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Escape from Guatemala's hidden war for a while

Treaty of Utrecht
'Hidden War', the theatrical exchange between actors from the Netherlands and Guatemala, is nearing performance. The Guatemalan actors of the company Caja Lúdica have been in the country for a few weeks now. Together with the Dutch actors, they are rehearsing at Fort Nieuwersluis (near Breukelen), where the performance can also be seen from 20 June. Alan Hack (18) is one of the Guatemalans playing in the show. He experiences his stay in the Netherlands as a paradise encounter with freedom[/heading].
Read More "Escape from Guatemala's hidden war for a while

John Adams' other Gospel of Mary @HollandFestival: masterpiece just too long

Holland Festival Holland Festival

Mary is arrested at a demonstration and thrown into a cell next to a heroin addict, while her sister Martha has just started a shelter for the homeless. And Lazarus, yes, Jesus brings him back to life here too, with downright breathtaking sounds. And we are not even halfway through.

Read More "John Adams' other Gospel of Mary @HollandFestival: masterpiece just too long

Crushingly good: Nine Rivers by composer James Dillon, with conductor and percussionist Steven Schick @HollandFestival

Holland Festival Holland Festival

From the mild, everyday cacophony around the Muziekgebouw in the afternoon, on the terrace by the IJ, you'll get into the silence of the concert hall in a few steps. For three and a half hours (with over two hours of breaks in between), Asko|Schönberg, Slagwerk Den Haag and Capella Amsterdam will play and sing your ears off. Steven Schick (a.o. once Bang on a Can), not only conducts, but also takes charge of the middle part of the concert, at the Bimhuis, as a percussionist. Under his inspired direction, 'Nine Rivers' navigates between spectacle and purism: a battle between complex form and the simplicity of raw sound matter.

Read More "Crushingly good: Nine Rivers by composer James Dillon, with conductor and percussionist Steven Schick @HollandFestival

'Shéda', insane chaos with a glimpse of genius @hollandfestival

Holland Festival Holland Festival

If after only the first 15 minutes, half of the middle row flees the auditorium, and you look at your watch, thinking, my god we still have over five hours to go, there is something thoroughly wrong with the performance. 'Shéda', by Congolese playwright Dieudonné Niangouna, is an insane tub of chaos of incoherent tirades. Declaimed screaming at a stretch by 12 hyperactive African and European actors, each with a fixed character, who return as gods to apocalyptic worlds, à la Mad Max, beating each other up with bizarre lyrics. Goodness, it is impossible to make sense of it all. Yet it continues to fascinate. Why?

Read More "'Shéda', insane chaos with a glimpse of genius @hollandfestival

Meistersinger @HollandFestival convinces musically only

Holland Festival Holland Festival

Cowardly knight defeats untalented rule fetishist with help from wise cobbler and wins singing contest and the hand of coquettish goldsmith's daughter. Or: boy meets girl on the streets of Nuremberg and decides to enter the local version of Nuremberg's got talent. The judges send him away, but he gets the audience vote. Wagner wouldn't be Wagner, however, if he didn't take about five hours for this story.

Read More "Meistersinger @HollandFestival convinces musically only

Deep in the belly of the Icelandic cello @hollandfestival

Holland Festival Holland Festival

It's a tricky genre, which drone, or ambient. Or, what do you call the avant-garde cello experiments of the Icelandic Hildur Guðnadóttir (1982). Very slow, very repetitive, very minimalist. Abstract sound art that leans heavily on loops, resonations and buzzing, über syrupy tones that swell into a large, layered sound collage.

Read More "Deep in the belly of the Icelandic cello @hollandfestival

Two voices on Sunken Garden @HollandFestival part 2. Thea Derks: 'Guilt & penance before, after, with and in death'

Holland Festival Holland Festival

Amsterdam, 5-6-2013 - It is difficult to go uninhibited to a production that has already caused so much controversy as Sunken Garden by Michel van der Aa. This "first 3D opera" was slammed as "soporific" after its premiere at London's Barbican Theatre last April, but also hailed as "the future of opera".

Read More "Two voices on Sunken Garden @HollandFestival part 2. Thea Derks: 'Guilt & penance before, after, with and in death'

Two voices on Sunken Garden @HollandFestival, part 1. Henri Drost: "much more than 3D film opera"

Holland Festival Holland Festival

Forget all the fuss about the first-ever 3D film opera, forget all the fuss in British newspapers. Michel van der Aa himself sighed in interview that, on reflection, he would have loved to have made the second 3D film opera. And perhaps he had

Read More "Two voices on Sunken Garden @HollandFestival, part 1. Henri Drost: "much more than 3D film opera"

Orchestre El Gusto lets sounds of Kashba Blues blow through @hollandfestival like warm desert wind

Holland Festival Holland Festival

They are gentlemen of age and therefore with a history. Grey or bespectacled or bald - or with a combination of all three. Their music has taken them everywhere. And now they are in a packed Carre: the Orchestre El Gusto. To their own delight, as they thank the audience for coming. The musicians from the kasbah of Algiers play the music as it is

Read More "Orchestre El Gusto lets sounds of Kashba Blues blow through @hollandfestival like warm desert wind

Jan Lauwers with musical folk theatre at @hollandfestival: 'It's forbidden to memorise lyrics'

Holland Festival Holland Festival

An explosion in a crowded market square claimed 24 lives, including seven children. When the village commemorates that tragedy a year later, a little boy falls out of a window and a girl disappears before

Read More "Jan Lauwers with musical folk theatre at @hollandfestival: 'It's forbidden to memorise lyrics'

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

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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.
Read More "Minicourse Opening @HollandFestival, part 1: Total theatre on slippery communication

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

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

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 for a conversation 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?

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

'Everyone is happy to be part of something so beautiful.' Stut Choir and Irish performers sing together for the first time. #vvu

Radiant faces and swinging bodies filled the rehearsal room of the Utrecht-based Stut Choir in Overvecht. For the first time, the members collaborated with Irish singer Lorna McLaughlin of The Henry Girls and conductors Neil Burns and Anna Nolan of the Inishowen Gospel Choir. On 21 June, the two choirs will join the three Henry Girls sisters on stage at the Stadsschouwburg Utrecht.

Read More "'Everyone is happy to be part of something so beautiful.' Stut Choir and Irish performers sing together for the first time. #vvu

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