I'm already jaded by the Olympics and they have barely started, but there again I am not a great sports fan and plan to be out of the country for a good part of the festival. But I must confess that I am finding it difficult to get enthusiastic about the Cultural Olympiad, the rather strange arts jamboree that will be happening this summer.
Granted, there are plenty of community based events and some exciting projects such as the Making Music Overture. But have you noticed that the British don't really do well at joined up thinking in these areas. The RSC and the BBC are both going to be giving us lots of Shakespeare in various forms, but there seems to be no attempt to link this to other art forms.
Surely someone could have come up with some key threads which could have run through the festival providing interesting links and cross pollinations. For instance, the Royal Opera House are doing Berlioz's The Trojans this summer, certainly a major event but not, I think, strictly part of the Olympiad. Wouldn't it have been fascinating, interesting and illuminating if other organisations had been encouraged to provide work around this theme. Just think, Greek drama in Greek, modern English versions of Greek drama, classical French drama (Racine, Corneille), other operatic responses to the Trojan War (Gluck, Strauss, Walton). Not to mention the possibility of modern dance, visual arts and all sorts of cross cultural activities.
I am sure that the events actually being promoted will cause buzz and excitement, and be of an interesting quality. But what we've missed is the possibility to create something a little bit greater than the sum of its parts. And the possibility that someone interested in one art form might find it illuminating and stimulating to see how the same theme is handled in other art forms.
But there again, if everybody is going to have their eyes glued to the actual sporting events, will there be room for interest in culture. Or am I just being cynical
Wednesday 18 January 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Septura I first became aware of the brass septet, Septura , when noting their 2017/18 concert series Kleptomania at St John's Smith...
-
Handel: Acis and Galatea - chorus - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Handel: Acis and Galatea ; Elizabeth Karani, Anthony Gregory, Ch...
-
2019 seemed a year for scholarship and rarity in recordings. Retrospect Opera gave us the first recording of Ethel Smyth's Fete Galan...
-
Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna - John Savournin - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna ;...
-
Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - James Atkinson - Wild Arts 2023 (Photo: Lucy J Toms) We humans, alone on earth, are powerful enough to crea...
-
Handel: Giulio Cesare - Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Louise Alder - Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith) Handel: Giulio Cesare in Eg...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon - Youth Company rehearsal, Garsington Opera 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) American composer Andrew Norman ...
-
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - David Ireland, Claire Lees - Garsington Opera, 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro ; David...
-
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin - James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves - Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park, 2022 Opera ...
No comments:
Post a Comment