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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 because of 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 will gladly 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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