A line-up of internationally acclaimed names such as conductor Riccardo Muti, mezzosoprano Elina Garanča and flamenco star Maria Pages will headline the Ljubljana festival summer this year.
Several events will be made more widely accessible, as the 62nd edition of the Ljubljana Festival spills out into one of the capital's biggest public squares.
The programme will always be a compromise, the director of Slovenia's leading festival Darko Brlek said as he presented the programme on Wednesday, in a reference to the 30% cut in the festival's budget as well as the response of the audience and its social status.
This is why this year five events will be held in the large open Congress Square. Since the venue can take more visitors, the admission will be cheaper at even as little as EUR 5, while it will be altogether free for youth up to 14 years of age.
As a prelude to the festival, the venue will host an event dubbed Summer Night on 21 June which will see the Big Band and the Symphony Orchestra of RTV Ljubljana and a number of solo singers interpret the most memorable tunes about Ljubljana.
Congress Square will also host the opening concert of Carl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana on 1 July, to be performed by the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the ensemble of the Ljubljana Opera house and several other choirs, including the one from the Sarajevo National Theatre, under the baton of Uroš Lajovic.
Guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski and saxophone and flute and saxophone Vasko Atanasovski will team up with the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra on 3 July.
To mark the 10th anniversary of Carlos Kleiber's death, musicians from Italy, Slovenia and around the world, led by Ricardo Muti, will perform Verdi's Requiem on 7 July, to be followed by an evening of opera arias by Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanča.
The remaining events will be held mostly at the Križanke open air venue. The ensemble of the Croatian National Opera house from Zagreb will stage Wagner's romantic opera Lohengrin on 10 July.
Other highlights include the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra from China, Filarmonica '900 del Teatro Regio di Torino, ballet co-production Dangerous Liaisons to the choreography of Leo Mujić and London West End musical Evita.
The chamber section of the August programme will feature several Slovenian musicians working abroad, as well as violinist Stefan Milenković and Moscow soloists with violist Yuri Bashmet and violinist Lana Trotovšek.
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam, conducted by Mariss Jansons, will perform the closing concert on 1 September.
Source: The Slovenia Times
