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Reisopera 2.0 presents itself and blows dust off gala

With a real gala, the Reisopera 2.0 presents itself. And immediately strips the gala of its stuffy image. With thanks to the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble.

Because opera gala? Well, we hoist ourselves into our tux, exchange pleasantries, mean or otherwise, in the lobby with the other invited guests, and are presented with an hour and a half of excerpts from operas, sung by soloists in the neatest attire.

This is how it goes at most major opera houses. Milan, New York, Berlin - the gala with which the ...

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Wagner in Düsseldorf: opera jewel or publicity stunt?

When both nu.co.uk, BBC news and virtually every German newspaper simultaneously cover an opera, something must be going on. And there is: Nazis! Wagner! Outraged spectators! More than that: doctors had to be called in!

The occasion: the new staging of Wagner's Tannhäuser in Düsseldorf for Opera am Rhein. Director Burkhard Kosminski moved the action from the Middle Ages to the 1940s. Not earth-shattering, but what he too...

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

With Tragedy of a Friendship, Flanders Opera commemorates 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 responds with shock: there is ab-so-lutely no opera! Could I please clear up this misunderstanding once and for all?

Why shouldn't Tragedy of a Friendship be a ...

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Prokofiev's satirical fairy tale is a visual feast

What makes an opera a success? The eccentrics, airheads, comedians, lyricists and tragedians think they know, proclaiming their point of view at the craziest moments and not even bothering to intervene in the action. Welcome to the wonderful world of Prokofiev's L'amour des trois oranges, back on stage at Amsterdam's Music Theatre this month.

At the centre seems to be an absurdist fairy tale about a hypochondriac prince who is tricked by a sorceress into falling in love with three orange...

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Only in final scene does Guillaume Tell bathe in golden sunlight

After more than four hours, it happens: emotion. Free Switzerland is bathed in golden sunlight and the chorus swells over the most beautiful orchestral sounds Rossini composed. Unworldly sounds, which have little to do with the best-known sounds from Guillaume Tell - the canter from the overture.

A lot may have happened in the previous four hours, but even the famous scene in which Tell has to shoot an apple off his infant son's head is not a dramatic highlight.

H...

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Getting there, right now! DNO retakes Das Rheingold

They had almost been thrown away: George Tsypin's immense sets for Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Not because his staging was unsuccessful or would have become obsolete by now, but simply because storage was too hefty a cost for the Netherlands Opera.

Immense they are, the sets that designer and architect Tsypin first presented at De Nederlandse Opera almost 20 years ago. The Muziektheater's stage is among the largest in the world, the width is 32 ...

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Ed Spanjaard unleashes primal forces in Götterdämmerung Reisopera

The final applause after the premiere of Götterdämmerung stormy, is an understatement. It seemed as if the completely sold-out auditorium wanted to surpass the primal forces extracted from the Gelders Orkest by Ed Spanjaard. History was made here: on stage, by the soloists and choir, in the orchestra pit and behind the scenes, for six hours and 20 minutes.

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Götterdämmerung marks end and new beginning Reisopera

It is the first mass scene in Wagner's Ring: Siegfried leads Brünnhilde to the Gibichungenburg and Hagen summons all his men. From the side stage there is literally a deafening blare of horns, but conductor Ed Spanjaard lets it play on. And rightly so: the orchestra has a spark. The whole stage is filled in an instant and the choir swells in strength, louder and louder, ever louder, until the ecstatic apotheosis:

Gross Glück und Heil lacht nun dem Rhein

While the choir of...

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Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Der Schatzgräber I: blistering music, freezing dry staging

The Netherlands Opera opens the season with a rarely performed opera by Franz Schreker, in which pagan and Christian themes intermingle. The gorgeous music is countered by the chilly direction, preventing identification with the characters.

At the end of the nearly three-hour Schatzgräber, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor Marc Albrecht were clapping the loudest at the Muziektheater last night. At his instigation, De Nederlandse Opera pulled out...

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Iván Fischer sets new Wagner standard

That Pierre Audi does not shy away from religious symbolism is well known, but the true miracle with Parsifal by the Netherlands Opera 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.

And that's just as well, because dramatic tension is...

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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.

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

Soon, Twitter brought an initial reaction to Waiting for Miss Monroe, Robin de Raaff's opera that had its world premiere at the Stadsschouwburg last night. @DavidMPinedo: What an atrocious opera Raaff's 'Waiting for Ms. Monroe' is. An atonal fart that has NOTHING musical. Just screaming. And a second. @sandraeik: Exciting world premiere 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

Hit in the heart by opening performance by Alain Platel, and then find solace. #hf12

At two-thirds, the lump shoots in to not go out until the end. It happens at every Alain Platèl performance. Heartfelt sobs from the audience, lots of swallowing around you and the inevitable tears welling up like a natural disaster. To call the Flemish choreographer's work predictable because of this is going too far. What he and his company Les... 

Read More "Hit in the heart by opening performance by Alain Platel, and then find solace. #hf12

Opening Holland Festival on twitter and facebook: tenue de wtf, ns-#fail, sublime dance theatre and mozzarella sticks #hf12

[View the story "Opening Holland Festival 2012" on Storify]Opening Holland Festival 2012On 1 June, the Holland Festival opened at Theater Carré. We were there, saw Platel's C(h)oeurs and tasted the atmosphere. Although it almost went wrong. Here's what to make of it on social mediaStorified by Cultureel Persbureau - Sat, Jun 02 2012 08:37:18The Dodo goes... 

Read More "Opening Holland Festival on twitter and facebook: tenue de wtf, ns-#fail, sublime dance theatre and mozzarella sticks #hf12

Soul Seek is the world's first internet opera. With a nod to Mulholland Drive.

"For me, opera is much more than just music," says Israeli director Sjaron Minailo. "It may sound a bit pompous, but my internet opera is completely in the tradition of Richard Wagner. Soul Seek is really a multimedia gesamtkunstwerk, in which fashion, web design and digital media, play, cinema, theatre, dance and experimental music merge into one. Without one element... 

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Miraculous play on age-old techniques mirrors Stravinky's music in 50,000 litres of water and 50 minutes

Thai and Vietnamese puppetry. Acrobats, Chinese shadow play and Japanese costumes. A Chinese conductor for a Dutch orchestra, a Canadian directing team and, as the main work, a scant 50-minute opera by a Russian composer, based on a fairy tale by a Danish writer who took his inspiration from China. Loosely.

That, and fifty thousand litres of water, are the ingredients for The Nightingale and Other Fables at Amsterdam's Muziektheater. A performance...

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Sports sponsor pays top price, culture sponsor sits front row for a pittance and expects no less

The smallest opera company in the Netherlands beats the biggest. Not in visitor numbers, not in subsidy received, but in bringing in sponsorship money. On closer inspection, however, it becomes painfully clear once again that there is no giving culture in the Netherlands and sponsorship is limited to a pittance. A rattling giving law will not change that.

A month ago, intendant Guus Mostart told us that despite rave reviews and sold-out theatres, the N...

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Sculpted Ovation for 'ingenious' conductor Iván Fischer

"Programmatic ingenuity goes hand in hand with Fischer's ebullient and finely crafted performances". So when someone says that about you, you have earned a prize. So that is what the jury of formerly the Classical Music Prize thought of Iván Fischer, the Hungarian-born conductor who was therefore awarded the 'Ovation' on Monday 17 October 2011. And so then the 'Ovation'... 

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Siegfried at Reisopera: a sword is a sword, a spear a spear and a dragon an er... storage tank with claws

The dragon remains tricky. Truly terrifying you never get him, of course, but what looked like a cross between a storage tank and an underground tube was laughable even before kitchy claws emerged from the wall. No wonder young Siegfried had the forchten does not learn and stands there smiling.

Read More "Siegfried at Reisopera: a sword is a sword, a spear a spear and a dragon an er... storage tank with claws

Superbly performed opera by Rimsky Korsakoff provisional highlight of changeable opening weekend Gergiev Festival

"My commitment to the city (Rotterdam) and the orchestra knows no end," Valeri Gergyev spoke on the occasion of the Gergyev Festival taking place in Rotterdam this week. This is good news, as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the former principal conductor still get along well. And to be backed by this global top-five conductor is... 

Read More "Superbly performed opera by Rimsky Korsakoff provisional highlight of changeable opening weekend Gergiev Festival

Eszter Salamon and Daniel Linehan gems of highly diverse Julidans

Holland Festival, Julidans, IT's, Over 't IJ. End-of-season theatre is always strewn across Amsterdam. Between April and September, international performance offerings migrate from Utrecht (Springdance and Festival aan de Werf) via Amsterdam to Rotterdam (Internationale Keuze). If you want to experience something of contemporary, international dance, Springdance, HF and Julidans are the places to be. [For... 

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