Edinburgh International Festival 2006

13 August - 3 September 2006

The Edinburgh International Festival, supported by the Scottish Arts Council, presents a rich programme of classical music, theatre, opera and dance in six major theatres and concert halls and a number of smaller venues, over a three-week period in late summer each year. 

The Edinburgh International Festival is one of the most exciting places in the world to experience the performing arts. The chance to see and hear some of the world’s greatest companies and performers in an informal but intense atmosphere is thrilling for both experienced arts goers and those trying it for the very first time.

Founded in 1947, it is now recognised as one of the most important celebrations of the arts in the world and offers quality, excitement and informality through its fantastic programme.

Highlights at Edinburgh International Festival 2006

This year’s highlights include two world theatre premieres, the UK premiere of Balanchine's Don Quixote and several concerts and unique collaborations between major companies and artists. Highlights: Drama and theatre Opera Dance Music

Theatre highlights at the festival

This year’s 2006 EIF will bring two world theatre premieres to stage.  Following the huge success of Anthony Neilson's previous Festival commission The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Realism is a new play by the award winning playwright, marking the first collaboration between the Festival and the new National Theatre of Scotland. 

Platform is a co-production between Companyia Teatre Romea (Barcelona), the Edinburgh International Festival and Ajuntament de Viladecans.  Directed by Calixto Bieito, Houellebecq's novel about a French civil servant's voyage of self discovery as a tourist in Thailand has been hailed as a masterpiece, and is now adapted for the stage.

As well as the new, you can catch classics at the EIF – Peter Stein's epic new production of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida is an EIF Production in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Chekhov’s Three Sisters, directed by acclaimed Polish director Krystian Lupa, will be staged by the American Repertory Theatre.

The first UK visit of the Latvian New Riga Theatre, with director Alvis Hermanis, will present the dialogue-free Long Life, a ‘tender, absorbing and life affirming’ one-day-in-the-life performance

Opera highlights at the festival

This year’s Opera programme ranges from established classics – such as a new creation of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, conducted by Claudio Abbado and directed by Daniele Abbado – to the world premiere of Scottish composer Stuart MacRae’s The Assassin Tree.

Opera National de Lyon stage two productions at Edinburgh Festival Theatre– Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa (22 & 24 August) and a double-bill of works by Kurt Weill with libretto by Bertolt Brecht.

Scottish orchestras feature in three original-language concert performances at the Usher Hall.

• Edward Gardner conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Richard Strauss’s Elektra, with Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet in the title role.  
• David Robertson conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and David Jones directs the Edinburgh Festival Chorus for Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.  
• The shores of Loch Katrine is the setting for Rossini’s La donna del lago, based on Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake.  Maurizio Benini conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and David Jones directs the Edinburgh Festival Chorus in this romantic tale of fierce Scottish highlanders, impossible love, melancholy and redemption in a war-torn kingdom. 

Dance highlights at the festival

Large scale ballet is celebrated with the UK premiere of Balanchine’s Don Quixote danced by The Suzanne Farrell Ballet; Brazil’s Grupo de Rua de Niterói make their first visit to the UK with their hip hop inspired dance moves; one of the best contemporary ballet companies in the world, NDT 1 return with dance set to music by Philip Glass and the poetry of Gertrude Stein; and Scottish Ballet are set to prove their world-class talent again.

Scottish Ballet made a highly anticipated and ultimately award-winning return to the Edinburgh International Festival after a hiatus of twenty years.

It received nominations for two National Dance Awards and a South Bank Show Award; performed Artistic Director Ashley Page's brand new Cinderella to record-breaking audiences throughout Scotland and England, and completed a five-star reviewed Spring season which marked the Company's first visit to the London stage in over seven years.

Scottish Ballet will present featured pieces choreographed on New York City Ballet by America's foremost dance-makers, Balanchine and Robbins, and two works from Dutch National Ballet choreographers van Manen and Pastor, the latter being the UK premiere of In Light & Shadow.  The programme resonates Artistic Director Ashley Page's own passion for challenging the language and boundaries of classical dance.

The 2006 programme draws on an eclectic mix of artforms from around the globe, including 17th century court music and dance in Balanchine's classic ballet Agon and the paintings of Vermeer and the Baroque sounds of Bach in Pastor's In Light and Shadow.

Music highlights at the festival

The Edinburgh International Festival’s programme of main evening concerts at the Usher Hall brings some of the biggest names in classical music to Scotland’s capital.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in the Usher Hall.  Frank Peter Zimmermann performs the Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No 1 and Scottish soprano Lisa Milne is the soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No 4.  András Schiff performs four Beethoven piano sonatas in the Usher Hall, including the ‘Tempest’ and ‘Waldstein’ Sonatas. Ian Bostridge (tenor) is accompanied by Antonio Pappano, the Royal Opera’s Music Director, in a recital of lieder by Wolf and Schubert.