Not since the Silver Jubilee of Queen Beatrix in 2005 have the Dutch seen such a turn-out of their royal family as on Friday for the double birthday bash at Amsterdam’s prestigious Royal Theater Carré on the Amstel River.
No less than 23 members of the family, plus the ex-husband of Princess Irene and the new boyfriend of her daughter Margarita, attended the spectacular event.
Read also: Dutch Royals out in force for birthday Gala
Queen Beatrix came up with the idea. Last year she suggested to her younger sister Princess Margriet to celebrate their special birthdays - Beatrix turned 70 on Thursday, Margriet 65 earlier in January - together. They decided to invite the art, music and dance academies of the Netherlands to send their best young talents to perform in a kind of Royal Variety Show of the Future.
And participate they did - dancers, musicians, opera singers, jazz players, from five tot 25 year old, some 150 in all. ,,Marvellous, marvellous", the queen said afterwards, when she and her sister and Pieter van Vollenhoven went to meet the young artists. ,,Great to know the Netherlands have so many talents, even though there were many foreigners amongst you", she said.
On the programme were works by Bartók, Listzt, and Mozart, and dances by Jiri Kylián and Thom Stuart. The 1,000 men strong audience rehearsed singing ‘Happy Birthday’ beforehand - the Dutch are not very good at singing aloud in public, so some practice was called for. And instead of the usual "happy birthday to you" the line had to be changed to "happy birthday to them". In Dutch: ‘Lang zullen ze leven' (long shall they live).
Among the invited guests were the entire cabinet with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, former prime ministers and ministers of State, members and former members of the Royal Household, and the entire "Who is Who" of Dutch public society, writers, performers, dance maestro Hans van Manen, tv-personalities and the like.
© RB Hans Jacobs; Photos by © Phil Nijhuis
Comments