Edinburgh International Festival Archives

17Aug

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

Mozart’s Don Giovanni – Usher Hall

The Scottish Chamber Opera dazzles again with its high-spirited rendition of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the Edinburgh International Festival. Conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, the show continues the SCO’s highly acclaimed series of Mozart operas at the festival. Part raunchy comedy, part high drama, Don Giovanni tells the story of a dissolute Spanish nobleman whose penchant for womanising and bloodshed brings him to a grisly end. Act I opens with Don Giovanni murdering Il Commendatore after a failed attempt to bed the old man’s daughter, Donna Anna. Konstantin Krimmel plays a leonine, bombastic Don Giovanni, who is at times slick with charisma, at times laughably pompous. His Canzonetta in Act II (“Deh, vieni alla finestra”), sung with elegance and tenderness, is a particularly memo...

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

This Shining Night – Usher Hall

The concert begins and ends beneath the same shining night, Samuel Barber first contemplating James Agee’s stars, Morten Lauridsen returning us to them at the conclusion. Much has happened in the darkness between. This Shining Night, part of the Edinburgh International Festival’s celebration of choral music, brings the Edinburgh Festival Chorus to the Usher Hall under conductor Sofi Jeannin for a journey through American choral music. It is an intelligently constructed programme; one whose dramatic shape only becomes fully apparent as the evening unfolds. It starts quietly enough. Barber’s Sure on This Shining Night, his 1938 setting of Agee’s poetry, establishes the idea which will eventually bring us full circle. There are beauty and restraint here, but initially I find my...

13Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

JLCO Plays Duke Ellington – Usher Hall

The Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra Residency brought us a night of Duke Ellington’s greatest compositions, directed by esteemed trumpeter and founder of JLCO, Wynton Marsalis. Seeing as the theme of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival is ‘All Rise’ – tied to the 250th anniversary of America’s independence – an American ensemble playing the works of one of the most prolific American composers seems only fitting. Especially when we get to the second act of the performance where the sole focus is on Ellington’s Black, Brown, and Beige, conducted by Chris Crenshaw. This suite tells the story of the hardships of the Black American, from slavery to segregation, and eventually emancipation. Alongside the JLCO, musical guests were invited to perform, including EIF’s dire...

12Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Global Ideas Stage – Kings Theatre

A trumpet cuts through the audience’s murmuring – Wynston Marsalis stands at the back of the auditorium playing Amazing Grace, and amazing it absolutely was. The Global Ideas Stage began as it intended to go on. Featuring Edinburgh International Festival’s Director, Nicola Benedetti as host, alongside Harvard Art and Culture Historian, Sarah Lewis. Last year’s festival also featured a talk from Sarah Lewis, but this year the structure followed a more interview-based approach. Six guests were chosen to discuss the connection between Scotland and America and its Declaration of Independence. As well as discussing how culture and media allows for minds to be changed and hope to be given. Our panel consisted of Adam Dixon, Amy Goodman, Gordon Brown, Bryan Stevenson, Ken Burns, Lewis and B...

Figures in Extinction – Festival Theatre

23Aug

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

Figures in Extinction – Festival Theatre

The Edinburgh International Festival continues to prove how committed it is to bringing the finest examples of the arts to the city every year, and this time it could not have been otherwise. Figures in Extinction is one of the most elevated ballets I have ever seen, both in terms of technique, concept and production design. Crystal Pite proves herself to be one of the finest choreographers currently working in Europe. What sets her apart is her willingness to look directly at the world around her and to translate difficult, often painful subjects into movement that feels alive, urgent and deeply human. In Figures in Extinction, a trilogy created with Simon McBurney of Complicité and performed by the extraordinary dancers of Nederlands Dans Theater, she turns her attention to the climate c...

23Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Bernstein and Stravinsky – Usher Hall

The Edinburgh International Festival welcomed the return of conductor Karina Canellakis, who lit up Usher Hall with her energetic presence on the podium. Following her stunning debut at the closing concert of the 2023 Festival, her comeback was highly anticipated – and she more than lived up to expectations. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival Chorus director James Grossmith created an evening of music that was both dazzling and deeply emotional. The 95-minute piece, performed with one interval, started with the vulnerability of the violin voice, expanding incrementally out to the full forces of the orchestra before the chorus entered. The uncomplicated layering of massed choral voices over instruments gave an intimacy merged with something divine. The performance con...

19Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Unseen Truth: Sarah Lewis – The Hub

Sarah Lewis takes to The Hub stage at this year's Edinburgh International Festival, analysing the power of culture as a means of justice rather than by law in her talk The Unseen Truth. Lewis is an art historian and Associate Professor of the Humanities and African American studies at Harvard University, leading the popular course, Vision and Justice: The Art of Race and American Citizenship. Discussing ideas from her book of the same title (The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America) Lewis delves into the historical misrepresentation of people of colour in America and focuses on those who combated this misrepresentation, most notably the work of abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and photographer Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). Lewis explores Dougla...

Cutting The Tightrope – Church Hill Theatre

16Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Cutting The Tightrope – Church Hill Theatre

This is a compelling, provocative and passionate piece of theatre about artistic freedom, censorship and political activism. You may love it, you may hate it, but you certainly won’t be bored. Originally produced last year at London’s Arcola Theatre, this collection of short plays was written in response to a statement from Arts Council, England, in 2024, warning that artists making political statements either in their work or even on social media could be in breach of their funding agreements. Later it was revealed that the statement followed discussions with the British Government about artists speaking out about the Israel-Gaza war. We know the names of the twelve playwrights but we don’t know who wrote each play. Although all the plays are making serious points, some of them are ...

11Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Dance People – Old College Quad

A Call to Connection at the Edinburgh International Festival In the open quadrangle of Old College Quad, Dance People is performed in an unexpected performance space. A simple red ribbon separates performers and watchers, with no seating—merely open air and stone environment. Physical openness is a prelude to the questions of the evening about connection, community, and shared humanity. The play begins with an evocative stage with projected messages: "Who are you? ", "Are we alone? ", "We have so many people with us… people we've seen on the bus, who walk alongside us, but whom we've never noticed." At one point, the audience is invited to turn around and actually notice the people around them—a simple yet powerful gesture. The barrier is then literally broken with the ribbon ...

10Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Bach and Bartok – Usher Hall

The Edinburgh International Festival treats me to a musical triptych tonight at the Usher Hall, a concert in three sharply contrasting acts, delivered with precision and flair by the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer. Fischer, now in his mid-70’s and one of Europe’s most admired conductors, has the air of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing and, perhaps, is savouring these final years at the helm. Co-founder of the orchestra back in 1983 with Zoltán Kocsis, he’s built a reputation not only for musical excellence but also for a willingness to experiment, from autism-friendly “Cocoa Concerts” to informal beanbag performances. There’s an ease and playfulness in his direction, the sort of confidence that comes from a career well cemented in the history books, but still curious...