Aquanura is the closing-time water show on the lake at the centre of Efteling. It runs once each evening, timed to the park's closing hour, which varies by season. The show is twelve minutes long. It combines about 200 fountain nozzles, 36 fire jets, several thousand programmable lights, and a four-channel ambient sound mix played from speakers hidden in the rocks around the lake. The choreography is set to a piece of music composed specifically for the show by the Dutch composer Bram Vermeulen, who has updated it twice in the last decade.
What it is, structurally
The show has five movements, each lasting two to three minutes. The first movement is calm and recognisable as the park's various leitmotifs played in long phrases. The second movement is faster and accompanied by smaller fire jets. The third movement is the climax, with the largest fountains (the centre nozzle reaches about 18 metres) and the heaviest fire. The fourth movement is a quieter reprise of the first movement's themes in a minor mode, which to me is the most affecting section. The fifth movement is the resolution and the bow — the music returns to the major key, the lights soften, and a final long fountain rises and falls in silence.
Where to watch from
The benches around the lake are arranged in a ring. The show works in 360 degrees and there is no wrong seat. That said: the east side has the best view of the centre fountain, the west side has the best view of the fire jets, the north side faces the major audio cluster (loudest), and the south side is the most popular with families because the dropping fountain spray, in summer, sometimes reaches the spectators. I prefer the north-east corner. It is usually the last place to fill up.
What to listen for in the music
The score quotes from at least eleven of the park's permanent attractions. The Fata Morgana theme appears twice. The Droomvlucht main theme is buried in the second movement at low volume. The wolf howl from the Wolf and the Seven Goats tableau (which is itself a sampled wolf, not a synthesizer) is in the third movement just before the fire climax. If you have ridden the park's attractions, your ear will catch these without trying.
The empty version
On the rare occasion that I have been at the park on a weekday in February with grey skies and rain, I have seen the show with perhaps thirty people watching. The empty version is, somehow, better. The choreography reveals itself when you are not looking at other people's faces lit by the fountains. The music plays as written rather than as backdrop. The applause at the end, from thirty people across a lake, sounds like a chamber concert. I have, since, scheduled at least one trip per year specifically to see it that way.