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Anna Tsygankova is clearly enjoying her part in Forsythe's Pas/Parts 2018, an exposé of the vocabulary of modern ballet.

The credits for this new production directed by Olivier Py raised high expectations that were only partially met on opening night.

In the final instalment of aus LICHT, the Helicopter String Quartet lives up to the publicity hype and choirs perform marvellous feats.

The second day of aus LICHT is one mesmerising highlight after another, including the Netherlands Youth and Children’s Choirs in one magical and one sinister procession.

The performers in Part 1 of aus LICHT at the Holland Festival are amazing, but the production doesn’t rev up until the Archangel Michael goes on his dizzying world tour.

Sasha Mukhamedov, James Stout and their fellow dancers succeed to drag us off to a romantic tragedy on the British isles on a June evening.

Selectively unearthed from current critical editions, this fabulously performed new Hoffmann plumbs the murky depths of its antihero’s psyche.

Half-arty, half-folky, this collaboration between bass-baritone Florian Boesch and the East Tyrolean ensemble Franui was an entertaining mixed bag.

In an elegant new production by Ivo van Hove, Malin Byström portrays a graceful, erotic Salome and the RCO play with sensuous lyricism under Daniele Gatti.

Until now I have been fairly sceptical about theatrical stagings of oratorios and other sacred works, so I was curious but cautious about the staging of Monteverdi's Vespers at the Holland Festival.

The loud cheers for the performers were richly deserved, although Jörg Widmann’s imposing but sprawling Babylon was not well-served by the concert format.

At the Holland Festival, the performance of Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with film images by Julian Rosefeldt does not quite unfold as the spectacle it promises on paper.

Energetic evening to start your summer. You can cut out Dawson's tableaus and frame them on the wall.

Louis Andriessen’s new opera is a masterly expedition into the grand and grotesque mind of Athanasius Kircher, polymath and fantastist, but it is hampered by a clumsy libretto.

The role of the outsider struck a chord with Tchaikovsky, whose homosexuality alienated him from society. Stefan Herheim takes that identification as the central idea in his remarkable new production at Dutch National Opera.

A mesmerising Wozzeck, thanks to the trampled dignity of Florian Boesch’s antihero, Asmik Grigorian’s gloriously sung Marie, and a thrillingly savage Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.

Ruth Mackenzie, Holland Festival’s vivacious and invigorating new director, closed her first edition with a twelve hour Prom, reinventing it as a mini-festival at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Dutch National Ballet closes a vibrant season with Cool Britannia, including exciting world premieres by David Dawson and Christopher Wheeldon and a sensational performance of Wayne McGregor's Chroma.

A mélange of documentary, Chinese opera and contemporary music does not really bind into a solid whole, but Sichuan opera star Shen Tiemei’s performance is complete musical theatre.

Arnoud Noordegraaf’s As Big as the Sky received more than the usual attention at the Holland Festival due to his collaboration with Ai Weiwei.

The child-woman Lulu is a reflective receptacle for desire in Dutch National Opera’s extraordinary filmic production.

Pierre Audi's final Holland Festival closes with Calliope Tsoupaki's new ancient Greek oratorio about Oedipus.

Pianist Markus Hinterhäuser’s brilliantly curated Winterreise juxtaposes the devastating interpretative powers of baritone Matthias Goerne with captivating animated images by William Kentridge.

Listening is the only requirement for travelling through the spatial soundscapes of Luigi Nono’s rarely performed masterpiece Prometeo. Looking almost got in the way at the Holland Festival.

The Dutch National Ballet impresses with the world première of a new and large-scale production of The Tempest by resident choreographer Krzysztof Pastor. At Het Musiektheater as part of the 2014 Holland Festival. 

A once-in-a-lifetime experience with a perfectly arranged score to a breathtaking film. 

Ambrogio Maestri reprises his star turn as a vocally and theatrically complete Falstaff in Robert Carsen’s lavish, food-fuelled situational comedy at the Holland Festival.

Holland Festival revives Pierre Audi’s 2012 production of Handel’s Orlando. Conducted by baroque specialist René Jacobs and featuring an strong cast, it is a great occasion to witness American countertenor Bejun Mehta in what has become, over the past decade, his signature role.

Martijn Padding's opera Laika is let down by its libretto, which illustrates that though authors may write successful novels, this doesn’t necessarily imply they can also produce good theatre texts.

The new Netherlands Opera performance of Richard Wagner’s only comic opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was an absolute success. Spanning a daunting four-and-a-half hours, the evening kept us wanting more rather than searching for the clock.

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra presented a Russian program with a twist; “A Russian Flirt with Haydn”. All four works and three composers that graced the stage were influenced by Haydn, most obviously Schnittke and his Moz-Art à la Haydn. The music worked well together, though I would suspect that this is more due to the Russian background than Haydn’s influence.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s life was not that of an isolated contemplative but rather full of personal frustration, eventually ending in syphilitic madness. While his work has been often linked with music--most notably in his relationship with Wagner and Richard Strauss’s tone poem based on Also sprach Zarathustra--making his life into an opera may seem a dubious proposition.

The Holland Festival boasts quite an impressive relationship with Britten and his works. Tonight’s chamber opera, The Rape of Lucretia was first performed at the festival in 1947 with Britten, Peter Pears and Kathleen Ferrier (for whom the opera was written) and the English Opera Group. Tonight’s performance with Oliver Knussen at the helm is another proud continuation of this tradition.

Das moderne Musiktheater ist eine provozierende, aber gleichzeitig sehr kurzweilige kaleidoskopischen Reise, die unter die Haut geht.

Diese völlige Neuinterpretation und bewusst vorgenommenen Korrektur des Originaltextes lässt den traditionellen Ring in einem liebevoll neuen Licht erscheinen.

Alexis Blake stellt das altgriechische Verbot der Klage in einen modernen und berührenden Kontext.

Wu Tsang und das Schauspielhaus Zürich präsentieren ein einzigartiges Kunstfilmprojekt über Herman Melvilles großen amerikanischen Roman.

Matthias Pintscher dirigiert ein mitreißendes Sinnenspektakel, das dem Publikum den Atem raubt.

Die Video-Oper Mitra von Eva Reiter und George van Dam ist ein gewagtes Experiment, das nicht nur intensiv bedrückt, sondern auch den Alltag der Institution Psychiatrie unnötig verzerrt.

Die Dreiecksbeziehung mit tragischem Ausgang wurde von einem vollblütigen Sängerensemble und dem außergewöhnlich engagiert spielenden Mahler Chamber Orchestra getragen.

George Benjamins neue Oper beschreibt eindringlich einen durch Liebe hilflosen König – Hannigan und Degout füllen die tiefgründige Musik mit hingebungsvollem Emotionsspiel.

Hyena ist ein spannendes Konzerterlebnis im Rahmen des Holland Festivals und ein überzeugendes Plädoyer für ein weiteres Entdecken der Musik von Georg Friedrich Haas.

Die Uraufführung von Sacred Environment von Kate Moore beim Holland Festival will heilige Stätten Australiens in den Konzertsaal bringen. Zuhause darf man dank einer persönlichen VR-Brille das Ganze noch einmal erleben.

Beim Holland Festival gelang den Gebrüdern Jussen eine beinah überirdische Interpretation des Stückes Mantra von Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Das Konzert des Ensemble Modern beim Holland Festival war ein Augen- und Ohrenschmaus und gleichzeitig ein Paradebeispiel für wirklichen interkulturellen Austausch.