Benedetti to make debut at festival

Mar 14 2012

The programme for this year's Edinburgh International Festival has been announced in the Scottish capital.

It includes two adaptations of Shakespeare plays, a new production of Gulliver's Travels and a performance from violinist Nicola Benedetti, who is to play at the festival for the first time.

The festival also includes morning music sessions at the Queen's Hall, described as "the perfect start to the day", as well as four performances of Prokofiev's Cinderella by the Mariinsky Ballet and orchestra.

Sport will also make its mark at the event this summer as it coincides with the Olympic Games in London. Thousands of runners in luminous suits will bring the world-famous landmark Arthur's Seat to life each night for the NVA's Speed Of Light art installation.

In the days following the London 2012 Olympics, the first International Culture Summit will be hosted at the Scottish Parliament, in partnership with the Scottish Government, UK Government and British Council. It will provide a platform for culture ministers from around the world to hold discussions on the role of culture in international dialogue, organisers said.

Throughout the festival, which runs from August 9 to September 2 at various venues across the city, almost 3,000 artists from 47 nations will put on performances of dance, opera, music and theatre.

The Royal Highland Centre's Lowland Hall is to be converted into a theatre space to house three productions which apparently "can't be staged in conventional theatres".

Shakespeare's Macbeth will be given a new Middle East setting in Grzegorz Jarzyna's version of the play, 2008: Macbeth, while Dmitry Krymov brings a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (As You Like It) to the festival.

Gulliver's Travels, directed by Silviu Purcarete, is to be produced in collaboration with Irish musician and composer Shaun Davey. Benedetti will join the London Symphony Orchestra at the Usher Hall as they perform the complete Szymanowski and Brahms symphonies.

On the final night, more than 100,000 fireworks will be set off, choreographed to music, in the annual display sponsored by Virgin Money.