Buskers, stars and tourists crowd Edinburgh Festival

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Model Christina Kernohan poses for photographers during a media launch for the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme, Edinburgh, Scotland June 10, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/David Moir

By Ian Mackenzie

EDINBURGH | Fri Aug 5, 2011 12:50pm EDT

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - The Edinburgh Fringe Festival swung into exuberant action on Friday as 21,000 performers ranging from street buskers and mimes to top-class singers, actors and cabaret stars set out to entertain in a city whose population doubles in size over the coming month.

The free-spirited Fringe, the Edinburgh International Festival, the International Book Festival, the military tattoo and major art exhibitions combine in the world's biggest annual arts festival.

The Scottish capital, with a population of around 470,000, virtually doubles in size over the coming weeks. The hoteliers association said its 40 members reported that most of the available 145,000 rooms were taken. A report commissioned by Scotland's festivals said they brought some 250 million pounds ($410 million) to the country's economy annually.

Buskers, magicians, acrobats and brightly clad actors promoting their shows crowded Edinburgh's historic Royal Mile in bright sunshine on Friday, after heavy rain the previous day.

The military tattoo, whose pipe bands and military performances expect to attract 220,000 spectators for its three-week run from Friday through to August 27, has spent 16 million pounds on revamping its seating and facilities on the esplanade of the Castle, which dominates the city's skyline.

The 2,542 shows scheduled for this year's Fringe range from one-person events tucked away in back alleys to world-class comedy, theater and song.

Cabaret has returned this year to feature in the programme. There is also a "free Fringe" in which more than 500 shows can be seen without charge.

The Fringe, which started as an adjunct to the International Festival founded in 1947 as an antidote to the austere days after World War Two, has also given many stars of comedy and theater their first break over the years.

Fringe director Kath Mainland said one reason performers flocked to the city was for the chance of catching the eye of impresarios, talent scouts and agents who gather from around the world in the search of new talent and acts.

The International Festival, with a strong Asian theme this year, runs from August 12 to September 4, and the book festival from August 13 to 29.

(Edited by Paul Casciato)

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Spoleto Festival USA plans vibrant run despite funding cut

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By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, South Carolina | Fri May 27, 2011 5:30pm EDT

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Spoleto Festival USA, an annual burst of opera, chamber music, jazz, theater and dance, opened in historic Charleston, South Carolina on Friday, even though state funding was axed for the second year.

The $7.6 million budget for the 17-day festival dips into the organization's reserves, said General Director Nigel Redden, who also directs the summer Lincoln Center Festival in New York City.

"I think this year will be a struggle," Redden said. "The budget is a big increase over last year even in spite of cutbacks. God knows the state of South Carolina is not in great shape financially, and I certainly understand."

After getting as much as $560,000 from the state in 1999, the festival received no financial help this year or last year, said festival spokeswoman Paula Edwards.

Those cuts have come despite the fact that the Spoleto Festival brings between $55 million and $70 million to South Carolina each year, Redden said.

The festival draws 25,000 to 35,000 people to the coastal city, and they buy 73,000 performance tickets and spend money on hotels, food, merchandise and tourist attractions, he said.

Last year, the festival drew visitors from 48 states and a dozen foreign countries, said Spoleto board chairwoman Martha Rivers Ingram.

"What has happened to many festivals is that they've turned to more popular offerings," he said. "We decided proactively that we were going to have a very full festival this year to see if box office would make up for some of the shortfall."

Spoleto Festival USA was founded 35 years ago by the late Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a twin to an arts festival in Spoleto, Italy. The two festivals shared some programing during their early years.

Opera is always included in Charleston, but this is the first year since 2007 that the festival will stage three operas -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Menotti's "The Medium," and the American premiere of "Emilie" by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Spoleto also is presenting Chinese, Cambodian and Spanish dance companies; an Australian circus; jazz musicians from Brazil, Argentina, Norway and New Orleans; Cornwall's Kneehigh Theater; and Ireland's Druid Theater, along with performance art, chamber music and symphony.

Local officials and festival-goers gathered on Friday for the opening ceremonies outside the historic City Hall. Many in the crowd of about 200 wore straw and fancy hats.

Cannons fired confetti and two dancers from Spain's Corella Ballet, which opens Friday, performed a pas de deux.

Mount Pleasant resident Tony Martin, who regularly attends Spoleto events, said the recession wouldn't prevent him from doing the same this year.

"You've got to buy something," he said. "You might as well buy tickets."

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)

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By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, South Carolina | Fri May 27, 2011 5:30pm EDT

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Spoleto Festival USA, an annual burst of opera, chamber music, jazz, theater and dance, opened in historic Charleston, South Carolina on Friday, even though state funding was axed for the second year.

The $7.6 million budget for the 17-day festival dips into the organization's reserves, said General Director Nigel Redden, who also directs the summer Lincoln Center Festival in New York City.

"I think this year will be a struggle," Redden said. "The budget is a big increase over last year even in spite of cutbacks. God knows the state of South Carolina is not in great shape financially, and I certainly understand."

After getting as much as $560,000 from the state in 1999, the festival received no financial help this year or last year, said festival spokeswoman Paula Edwards.

Those cuts have come despite the fact that the Spoleto Festival brings between $55 million and $70 million to South Carolina each year, Redden said.

The festival draws 25,000 to 35,000 people to the coastal city, and they buy 73,000 performance tickets and spend money on hotels, food, merchandise and tourist attractions, he said.

Last year, the festival drew visitors from 48 states and a dozen foreign countries, said Spoleto board chairwoman Martha Rivers Ingram.

"What has happened to many festivals is that they've turned to more popular offerings," he said. "We decided proactively that we were going to have a very full festival this year to see if box office would make up for some of the shortfall."

Spoleto Festival USA was founded 35 years ago by the late Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a twin to an arts festival in Spoleto, Italy. The two festivals shared some programing during their early years.

Opera is always included in Charleston, but this is the first year since 2007 that the festival will stage three operas -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Menotti's "The Medium," and the American premiere of "Emilie" by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Spoleto also is presenting Chinese, Cambodian and Spanish dance companies; an Australian circus; jazz musicians from Brazil, Argentina, Norway and New Orleans; Cornwall's Kneehigh Theater; and Ireland's Druid Theater, along with performance art, chamber music and symphony.

Local officials and festival-goers gathered on Friday for the opening ceremonies outside the historic City Hall. Many in the crowd of about 200 wore straw and fancy hats.

Cannons fired confetti and two dancers from Spain's Corella Ballet, which opens Friday, performed a pas de deux.

Mount Pleasant resident Tony Martin, who regularly attends Spoleto events, said the recession wouldn't prevent him from doing the same this year.

"You've got to buy something," he said. "You might as well buy tickets."

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)

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By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, South Carolina | Fri May 27, 2011 5:30pm EDT

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Spoleto Festival USA, an annual burst of opera, chamber music, jazz, theater and dance, opened in historic Charleston, South Carolina on Friday, even though state funding was axed for the second year.

The $7.6 million budget for the 17-day festival dips into the organization's reserves, said General Director Nigel Redden, who also directs the summer Lincoln Center Festival in New York City.

"I think this year will be a struggle," Redden said. "The budget is a big increase over last year even in spite of cutbacks. God knows the state of South Carolina is not in great shape financially, and I certainly understand."

After getting as much as $560,000 from the state in 1999, the festival received no financial help this year or last year, said festival spokeswoman Paula Edwards.

Those cuts have come despite the fact that the Spoleto Festival brings between $55 million and $70 million to South Carolina each year, Redden said.

The festival draws 25,000 to 35,000 people to the coastal city, and they buy 73,000 performance tickets and spend money on hotels, food, merchandise and tourist attractions, he said.

Last year, the festival drew visitors from 48 states and a dozen foreign countries, said Spoleto board chairwoman Martha Rivers Ingram.

"What has happened to many festivals is that they've turned to more popular offerings," he said. "We decided proactively that we were going to have a very full festival this year to see if box office would make up for some of the shortfall."

Spoleto Festival USA was founded 35 years ago by the late Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a twin to an arts festival in Spoleto, Italy. The two festivals shared some programing during their early years.

Opera is always included in Charleston, but this is the first year since 2007 that the festival will stage three operas -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Menotti's "The Medium," and the American premiere of "Emilie" by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Spoleto also is presenting Chinese, Cambodian and Spanish dance companies; an Australian circus; jazz musicians from Brazil, Argentina, Norway and New Orleans; Cornwall's Kneehigh Theater; and Ireland's Druid Theater, along with performance art, chamber music and symphony.

Local officials and festival-goers gathered on Friday for the opening ceremonies outside the historic City Hall. Many in the crowd of about 200 wore straw and fancy hats.

Cannons fired confetti and two dancers from Spain's Corella Ballet, which opens Friday, performed a pas de deux.

Mount Pleasant resident Tony Martin, who regularly attends Spoleto events, said the recession wouldn't prevent him from doing the same this year.

"You've got to buy something," he said. "You might as well buy tickets."

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)

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Oriental Shakespeare, Ravi Shankar at Edinburgh festival

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Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar performs in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata February 7, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Jayanta Shaw

By Ian MacKenzie

EDINBURGH | Wed Mar 23, 2011 1:46pm EDT

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Indian musician Ravi Shankar and Asian versions of Shakespeare are among highlights of this year's Edinburgh International Festival, as EIF director Jonathan Mills completes a five-year artistic tour of the world.

The EIF, running from August 12 to September 4, combines with the Fringe and the city's International Book Festival and military tattoo to offer the world's biggest annual extravaganza of the arts.

Mills unveiled the EIF program on Wednesday in what he called "an attempt to make very mainstream the ideas of Asian culture and the ideas of Asia's influence on Europe and Europe's influence on Asia -- it's a very, very important bridge we build and forge."

Over the past five years, he has ranged from the origins of opera to the eastern fringes of Europe, the Americas, the Pacific and Australasia in his global artistic voyage.

This year's productions provide a rich and colorful mix from Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India and the Middle East. colorful Legendary 90-year-old sitar player Ravi Shankar, dubbed by Beatle George Harrison as "the Godfather of world music," is back after more than 20 years with a programme of evening ragas. Music also includes a series of international orchestras.

The Arab tale of "One Thousand and One Nights," dramatized and directed by Tim Supple with stories adapted by acclaimed Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh, is in rehearsal in Morocco and premieres in Toronto before heading for Edinburgh.

Edinburgh will see the world premiere of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," a play in Japanese adapted from Haruki Murakami's novel on a disintegrating marriage and revelation of long-buried World War Two secrets.

South Korea's Mokhwa Repertory Company transports Shakespeare's "The Tempest" to 5th century Korea with Taoist magic and royal banishment, while Taiwanese actor Wu Hsing-kuo writes, directs and performs in his version of "King Lear."

The Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe presents "The Revenge of Prince Zi Da" in what the EIF promises will be an adaptation of "Hamlet" "unlike any you will have experienced."

In dance, New York-based choreographer Shen Wei brings "Re-Triptych" to the stage with ancient and modern takes on Tibet, Cambodia's Angkor Wat and the frenetic pace of 21st century China.

The Mariinsky Opera of St Petersburg will put on a production of Richard Strauss's "Woman Without a Shadow," while Scottish Ballet premieres a work by Jorma Elo, resident choreographer of the Boston Ballet.

The EIF kicks off on August 12 with Robert Schumann's oratorio "Paradise and the Peri" based on Persian mythology, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Festival Chorus.

Despite economic recession, Mills said the EIF's finances were "strong and robust -- We're about to find out how they are in terms of ticket sales." Edinburgh doubles in size with about half a million visitors during the festival period.

The International Festival and the Fringe were founded in 1947 as an antidote to the austerity post-World War Two.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)

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Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar performs in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata February 7, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Jayanta Shaw

By Ian MacKenzie

EDINBURGH | Wed Mar 23, 2011 1:46pm EDT

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Indian musician Ravi Shankar and Asian versions of Shakespeare are among highlights of this year's Edinburgh International Festival, as EIF director Jonathan Mills completes a five-year artistic tour of the world.

The EIF, running from August 12 to September 4, combines with the Fringe and the city's International Book Festival and military tattoo to offer the world's biggest annual extravaganza of the arts.

Mills unveiled the EIF program on Wednesday in what he called "an attempt to make very mainstream the ideas of Asian culture and the ideas of Asia's influence on Europe and Europe's influence on Asia -- it's a very, very important bridge we build and forge."

Over the past five years, he has ranged from the origins of opera to the eastern fringes of Europe, the Americas, the Pacific and Australasia in his global artistic voyage.

This year's productions provide a rich and colorful mix from Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India and the Middle East. colorful Legendary 90-year-old sitar player Ravi Shankar, dubbed by Beatle George Harrison as "the Godfather of world music," is back after more than 20 years with a programme of evening ragas. Music also includes a series of international orchestras.

The Arab tale of "One Thousand and One Nights," dramatized and directed by Tim Supple with stories adapted by acclaimed Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh, is in rehearsal in Morocco and premieres in Toronto before heading for Edinburgh.

Edinburgh will see the world premiere of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," a play in Japanese adapted from Haruki Murakami's novel on a disintegrating marriage and revelation of long-buried World War Two secrets.

South Korea's Mokhwa Repertory Company transports Shakespeare's "The Tempest" to 5th century Korea with Taoist magic and royal banishment, while Taiwanese actor Wu Hsing-kuo writes, directs and performs in his version of "King Lear."

The Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe presents "The Revenge of Prince Zi Da" in what the EIF promises will be an adaptation of "Hamlet" "unlike any you will have experienced."

In dance, New York-based choreographer Shen Wei brings "Re-Triptych" to the stage with ancient and modern takes on Tibet, Cambodia's Angkor Wat and the frenetic pace of 21st century China.

The Mariinsky Opera of St Petersburg will put on a production of Richard Strauss's "Woman Without a Shadow," while Scottish Ballet premieres a work by Jorma Elo, resident choreographer of the Boston Ballet.

The EIF kicks off on August 12 with Robert Schumann's oratorio "Paradise and the Peri" based on Persian mythology, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Festival Chorus.

Despite economic recession, Mills said the EIF's finances were "strong and robust -- We're about to find out how they are in terms of ticket sales." Edinburgh doubles in size with about half a million visitors during the festival period.

The International Festival and the Fringe were founded in 1947 as an antidote to the austerity post-World War Two.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)

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Oriental Shakespeare, Ravi Shankar at Edinburgh festival

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Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar performs in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata February 7, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Jayanta Shaw

By Ian MacKenzie

EDINBURGH | Wed Mar 23, 2011 1:46pm EDT

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Indian musician Ravi Shankar and Asian versions of Shakespeare are among highlights of this year's Edinburgh International Festival, as EIF director Jonathan Mills completes a five-year artistic tour of the world.

The EIF, running from August 12 to September 4, combines with the Fringe and the city's International Book Festival and military tattoo to offer the world's biggest annual extravaganza of the arts.

Mills unveiled the EIF program on Wednesday in what he called "an attempt to make very mainstream the ideas of Asian culture and the ideas of Asia's influence on Europe and Europe's influence on Asia -- it's a very, very important bridge we build and forge."

Over the past five years, he has ranged from the origins of opera to the eastern fringes of Europe, the Americas, the Pacific and Australasia in his global artistic voyage.

This year's productions provide a rich and colorful mix from Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India and the Middle East. colorful Legendary 90-year-old sitar player Ravi Shankar, dubbed by Beatle George Harrison as "the Godfather of world music," is back after more than 20 years with a programme of evening ragas. Music also includes a series of international orchestras.

The Arab tale of "One Thousand and One Nights," dramatized and directed by Tim Supple with stories adapted by acclaimed Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh, is in rehearsal in Morocco and premieres in Toronto before heading for Edinburgh.

Edinburgh will see the world premiere of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," a play in Japanese adapted from Haruki Murakami's novel on a disintegrating marriage and revelation of long-buried World War Two secrets.

South Korea's Mokhwa Repertory Company transports Shakespeare's "The Tempest" to 5th century Korea with Taoist magic and royal banishment, while Taiwanese actor Wu Hsing-kuo writes, directs and performs in his version of "King Lear."

The Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe presents "The Revenge of Prince Zi Da" in what the EIF promises will be an adaptation of "Hamlet" "unlike any you will have experienced."

In dance, New York-based choreographer Shen Wei brings "Re-Triptych" to the stage with ancient and modern takes on Tibet, Cambodia's Angkor Wat and the frenetic pace of 21st century China.

The Mariinsky Opera of St Petersburg will put on a production of Richard Strauss's "Woman Without a Shadow," while Scottish Ballet premieres a work by Jorma Elo, resident choreographer of the Boston Ballet.

The EIF kicks off on August 12 with Robert Schumann's oratorio "Paradise and the Peri" based on Persian mythology, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Festival Chorus.

Despite economic recession, Mills said the EIF's finances were "strong and robust -- We're about to find out how they are in terms of ticket sales." Edinburgh doubles in size with about half a million visitors during the festival period.

The International Festival and the Fringe were founded in 1947 as an antidote to the austerity post-World War Two.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)

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