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Dateline:
2nd April, 2008
EIF 2008 Unveiled
Jonathan Mills announces the progamme for the 62nd Edinburgh International
Festival, his second as Director. His theme for the year is an exploration
of some of the challenges, shifts and changes facing European communities
in the 21st century.
The theatre programme:
- TR Warszawa with Dybbuk and 4.48 Psychosis
- Vicky Featherstone directs the National Theatre of Scotland's 365
one night to learn a lifetime, by David Harrower and with songs
by Paul Buchanan, which looks at young people in practice flats about
to leave care
- Barrie Kosky returns with his adaptation of Poe's The Tell-Tale
Heart starring Martin Niedermair
- The Palestinian National Theatre performs Jidariyya, a moving
and beautiful look at mortality based on a poem by Mahmoud Darwish
- East West Theatre Company presents a Bosnian take on Nigel Williams'
play, Class Enemy
- Renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami produced a video installation
with three simultaneous perspectives of a Persian passion play and
its audience – Looking at Tazieh
- Belgium's Muziektheater Transparant is joined by Collegium Vocale
Gent for Ruhe, which sets Schubert songs against the testimony
of SS veterans. Muziektheater Transparant also presents Wolpe!
Welche Farbe hat der Vogel, exploring the work of anti-fascist
composer Stefan Wolpe
- The Hilliard Ensemble join forces with Heiner Goebbels for the world
premiere of I went to the house but did not enter
The dance programme:
- the world premiere of Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray with music
by Terry Davies
- State Ballet of Georgia with its Artistic Director and prima ballerina
Nina Ananiashvili dancing the lead role in Giselle and a Mixed
Bill including the UK premieres of new works by Yuri Possokhov
and Alexei Ratmansky
- Chunky Move from Australia with the European premiere of its dance
and special effect extravaganza Mortal Engine
- UK Premiere of Batsheva Dance Company from Israel with Deca
Dance 2008
- Belgium's Rosas dance company choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker,
and with music from Ictus, performs Steve Reich Evening –
seven works representing the 25 years she haas worked with the composer
- the Istanbul Music and Sema Group's Whirling Dervishes of Turkey
The opera programme:
- the world premiere of a fully staged production of Smetana's The
Two Widows by Scottish Opera, starring Jane Irwin and Kate Valentine
- The Mariinsky Opera Company performs a fully staged production
of Karol Szymanowski's Król Roger under the baton of
Valery Gergiev starring Andrzej Dobber and Elzbieta Szmytka
- There will be concert performances of opera including the Opening
Concert Kurt Weill's The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
conducted by HK Gruber and starring Sir Willard White and Susan Bickley
and Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra in concert
performances of Aleko by Sergei Rachmaninov and Semyon Kotko
(act three) by Sergei Prokofiev, and The Enchanted Wanderer
by Rodion Shchedrin.
"The Edinburgh International Festival was founded in 1947 in the
aftermath of a devastating war, as an optimistic expression of what
Europe could be," Jonathan Mills said. "The Festival owes
its origins to an urgent imperative to rebuild a sense of community
in a continent which had torn itself apart; to restore faith and to
heal the heartache of shattered lives through music, opera, drama, and
dance.
"In the early 21st century, Europe is a very different place.
Recently the European Union has expanded to encompass 27 countries from
Estonia to Cyprus, with a combined population of some 500 million people.
Political borders have been redrawn in every direction one cares to
look. These borders are not just political or geographic but, more significantly,
represent a profound shift of cultural, social and even religious identity
and opportunity. These are exciting times in which to live in Europe;
times which demand a commitment to our sense of community.
"A festival is an expression of the creative ambition of the community
it serves. At the same time it is a place where the personal and collective
challenges we face as a society can be explored; explored by artists
working across and beyond the very boundaries which often seem unable
to be bridged."
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