Archive 2004 

The 2004 festival opened with director Peter Sellars’ The Children of Herakles. In this three-part piece, which consisted of a conversation with an expert, the performance itself and an audience discussion, Sellars wanted to show the human face of refugees. Choreographer Alain Platel’s closing performance Wolf touched on a global sense of anxiety as well as Mozart’s private life. Departing festival director Ivo van Hove called it a performance in which everything he stands for comes together. The weeks between saw madrigals by Gesualda, dance by Akram Khan, and the Atlas Ensemble - comprising thirty top-tier musicians from Beijing, Baku, Istanbul, Yerevan, Teheran, Berlin and Amsterdam - was the Ensemble in residence and well-represented on the programme with nine concerts.