Edinburgh International Festival--2011

Artists from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, as well as North America, Germany, Belgium, Russia, the UK and from across the Arab speaking world gather in Edinburgh for three weeks of classical and contemporary music, dance, theatre, opera and visual arts.

Some of this year’s highlights include The Peony Pavilion, performed by the National Ballet of China with western classical ballet, a classic symphony orchestra, traditional Chinese instruments, and a quintessentially Chinese story demonstrates the ideas and ambitions of Festival 2011. This beautiful and moving ballet is based on a love story by one of China’s greatest writers, and contemporary of Shakespeare, Tang Xianzu.

The Tempest is re-imagined by Mokwha Repertory Company from Seoul in a distinctive production weaving Shakespeare’s famous tale with fifth-century Korean chronicles. King Lear is deconstructed as a one man tour-de-force by Contemporary Legend Theatre from Taipei. In another adaptation of Shakespeare, Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe retells the familiar tale of Hamlet setting it in China and performing the tragedy in the extraordinary acrobatic and elaborately costumed style of Jingju opera.

Scottish Ballet and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra perform Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Song of the Earth, set to Mahler’s stunning song cycle inspired by Chinese poetry from the T’ang Dynasty, alongside the world premiere of a work created for the company by internationally acclaimed American-based choreographer Jorma Elo.

Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, one of the world’s leading artists, brings two poetic series of work not presented before in Europe. Lightning Fields and Photogenic Drawings reveal Sugimoto’s dramatic exploration of the very nature of photography, presented in partnership with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

The Virgin Money Fireworks Concert with over 100,000 firing sequences launched from Edinburgh Castle and choreographed to music performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra will fill Edinburgh’s skies on Sunday 4 September at 9pm.

Dance at Festival 2011 includes French-Vietnamese choreographer Ea Sola’s re-creation of her critically acclaimed meditation on the human cost of war, Drought and Rain, New York-based Chinese choreographer Shen Wei’s Re-Triptych, the south Indian Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and Korean choreographer, Eun-Me Ahn and her company’s colourful tale of Princess Bari.

The Edinburgh Internatioal Festival 2011 runs from Friday 12 August – Sunday 4 September.

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