Dutch National Opera & Ballet open house

The Dutch National Opera & Ballet hosted an open day on 31st August 2025 ahead of the start of the 2025-2026 season. I went with my better half.

The open day, which I believe is annual, was a super family-friendly event and it was free admission! The theatre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was open to public from 11:00 until 16:00. My objective was the ballet stage rehearsal from 13:10, obviously.

Husband did not really realise what free seating meant and we almost got stuck at a food stand selling poffertjes just outside the theatre. I convinced him we would get them afterwards.

And here we go, we managed to hurry up a little bit and found seats at the second balcony of the Grote Zaal, or Main Auditorium.

I did not know what they were going to rehearse in advance. It turned out to be 7th Symphony by Toer van Schayk set to Beethoven's famous composition.

Rehearsal of 7th Symphony: SOUND ON!

It was such a relaxed atmosphere. You see families sit directly on the stairs where usually the orchestra pit was located as dancers rehearsed on the main stage. You can hear and see the stager talk, the audience laugh, kids run around and a baby cry. It was/is such a great opportunity for young children to experience opera and ballet for the first time. You never know what kind of future talent you are dealing with.

Dancers were Young Gyu Choi, Salome Leverashvili, Nina Tonoli, Jan Spunda, Sho Yamada, Chloë Réveillon, Leo Hepler and Koko Bamford. Splendid! Sincere apologies the name of the wonderful stager slipped out of my mind.

After the rehearsal, the stage manager descended on a bicycle like the ET movie, and explained how the stage light and other stage equipment worked. Then, kids and everyone else were welcomed to step on the stage! Grown ups were having fun, too. Adult dancers wearing leotards and tights were taking pictures together on stage. A man was singing My Way. Silly, but laughter is always good.

A view of the audience seats of the Grote Zaal from the stage. The capacity is 1,594 seats, not including wheelchair or orchestra pit spaces. It is slightly larger than the capacity of Sadler's Wells, which is 1,500 seats, in London, the United Kingdom.

Overall, we enjoyed ourselves a great deal. I, specifically, enjoyed it like a little girl. We did not forget about poffertjes.

The Dutch National Opera & Ballet opens the 2025-2026 season with opera Tosca on 3rd September and with the Monument ballet triple bill on 11th September. The rehearsed 7th Symphony is a part o the triple bill. Click here for more details.

This is the exterior of the theatre. I took this picture about a year ago.

All pictures and movies were taken by me with my personal iPad or iPhone.