An astonishing Napoleon re-entering history

Programming Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music is quite a daring move in a country with no real tradition in musical. This production by Nederlands Reisopera shows that fortune favours the bold.

In the Nederlandse Reisopera's Così fan tutte, the team of young soloists and the Orkest van het Oosten conducted by Arnaud Oosterbaum give a musically rewarding performance that compensates for an unconvincing stage direction.

Annemarie Kremer is a strong-willed, dramatically voiced Butterfly in Laurence Dale’s sensitive production.

Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde was the high point at an opera gala in support of young singers at the Concertgebouw.

In a somewhat long-overdue debut at the Concertgebouw, bel canto royalty Juan Diego Flórez and rising star Pretty Yende wowed the Amsterdam public with a generous programme of bel canto music.

While people gathered near big screens at the Museum Square to see the Dutch football team play, metres along the road another crowd gathered to hear the Gelders Orchestra play Dvořák's Cello Concerto and Ninth Symphony.