Edinburgh Festivals, International Festival

Mabou Mines Dollhouse

6 Sep 2007

Bad taste is always a good defence in the theatre of the last few decades. With it, we can reappraise all the conventional attitudes that accrue in both art and society. This, presumably, is the starting point for Mabou Mines DollHouse, a kind of vulgar…

Capriccio

23 Aug 2007

At the start of the Festival, opera-goers were spirited back to the genre’s origins with a spectacular production of the first great opera, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Now, as things draw to a close, the opera on offer is one which poses questions to itself…

Christine Brewer

23 Aug 2007

As comfortable chatting about American Idol as she is arias, Christine Brewer is swift to dispel any notion of the opera diva. Indeed, from the moment she burst onto the stage as a teenager with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Brewer knew she had…

Ensemble 415

23 Aug 2007

It’s not unheard of for groups of musicians to give themselves identities that have something to do with numbers. The Sixteen, for instance, take their name from the regular quota of their singers. Or there’s New York’s Ensemble 21, whose contemporary…

Gürzenich Orchestra

Carol Main

23 Aug 2007

Of all the orchestras appearing at the Festival, there is none with a more impressive pedigree than the Gürzenich from Germany. Mahler, Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Brahms and Stravinsky all wrote for and conducted this orchestra, whose Cologne roots stretch…

Hitlist - the best Festival music

23 Aug 2007

The Tiger Lillies A few short years ago we were being blown away by this band’s antics at the Spiegeltent. Now they’re up at the International festival. The change of festival has not diluted their appeal, here they team up with Concerto Caledonia for…

Hitlist - the best Festival theatre

23 Aug 2007

Damascus David Greig’s new play about a man on a first time business visit to the eponymous city is full of humour, tragedy and political insight. Traverse, 228 1404, until 26 Aug, times vary, £16 (£5–£11). Venus as a Boy Tam Dean Burn is towering…

Orpheus X

23 Aug 2007

The gods are surely smiling on Edinburgh this month, as the American Repertory Theatre rocks up to the Edinburgh International Festival with a modern version of the Orpheus myth. The brainchild of master performer and maverick musician Rinde Eckert…

Trisha Brown Dance Company

23 Aug 2007

In 1962, one building in New York City became the centre of the modern dance world. Artists flocked to Judson Memorial Church to produce work, and when they left, went on to influence dancers and choreographers around the world. But when I ask Trisha…

La Didone

16 Aug 2007

‘I developed special software for the last couple of pieces,’ says Elizabeth LeCompte, artistic director of New York avant-garders the Wooster Group. ‘Final Cut Pro and Isadora, you know, I was the initial developer.’ Actually, she was nothing of the…

Impressing the Czar

16 Aug 2007

‘You’re going to get really lost,’ predicts Aki Saito, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet of Flanders. She’s talking about the average person’s reaction to William Forsythe’s three-act extravaganza, Impressing the Czar. ‘You won’t know what to…

Early music

16 Aug 2007

Early music has never been an area that the Edinburgh International Festival has paid much heed to, despite the fact that the genre undoubtedly enjoys a strong following among the music-loving masses. Even commercial radio – Classic FM – has…

Hitlist - the best Festival dance

16 Aug 2007

Into the Hoods London’s Zoo Nation are back at the Fringe for another helping of hilarious five star hip hop dance theatre. Truly unmissable. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 27 Aug, 7.30pm, £15.50–£19.50 (£13.50–£15.50). Impressing The Czar…

Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610

16 Aug 2007

While Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo occupies Festival pole position, there is plenty more on the programme from the great Renaissance-Baroque transitionalist Italian. Five concerts of madrigals make up what EIF director Jonathan Mills calls ‘the sketch book’. As…

POPPEA

16 Aug 2007

One of the most powerful leaders in the world abuses his position by having an affair and ignoring the will of the people – it’s a concept as familiar today as it was 2000 years ago for the Romans, on whose machinations Claudio Monteverdi based his…

Red Shoes

5 Questions

16 Aug 2007

5 things which inspire you to dance? The same things that inspire me in general: music, love (in all its forms), optimism, a beautiful day, the feeling of physical well-being. 4 things you would like to see at this year’s Festival? I tend to…

Scottish Ballet

16 Aug 2007

In 2005, when Scottish Ballet performed at the Edinburgh International Festival after an absence of 20 years, great excitement surrounded their return. Now that the company is back for the third year running, they almost seem old hat – yet there are a…

The Bacchae

16 Aug 2007

There have been many and varied interpretations of Euripedes’ classic over the years. There’s the conventional reading, contrasting the straight-laced and controlling personality against the sensual hedonist (witness the various productions of the 90s…

Candide

9 Aug 2007

In setting up this year’s Opening Concert of the Edinburgh International Festival, Jonathan Mills has quickly ditched the tradition of a Sunday evening kick-off (although the St Giles’ Festival Service remains in place for the morning) and has brought…

L’Orfeo

9 Aug 2007

‘Festivals are a sort of personal odyssey,’ says EIF director Jonathan Mills, ‘like a pilgrimage or rite of passage, where you can learn about yourself.’ In programming his first Festival, Mills also threw down a personal gauntlet, meeting the challenge…

Music of Thomas Adès

9 Aug 2007

For some inexplicable reason, the music of the young English composer Thomas Adès doesn’t get much of an airing north of the border. Putting that to rights is the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with Adès himself conducting his violin concerto and the…

Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh International Festival Blazing squad A pair of unassuming middle-aged men are behind the explosive spectacle of the annual fireworks concert. Karin Goodwin meets the acceptable face of pyromania

Capriccio

19 Jul 2007

Richard Strauss’ final opera Capriccio, which received its premiere in 1942, is described by the composer as ‘a conversation piece for music’. A young countess cannot choose between two lovers, one a musician, the other a poet.

Jardins Publics

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh International Festival The Outsiders The idea of a public garden might stir up images of lurid flowerbeds and incontinent pigeons, but Lucy Sweet finds somewhere altogether more highbrow to get fresh air

La Didone

19 Jul 2007

For over 30 years, the most unlikely elements have been combined in the Wooster Group’s work. Everything from creaky old B-movies to cutting edge technology have been spliced together to create arresting pieces of theatre.