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Holland Festival

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

Hoor Vera Lynn zingen terwijl de atoombommen ontploffen in Dr. Strangelove. Stanley Kubrick deed wonderbaarlijke dingen met de muziek in zijn films. Terecht dat het Holland Festival ruimte maakt voor een speciale vertoning van 2001 met orkest. Ruimteschepen op de walsen van Strauss, opmaat voor een Kubrick-zomer.   Over de films van Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) is veel geschreven en gespeculeerd,… 

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

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.

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

In Accordion Wrestling gaan 10 Finse worstelaars de strijd aan met 1 accordeonspeler. De raarste voorstelling op #hf12

Eén voor één komen de worstelaars van Helsinki Nelson het podium van de stadsschouwburg op rennen. Op de mat ligt de grootste van het stel, op zijn buik, uitgestrekt in defensieve positie. Om en om proberen zijn tegenstander hem te kiepen, en hem met z’n beide schouders plat op de mat te drukken. Tevergeefs. Accordeonpunkrocker Kommi Pohjonen komt op, en… 

Read More "In Accordion Wrestling gaan 10 Finse worstelaars de strijd aan met 1 accordeonspeler. De raarste voorstelling op #hf12

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. ... 

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

Met haar hemeltergend mooie stem lijkt Shara Worden tijd en ruimte te ontstijgen #hf12

Shara Worden stuitert lenig over het podium van het Bimhuis, gehuld in een rare, veelkleurige sprookjesoutfit met pluche bolletjes. En ze zingt de sterren van de hemel, met waanzinnige timing en souplesse. Haar hemeltergend mooie stem lijkt te dansen met een geweldige dynamiek. Van beangstigende subtiel en ijl, van warm en diep resonerend tot sidderend hoge uithalen op orkaankracht. Ze… 

Read More "Met haar hemeltergend mooie stem lijkt Shara Worden tijd en ruimte te ontstijgen #hf12

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.

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

#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... 

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

#hf12 Shara Worden speaks about All Things Will Unwind. And sings a new song

Multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Shara Worden - also known as My Brightest Diamond - is waiting for me, armed with her ukulele. Just before the interview, she wrote a new song. Worden laughs: "There are way too many videos on the internet of me playing the same songs over and over. I thought I should try something new." The Dodo was there... 

Read More "#hf12 Shara Worden speaks about All Things Will Unwind. And sings a new song

Nearly dies Wunderbaum's Detroit Dealers from an overdose of ideas, but survives through unexpected musicality #HF12

In Detroit Dealers, Wunderbaum mixes a personal family story with the decline of Detroit, once one of the most influential industrial cities in the world, and philosophical musings on the car, as a romantic metaphor of progress and the American Dream. The show swings in all directions. Detroit Dealers is part documentary film, jazz concert, performance, spoken word poetry, rap battle, and theatre. This overdose of... 

Read More "Nearly dies Wunderbaum's Detroit Dealers from an overdose of ideas, but survives through unexpected musicality #HF12

Passio-Compassio roept op tot filosofische overdenkingen. Een socratische dialoog. #hf12

Dodo-recensenten Maarten Baanders en Mariska van der Meij bezochten allebei de voorstelling Passio-Compassio, en raakten in gesprek.   – uit het programmaboek van Passio-Compassio –  Alle mensen ervaren lijden, ongeacht hun godsdienst of hun culturele achtergrond. Net als liefde resulteert ook lijden in passie. Kunst en godsdienst zijn beiden in staat om de cyclus van lijden en passie te transcenderen. Als… 

Read More "Passio-Compassio roept op tot filosofische overdenkingen. Een socratische dialoog. #hf12

Iván Fischer sets new Wagner standard

That Pierre Audi does not shy away from religious symbolism is well known, but the true miracle in The Netherlands Opera's Parsifal is in the pit. There, in the hands of master conductor Iván Fischer, the Concertgebouw Orchestra sets a new Wagner standard. Despite a gigantic orchestral strength, almost chamber music-like lightness, extraordinarily transparent and, thanks to careful tempo choices, with wonderful dramatic tension. Five hours long.

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Faustin Linyekula stages the "fundamental resemblance between Negroes and ballerinas" with "La Création du Monde" (Fernand Léger, Darius Milhaud), #HF12.

The 1923 Afro-Cubist dance classic can be seen at Music Theatre today and tomorrow, commented on by Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula. "Europeans have no idea that they are denying the shared history of Africa and Europe. Belgium is part of everyday life in Congo, but Belgians hardly know anything about Congo, or it is the clichés about poverty 

Read More "Faustin Linyekula stages the "fundamental resemblance between Negroes and ballerinas" with "La Création du Monde" (Fernand Léger, Darius Milhaud), #HF12.

How a Martian looks at opera

Or: the familiar becomes utterly alien here. Or: embracing meaninglessness as the first principle. One hundred years after his birth, John Cage takes centre stage in HF weekend.

Ever since Reinbert de Leeuw played it in the fastest talk show on Dutch television, John Cage's 4'33" has been a well-known composition in our country. For exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds, the musician does not play a single note and the audience hears nothing but the ambient sounds.

Read More "How a Martian looks at opera

No-nonsense audience does not care for tour de force of anti-pale dance in Révolution

Eleven poles are atmospherically lit like a nightclub. Dancers enter and make their way to their work stations. They will walk around their poles in a two-hour shift. They are not the only ones: audience members also start walking, towards the exit. Yet the dizzying repetitions of the hard-working ladies are effective. However, the transcendental minimalism will turn into a... 

Read More "No-nonsense audience does not care for tour de force of anti-pale dance in Révolution

Fedja van Huet's lost dinner jacket and other Toneelgroep Amsterdam mysteries #HF12

Anyone who might think that making a stage show is a simple one-two punch of a genius director with a good team of creatives and perfect actors is wrong. Only, as a spectator once attending the performance, you don't notice any of that. And that is just as well. You come for the performance and you won't care if... 

Read More "Fedja van Huet's lost dinner jacket and other Toneelgroep Amsterdam mysteries #HF12

Blood-soaked Macbeth fits festival theme perfectly but fails to touch #HF12

Imagine Arjan Robben. The much-troubled frontman of the Dutch national team has just seen a brilliant move rewarded with a penalty and he is ready to take it. Up comes a field hand with a new set of adhesive letters for his shirt because the numbers are no longer legible from the stands. Lots of lashing, shirt off, seconds glue. Circumstances, in short. After two minutes, the fielder is gone, the number readable and the referee's whistle sounds. Then try to hit the target.

Read More "Blood-soaked Macbeth fits festival theme perfectly but fails to touch #HF12

Waiting for Miss Monroe a feast for the mind. But with earplugs in. #hf12

Al snel bracht Twitter een eerste reactie op Waiting for Miss Monroe, de opera van Robin de Raaff die gisterenavond in de Stadsschouwburg haar wereldpremiere beleefde. @DavidMPinedo: What an atrocious opera Raaff’s ‘Waiting for Ms. Monroe’. An atonal fart that has NOTHING musical. Just screaming. En een tweede. @sandraeik: Exciting worldpremiere Waiting for Miss Monroe – incredible performance by Laura Aiken as Monroe.… 

Read More "Waiting for Miss Monroe a feast for the mind. But with earplugs in. #hf12

Popcorn polishes off rock 'n' roll #hf12

Popcorn wants to build bridges and dissolve borders; away with the differences between high and low culture. Covers of the band's favourite songs are interspersed with new compositions, thus blurring boundaries. Unfortunately, they do not succeed in this and the band sounds mostly academic and soulless. Popcorn is an experimental performance in which a composite band seeks to bridge the gap between... 

Read More "Popcorn polishes off rock 'n' roll #hf12

Enfant terrible Boris Charmatz puts finger on sore spot with confrontational choreography about the elusive child

 With enfant, choreographer Boris Charmatz broaches a difficult topic: how do we as adults deal with ourselves, and how do we deal with children? Charmatz draws on the French philosopher Lyotard, who pondered the "inhumanity" of adults and saw real people in children. The current image about physical contact with children is distorted and it is... 

Read More "Enfant terrible Boris Charmatz puts finger on sore spot with confrontational choreography about the elusive child

Mahler Chamber Orchestra flirt vrolijk met Haydn, maar Russische componisten doen je het lachen vergaan #hf12

Heus waar. Er wordt gelachen in de klassieke muziek. Bij menig orkestrepetitie zijn de altvioolgrapjes niet van de lucht. En in het Concertgebouw kun je wel eens wat besmuikt gegniffel opvangen. Maar klassieke componisten staan niet bekend om hun humor. Behalve Joseph Haydn. De Weense componist bracht hier en daar een gezellige kwinkslag aan in zijn werk. Eén van zijn… 

Read More "Mahler Chamber Orchestra flirt vrolijk met Haydn, maar Russische componisten doen je het lachen vergaan #hf12

Zo zachtaardig en intelligent als er met de zeer jonge dansers wordt omgesprongen, zo wild zijn vaak de reacties op ‘Enfant’ van Boris Charmatz #HF12

De jeugd roept tegenwoordig vooral de gedachte aan gevaar op. De maatschappij heeft last van een verwrongen ideaalbeeld dat echte kinderen weinig speelruimte laat. Uiteindelijk komen die dan ook in opstand in Enfant. Maar tot die tijd hebben de hele jonge performers toch vooral de rol van bijzet of sluitstuk, aanvulling op of extensie van de negen volwassen dansers. De nieuwe… 

Read More "Zo zachtaardig en intelligent als er met de zeer jonge dansers wordt omgesprongen, zo wild zijn vaak de reacties op ‘Enfant’ van Boris Charmatz #HF12

In het prachtig subtiele The Speaker’s Progress wordt Shakespeares klucht opeens een revolutionair wapen #hf12

Strak in het pak. Fris geknipt. En met een zalvende, trefzekere stem lijkt The Speaker – gespeeld door regisseur Sulayman Al-Bassam – een gelikte pr-man. Of beter: een beschaafde Arabische dictator met een Oxford diploma. Zo eentje die gesteund wordt door het Westen en diep wordt gehaat door de eigen bevolking. Hij stapt achter een lessenaar en vertelt. Ooit was… 

Read More "In het prachtig subtiele The Speaker’s Progress wordt Shakespeares klucht opeens een revolutionair wapen #hf12

Dodo Holland Festival journal becomes Dodo Holland Festival Hangout #HF12

 We hebben er al een aflevering op zitten, en dat was natuurlijk een enorm succes, maar juist op het hoogtepunt moet je met iets nieuws beginnen. Daarom vanavond om 22:30 uur een nieuw ding: De Dodo Holland Festival Hangout. Live, interactief en online. Innovatief dus, zoals u het van ons kent. U kent ze wel: die reportagewagens met meters spaghetti… 

Read More "Dodo Holland Festival journal becomes Dodo Holland Festival Hangout #HF12

Dodo Holland Festival journal becomes Dodo Holland Festival Hangout #HF12

 We hebben er al een aflevering op zitten, en dat was natuurlijk een enorm succes, maar juist op het hoogtepunt moet je met iets nieuws beginnen. Daarom vanavond om 22:30 uur een nieuw ding: De Dodo Holland Festival Hangout. Live, interactief en online. Innovatief dus, zoals u het van ons kent. U kent ze wel: die reportagewagens met meters spaghetti… 

Read More "Dodo Holland Festival journal becomes Dodo Holland Festival Hangout #HF12

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