De Nederlandse Opera
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De Nederlandse Opera (DNO), (The Netherlands Opera) in Amsterdam, is the leading opera company of the Netherlands. The DNO is renowned for its adventurous and theatrical stagings, its mixed repertoire of modern and established operas, and its strong ensemble orientation. Its present home base is the Het Muziektheater, a modern building designed by Cees Dam which opened in 1986.
DNO was established shortly after the end of World War II as a repertory company with a permanent ensemble. In the postwar period, it toured extensively in the Netherlands from its home base in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, a fin de siècle theatre on the Leidseplein in Amsterdam.
In 1964, it was renamed De Nederlandse Operastichting. (The Dutch Opera Foundation), and the company adopted a stagione orientation, inviting different soloists and artistic teams for each new production.
In 1986, the company moved to the new Muziektheater building, the Stopera, which it shares with the Dutch National Ballet, on the Amstel river and thereafter became known as De Nederlandse Opera (DNO).
Since 1988, the French-Lebanese theatre director Pierre Audi has been artistic director of DNO. Since 2005, the chief conductor is Ingo Metzmacher. The principal guest conductor is Hartmut Haenchen. In February 2007, DNO announced that Metzmacher would not renew his contract as DNO chief conductor in 2008, and would leave the position at that time.
DNO has its own choir of sixty singers and a technical staff of 260. DNO does not have its own resident orchestra, and so various orchestras of the Netherlands, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the ASKO Ensemble, and the Schoenberg Ensemble have provided the orchestral forces for DNO productions.
DNO produces on average eleven productions per year, with nearly all performances sold out. While most performances are in the Muziektheater, the company has also performed in the Stadsschouwburg, at the Koninklijk Theater Carré, and on the Westergasfabriek industrial site in Amsterdam. For many years, the June production has been organized as part of the Holland Festival and includes the participation of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
DNO has lent its productions to foreign companies; recent DNO productions have been seen at the Metropolitan Opera, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, as well as the Adelaide Festival in Australia.
