Festival
Crushingly good: Nine Rivers by composer James Dillon, with conductor and percussionist Steven Schick @HollandFestival
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.
Meistersinger @HollandFestival convinces musically only
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.
Deep in the belly of the Icelandic cello @hollandfestival
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.
Two voices on Sunken Garden @HollandFestival, part 1. Henri Drost: "much more than 3D film opera"
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
What else are we looking forward to at @hollandfestival?
Holland Festival
This month is all about the Holland Festival. Culture Press reports almost daily. What are we most looking forward to?
L.A. Dance project at @hollandfestival: falling in love with dance, if only for an evening
Holland Festival
Benjamin Millepied is a glamour boy who conquers everything in his path: from actress Natalie Portman to the Paris Opera ballet. In reality, after the premiere in Amsterdam, the Frenchman looks like a
Orchestre El Gusto lets sounds of Kashba Blues blow through @hollandfestival like warm desert wind
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
Solid fare for royal couple at opening @hollandfestival
Holland Festival
Our king is not yet known as a lover of culture of the less bite-sized kind. The kind of performances, like the opera Quartett, with which the Holland Festival opened on 1 June. So it may have been a bit of a letdown for him, his
Blood, sweat and candle wax in Fabre's Wagner vision at @hollandfestival
Holland Festival
A chamber opera blown up to impressive proportions at @hollandfestival
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
Chetouane's Sacre du Printemps: could we possibly do without that damn sacrifice?
Simon Stone adapts Ibsen for Australians: 'And why would you even go to the theatre if you live in Sydney?'
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
'Cineastas' mixes theatre, film and everyday life
Holland Festival
In 'Cineastas', the Argentine director shows Mariano Pensotti (1972) a multi-layered story about four Buenos Aires filmmakers, each struggling with their new films. It is partly a portrait of the city, through the eyes of four Argentine filmmakers, says
Heiner Goebbels works with Slovenian girls' choir: 'In the space between question and answer, imagination lives on
Thirty-eight singing Slovenian girls. We might expect something with colourful costumes against a backdrop of a sunny village scene. Instead
Dance and music merge in Gesamtkunstwerk SHIROKURO
Holland Festival ,,I like to use the word 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. Light, space, matter, body, sound: it all belongs together. Each aspect forms an essential part of the whole."
Choreographer Nicole Beutler prepares with pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama and
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