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| Edinburgh international festival highlights to reflect on war | Edinburgh international festival highlights to reflect on war |
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| The long shadow of war will hang heavily over this year's Edinburgh international festival – opening in the week in August marking the centenary of Britain entering the first world war – from the festival logo of bluebells tangled in barbed wire, to plays, poetry, dance pieces, operas and symphonies. | The long shadow of war will hang heavily over this year's Edinburgh international festival – opening in the week in August marking the centenary of Britain entering the first world war – from the festival logo of bluebells tangled in barbed wire, to plays, poetry, dance pieces, operas and symphonies. |
| "It was in no way the war to end all wars," said festival director Jonathan Mills, overseeing his eighth and final Edinburgh festival. "It begat many others." | "It was in no way the war to end all wars," said festival director Jonathan Mills, overseeing his eighth and final Edinburgh festival. "It begat many others." |
| Among hundreds of events performed by 2,400 artists from 43 nations in the £10.5m festival, reflections on human combat will include events as recent as South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, startlingly re-imagined by the Handspring puppet company, and stretch all the way back to the Trojan wars of ancient Greece. Hector Berlioz's epic five-and-a-half-hour opera Les Troyens needs a vast company and has not been staged in Scotland since 1990: it will be brought to the festival by the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra from St Petersburg, conducted by Valery Gergiev. | |
| Mills said his programme also "elliptically and subtly" took in another looming political event, the Scottish independence referendum which will happen weeks after the end of the festival. Many of the events, including the James Plays, three new works by Rona Munro on James I, II and III – which can be seen separately or in one long day – reflected on Scotland itself, its identity and its future, he said, "as part of a nation or part of a different nation, whatever it will be". | Mills said his programme also "elliptically and subtly" took in another looming political event, the Scottish independence referendum which will happen weeks after the end of the festival. Many of the events, including the James Plays, three new works by Rona Munro on James I, II and III – which can be seen separately or in one long day – reflected on Scotland itself, its identity and its future, he said, "as part of a nation or part of a different nation, whatever it will be". |
| Mills sparked controversy last year, when he appeared to rule out including any material dealing with the independence debate. Announcing the details of the festival this week, he said nothing had been added to mark the devolution issue. "It was already in place – I was not prepared to divulge this year's programme at that date, or to suggest that I was giving way under pressure to change it." | Mills sparked controversy last year, when he appeared to rule out including any material dealing with the independence debate. Announcing the details of the festival this week, he said nothing had been added to mark the devolution issue. "It was already in place – I was not prepared to divulge this year's programme at that date, or to suggest that I was giving way under pressure to change it." |
| The programme includes The War, about young artists in 1913 Paris convinced that art could save the world from war, performed in Russian by the Chekhov International Theatre Festival company; Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, written for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962 after the medieval church was destroyed in the second world war, but incorporating the first world war poetry of Wilfred Owen; and Front, from the Flemish director Luk Perceval, inspired by the classic novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which brings together actors and texts from all sides of the first world war. | The programme includes The War, about young artists in 1913 Paris convinced that art could save the world from war, performed in Russian by the Chekhov International Theatre Festival company; Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, written for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962 after the medieval church was destroyed in the second world war, but incorporating the first world war poetry of Wilfred Owen; and Front, from the Flemish director Luk Perceval, inspired by the classic novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which brings together actors and texts from all sides of the first world war. |
| World premieres include Patria, from Paco Peña's Flamenco company, based on the life and death in the Spanish civil war of the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca; and Inala, bringing together Zulu music and western ballet, with musicians Ladysmith Black Mambazo and dancers from the Royal and Rambert ballets. | World premieres include Patria, from Paco Peña's Flamenco company, based on the life and death in the Spanish civil war of the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca; and Inala, bringing together Zulu music and western ballet, with musicians Ladysmith Black Mambazo and dancers from the Royal and Rambert ballets. |
| Other dance events include the late Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal in Sweet Mambo, one of her final works; and the Akram Khan company with Taiwanese dancer Fang-Yi Sheu in Gnosis, loosely based on the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. | Other dance events include the late Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal in Sweet Mambo, one of her final works; and the Akram Khan company with Taiwanese dancer Fang-Yi Sheu in Gnosis, loosely based on the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. |
| Artists and companies include the Kronos Quartet, the National Theatres of Scotland and Great Britain, Ute Lemper, Anne Sofie von Otter, orchestras including the Czech philharmonic, Concertgebouw, the Melbourne symphony and many more. | Artists and companies include the Kronos Quartet, the National Theatres of Scotland and Great Britain, Ute Lemper, Anne Sofie von Otter, orchestras including the Czech philharmonic, Concertgebouw, the Melbourne symphony and many more. |
| After the festival Mills, an Australian, will hand over the director's baton to Fergus Linehan, who is Irish but best known internationally as former artistic director of the Sydney festival. Mills said his next challenge was to complete his third opera. | After the festival Mills, an Australian, will hand over the director's baton to Fergus Linehan, who is Irish but best known internationally as former artistic director of the Sydney festival. Mills said his next challenge was to complete his third opera. |
| The festival – dwarfed as usual by the gigantic fringe event which opens on 1 August – starts on 8 August and will close in a spectacular fireworks concert on 31 August. Friends and patrons booking opens on Wednesday, and for the general public, including half-price tickets for students and young people, on Saturday 29 March. | The festival – dwarfed as usual by the gigantic fringe event which opens on 1 August – starts on 8 August and will close in a spectacular fireworks concert on 31 August. Friends and patrons booking opens on Wednesday, and for the general public, including half-price tickets for students and young people, on Saturday 29 March. |
| This article was amended at 12:06 on 18/03/14 to correct an error that stated that Les Troyens has not been staged in Scotland for 40 years. |