Skip to content

Holland Festival

The Holland Festival is the Netherlands' leading festival, showcasing the best of what is being made internationally and nationally on the bigger stages.

A chamber opera blown up to impressive proportions at @hollandfestival

Holland Festival Holland Festival

,,The special thing about Quartett is that an intimate story between two people is blown up to impressive proportions. The characters find themselves in a room, which seems to float. In this seclusion, an isolated game between a man and a woman plays out. Giant video projections

Minicourse Opening @HollandFestival, part 1: Total theatre on slippery communication

Holland Festival Holland Festival
This year's Holland Festival opens with a performance of the opera 'Quartett'. It is a piece with a story, which needs some explanation. Maarten Baanders gives a short course on this performance. Also interesting for those who didn't happen to be able to buy a ticket.

Simon Stone adapts Ibsen for Australians: 'And why would you even go to the theatre if you live in Sydney?'

Holland Festival Holland Festival

Simon Stone (28) wrote a new play based on Henrik Ibsen's 1884 stage classic The Wild Duck. The Swiss-born Australian provided the Norwegian play with entirely contemporary language and dressing. The actors sit

Moritz Eggert: 'I want to give Wagner back his innocence'

With Tragedy of a Friendship commemorates Flanders Opera the bicentenary of Richard Wagner's birth. It is a production by controversial artist Jan Fabre, author Stefan Hertmans and composer Moritz Eggert. When I approach the German tone poet to talk about this opera, he reacts with shock: there is ab-so-lutely no question of an opera! Could I please clear up this misunderstanding once and for all?

Culture Press ratings: thick 300,000 minutes of attention

With paper, you never know ('0.3% of newspaper readers read the reviews on the art page'), and with TV it's always a bit of estimating and extrapolating too, but the internet is rock hard. We know how many times you read one of our pieces, and how long you lingered at our videos. Well: we were already proud last year, now we are well over 200,000

Strauss with muscle by Gustavo Dudamel, the sizzling South American. #hf12

The young conductor of Venezuelan descent brought his Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra to the Concertgebouw for the final concert of the Holland Festival last night for the first time. While Hollanders braved the tropical weather in the corridors, Venezuelan beauties walked to the stage vivaciously on their stilettos. After Máxima and Willem-Alexander had also taken their seats on the balcony, Gustavo Dudamel came dancing down the stairs.

Of course the thunderstorm is not too bad. But follow developments here in case it does go wrong. #hf12

For the second time this month, the weather gods are threatening to throw a spanner in the works at the Holland Festival. While the storms announced on 21 June were not too bad, for tonight, 28 June, a 'code red' is currently (10:45) threatened to be issued by the emergency services.

Talk to our reporters. Exclusive: spot in the #hf12 hangout for our most loyal followers

There have been days when we had 1500 page views. You, 2500 of our most loyal visitors, came so far to provide 14000 views on dedodo.co.uk, and you stayed around for an average of three minutes. On average. We are proud of that. Apparently, we managed to attract and keep your attention. So those are good figures for an online festival day newspaper like De Dodo, which has to make do with no screaming, no marketing budget but an overdose of enthusiasm and professional innovativeness.

2001 is a film you should see again every 10 years. The sf epic even stands up to live orchestra

Does live accompaniment with choir and orchestra make Kubrick's 2001 a different or better film? Not necessarily, but as an homage and event, it is a wonderful gesture. Even on the hard bucket seats in the Gashouder, it is once again a breathtaking experience. Last night, at the Gashouder on Amsterdam's Westergasfabriek grounds, finally revisiting Kubrick's science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey. This... 

Extremely imaginative Master and Margarita gets cheering reception on #HF12

Shakespeare had it, Oscar savage had it, Monty Python had it and Simon McBurney has trucks full of it. So it is British and it is called humour, or rather the ability to show the absurdity of life as simultaneously hilarious and deeply tragic. And let that also apply to Russian Mikhail Bulgakov. So his unfinished novel The Master and Margarita has now had to wait almost 75 years for a director like Simon McBurney to turn it into theatre.

Those who are not already become fans of Kubrick now. Exhibition and all films at EYE, kicking off on #HF12 with 2001 plus orchestra

Hear Vera Lynn sing as the atomic bombs explode in Dr Strangelove. Stanley Kubrick did wondrous things with the music in his films. Rightly so, the Holland Festival is making space for a special screening of 2001 with orchestra. Space ships to Strauss' waltzes, prelude to a Kubrick summer. Much has been written and speculated about the films of Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999),... 

The Red Kimono: a fine painting but mediocre musical theatre #HF12

It begins beautifully. Prominently displayed on stage is Breitner's painting The Red Kimono. And not a copy, but the real thing, which is further underlined by the Stedelijk Museum's large number of crates, on which the musicians of the Hexagon Ensemble are also placed. Actor and dancer Michael Schumacher casually walks up to it and looks at the painting for about a minute - the average time a museum visitor looks at a painting.

In Accordion Wrestling, 10 Finnish wrestlers compete with 1 accordion player. The weirdest show on #hf12

One by one, Helsinki Nelson's wrestlers come running onto the stage of the City Theatre. On the mat is the biggest of the bunch, lying on his stomach, stretched out in a defensive position. Alternately, his opponent tries to tip him, pushing him flat on the mat with both his shoulders. In vain. Accordion punk rocker Kommi Pohjonen comes on, and... 

Less is more? No, less is FAR too much, by Michael Nyman's Potemkin. #hf12

Two days later... Sometimes you don't quite know what to write: even reviewers have writer's block from time to time. Fortunately, Jenny Diski of London Review of Books published a blog just Friday about the functionality of not being able to write (yet). Apparently, more time was needed. Anyway, at some point you have to tie the knot. ... 

With her heavenly voice, Shara Worden seems to transcend time and space #hf12

Shara Worden bounces lithely across the Bimhuis stage, dressed in a weird, multicoloured fairy outfit with plush balls. And she sings the stars from heaven, with insane timing and agility. Her heavenly voice seems to dance with amazing dynamics. From frighteningly subtle and rarefied, from warm and deeply resonant to shuddering high notes at hurricane force. She... 

Without electric guitars, Bryce Dessner's orchestral music sounds best; Greenwood's 'There Will Be Blood' a highlight of #HF12

It is not usual, but it must be said: the Amsterdam Symfonietta is a tremendously beautiful ensemble. The musicians all look beautiful, they handle their instruments beautifully and they play beautifully. They look alert, active. That helps with being liked, we all know, and that active look is down to their formula: they usually play without a conductor and so have to be incredibly attentive to what is going on around them. Looking dully at the conductor makes you ugly.

#hf12: Addio alla fine is matchless dance, but the boat trip there and back does not bring the message out strongly enough.

We live in destructive times. Nature, art and culture, the inner life: they are breaking down under the tyranny of money, commerce and efficiency. Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten take a stand against this. Addio alla fine is an all-in experience in the form of a boat trip to an unknown place, where the audience is immersed in dance, music and... 

Small Membership
175 / 12 Months
Especially for organisations with a turnover or grant of less than 250,000 per year.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
5 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Cultural Membership
360 / Year
For cultural organisations
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
10 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Participate
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Collaboration
Private Membership
50 / Year
For natural persons and self-employed persons.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Own mastodon account on our instance
en_GBEnglish (UK)