finds out some 20 years later, once it has become a little less empty. That's how these things go. We...
Shukshin's Stories: a 'gypsy boy-with-trane' painting by a grand master. #hf10
The Russian soul. So there is something about that. And you get something from that when you see a Chekhov play (if done well), or read one of his short stories. Or when you read the works of Tolstoi, Dostoevsky or any other inhabitant of that vast nothingness east of Poland. Or seeing the paintings, which a few...
Teleac course on muezzin singing delivers little deeper insight #hf10
Above, fun audio from the Holland Festival. We went to watch and listen at this performance. Afterwards, we talked to actor Sabri Saad el Hamus and reviewer Martin Schouten. They had their own views on this play, which was announced as follows: Cairo is the city with thirty thousand minarets. Here you can hear five times a day above the...
Oerol arrives. Competition for Holland Festival on scarce arts pages in Festivalland #hf10
The Marathon Effect is well known: put spectators together in a theatre for half a day or more, preferably on uncomfortable seats, and hand them over to a couple of actors with a play. Success seems assured, and the ancient Greeks already knew that. So that there would be no discord surrounding the monster project I Demoni, the Dostoevsky adaptation of Peter...
'Calliope writes very essential notes'. Premiere Greek Love Songs by Calliope Tsoupaki #hf10
Image report: Ellen Segeren A few years ago, Greek-Dutch composer Calliope Tsoupaki wrote songs with piano accompaniment for Greek singer Nena Venetsanou. Some of these Tsoupaki arranged for the four brass players of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Brass Soloists and the four singers of the Egidius Quartet, whose tenor part is filled in for this occasion by Marcel Beekman. For him, Tsoupaki also wrote...
De Keersemaeker sinks through the bottom of what is still dance in '3Abschied'
Text Maarten Baanders (photo Herman Sorgeloos) After sensory work had already been reduced to a minimum in Keeping Still - Part I and The Song, dance philosopher Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker confronts the most extreme reduction possible in life in the final part of the trilogy, 3Abschied: death. Her choice of music strikes again Der...
Jelineks Rechnitz impresses Holland Festival visitors #hf10
Image by Andrew B47 via Flickr Photo: Chris Vanderburght It was time for a real theatrical hit at the Holland festival, after the rather lukewarmly received British-American Shakespeares of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project. And clap it did with Rechnitz by Elfriede Jelinek dooor the best actors of the Münchener Kammerspiele. Karin Veraart of De Volkskrant was deeply impressed: ...Not...
Meanwhile at the Holland Festival: Press cheers over Dog's Heart and doubts Anne Therese de Keersemaeker #hf10
Not all was negative around Sam Mendes' Bridge Project, which was received rather sparingly by us at The Dodo, and a few other media outlets. Apart from a few positive Twitter reactions, the performance of The Tempest also garnered a pretty nice review from Volkskrant reviewer Karin Veraart, who admired music, directorial discoveries and acting performances by Stephen Dillane in particular and the fresh couple...
Thanks to Elfriede Jelinek, since 9 June we know a little better what it is like to be Austrian. #hf10
By Wijbrand Schaap (photo Arno Declair) Since Wednesday 9 June 2010, the Netherlands has been looking a bit more like Austria again, although with us the mountains are in the southeast, instead of the west. And there's another difference: we are still allowed to see the stage work of Austrian Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek, while the stern writer's work in her...
What the papers say: the music is fine, as usual on #hf10
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...
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 in the newspapers and television programmes surrounding the Holland Festival, the announcements are far more numerous than the critical reviews? A look at the...
Despite Dillane's splendid role, soporific Tempest shows failure of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project #hf10
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...
As You Like It despite brilliant jokes and fantastic Bob Dylan impersonation still a long sit #hf10
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...
Now we know what Amal's fuss with that watch was about #hf10
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...
Amal Maher breaks hearts at opening Holland Festival #hf10
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.
Adhesive film on shop windows at Bijenkorf during festival
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:
Multicultural Netherlands on edge thanks to World Cup and 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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