Edinburgh bursting with the arts and arts lovers
Text and photos by Lela E. Madjiah
EDINBURGH (JP): There's one thing one wishes for in Edinburgh during August: To have the ability to be in different places at the same time!
Especially so last August, when the capital of Scotland celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Edinburgh International Festival.
This year the world's biggest arts jamboree attracted around 300,000 foreign tourists, an increase compared to the 232,000 in August last year. It brought together thousands of actors, artists, musicians, comedians and dancers, many of international repute, to perform during the three-week gathering, which cost US$ 8.4 million to stage.
The range of the shows at the International, Fringe and Film festivals is varied to the point of overwhelming one. Visitors had to carefully consult the festival guidebooks to decide what to see.
On the International festival alone there were 175 performances in various venues by local and international companies. Programs started as early as 7:30 a.m. and lasted well into the evening, some even after midnight.
It is a matter of careful choice, particularly with such big names as composer James MacMillan whose new opera, Ines de Castro, based on John Clifford's play and performed by the Scottish Opera, saw its world premiere at the festival.
The Martha Graham Dance Company, The Mark Morris Dance Group of New York and The Cleveland Orchestra, were also among the performers.
The morning recitals were also a delight, although viewers had to get up early. The morning's music including concerts of Scottish fiddle music, blended beautifully with the city's lovely old architecture, reaching towards the clear blue, August skies dampened once in a while by a burst of drizzles.
The film festival was simply not to be missed. Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci was among the celebrities present. Tickets to his Bernardo Bertolucci: Scene by Scene, in which he talked about Liv Tyler, his new star who plays as a young woman trying to find out the identity of her real father and also to lose her virginity in Stealing Beauty, were among the most sought-after.
The Film festival also saw the international premiere of the U.S. film Dragonheart, starring Sean Connery, who kicked off the whole event on Aug. 11.
The Fringe, cited by The Guinness Book of Records as the largest arts festival in the world, is a unique and magical event.
Every August for three weeks, Edinburgh is transformed into the world's largest stage as every theater, church hall, sports center, and bar plays host to a fantastical array of international Fringe performers.
In 1947, the Edinburgh International Festival was formed as a platform to promote peace and unity after the war. It attracted so much attention and enthusiasm that uninvited performers arrived, determined to put on a show, and thus created the first fringe.
From these modest beginnings some of the world's best dramatists, comedians, actors and poets have emerged and continue to emerge. Dudley Moore, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, Eric Idle, Donald Pleasance, Emma Thomson, Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Lenny Henry ... the list is endless.
Starting with just eight companies, this year the Fringe boasted more than 9,000 performers in 14,000 shows from as far afar as Albania, Ukraine, Hong Kong, South Africa and Japan. Around half a million people came.