The Ljubljana Festival

One of Europe's longest-running music festivals.

by damjana l. simon~i~

FEEL, LIVE, CREATE - these are the words that accompany this year's Ljubljana Summer Festival, which will be held from June 19th till August 31st in various well-known locations throughout Ljubljana. This is the festival's 54th consecutive year, and the organizers are hoping to expand the festival further, to improve upon last year's achievements, and also make the festival richer and more internationally attractive. They would like to offer the "best of the excellent", as they wrote in this year's Festival brochure.

The musical festivals throughout the world are very connected among themselves. After all, the whole world is becoming a global village and this can be felt as much in Ljubljana as anywhere. There are nearly 700 festivals in Europe alone, and they all would like to attract the best performers and sell the greatest number of tickets to their audiences. And since the Ljubljana Festival has been a long time member (for more than 25 years) of the European Festivals Association (and its managing director, Mr. Darko Brlek, is also now the President of this association), it is well aware of the responsibility it has towards visiting performers as and audiences alike, both foreign and domestic.

This year's festival programme is quite a promising one, if judging from its opening and closing events. The opening on June 19th will undoubtedly be one of the grandest events of this year's cultural life in the city: the New York Philharmonic will appear under the baton of their artistic director, Lorin Maazel. One of the best orchestras, not only in America but also on the planet, will play Mozart (after all, 2006 is Mozart's year) and Mahler, but unfortunately the large Gallus Hall will be much too small for all who would wish to come: tickets were completely sold out in just three days. Let's hope that this will not be the last appearance of these magnificent and accomplished musicians in Ljubljana!

The closing evening will be no less glorious. The Festival will host one of the world's best baritones of today, the superb Russian singer Dmitry Hvorostovsky, who appears regularly in all major opera houses of the world. Accompanied by the Slovenian Philharmonic, under the baton of Maestro George Pehlivanian, he will surely present an unforgettable evening of operatic arias. This will surely be a marvelous closing gift for festival goers!

And in between these two really remarkable concerts there will be many others, maybe not performed by such exceptionally famous performers, but by some that are no less important within the musical world of today. You will be able to hear and admire very fine and talented artists like the young violinist Julian Rachlin, who will appear together with the Lithuanian Chamber orchestra (August 7 and 8), and the famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who will conduct the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (July 26).

Be sure to attend one of the numerous outstanding operatic events, performed by the Ljubljana Opera House (Prokofjev's The Love for Three Oranges, July 22 and 24, Offenbach's Les Fees du Rhin, July 13 and 15), and the Maribor Opera House (Verdi's Nabucco, August 21, and Attila - a rarely performed early work of the famous composer).

There will be many symphonic concerts (the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart's Requiem, July 12; the Slovenian RTV Symphony Orchestra, July 25; the Berlin Philharmonic Virtuosi, August 27); some excellent ballet performances (the Vienna State Ballet, "Giselle", July 9 and 10; the Slovenian National Ballet Ljubljana, "Romeo and Juliet", July 19; the Opera and Ballet Theatre from Maribor, "Swan Lake", August 24); as well as a newly choreographed dance project by Edward Clug, "Radio and Juliet", August 22; a musical "Aida" performed by the Comedy Theatre from Zagreb, July 18 and 20; and numerous solo recitals and chamber concerts, plus exhibitions and movie screenings.

It seems that the summer of 2006 in Ljubljana is going to be a very interesting one for music lovers. In addition to the regular summer music festival, there will also be the Vienna Mozart Music Film Festival taking place from 11 - 20 August at the Ljubljana Castle. After all, this is in fact Mozart's year, so come and join the spirit of his genius during the composer's 250th anniversary celebration this summer!