|
West-Eastern Ravello Festival 2008
 The Ravello Festival used to be
called the Wagner Festival, a music event held (for the
first time in 1953) in honor of the German composer, who
visited the area in 1880 (see this
link). The event has now gone well beyond
presenting Wagner’s music. This year, the whole shebang
runs 127 days (!)—from late June through late October
and, besides music, includes, art shows, dance,
photographic exhibits, discussions and film.
The highlight for me so far has been
the appearance of Daniel
Barenboim and his youth orchestra (average age
around 21), the West-Eastern
Divan Orchestra. The name is from the title of
Goethe’s last volume of poetry, West-östlicher Divan, a collection of ecumenical poetry in praise
of the unity of east and west and inspired by the
verse of Persian poet Hāfez.
(“Divan” is a Farsi word meaning a collection of
poetry. And all this time you thought the great German
eclectic’s talents extended, yea, even unto oriental
furniture.)
Music makes the world go round
 The orchestra is the
brain-child of pianist-conductor Barenboim and
Palestinian-born writer and Columbia University
professor Edward Said
(who passed away in 2003). The unlikely (unfortunately)
combination of a Jewish musician and a Palestinian
writer working together to promote peaceful co-existence
in the Middle East resulted in the first West-Eastern
Divan Workshop. It took place in Weimar in 1999 and involved young musicians between the
ages of 14 and 25 from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan,
Tunisia and Israel. The workshop was held in Chicago in
2001 and since 2002 has had a permanent base in Seville,
Spain. Following each workshop, the orchestra goes on
tour; the two concerts in Ravello this summer are the
only appearances in Italy on the 2008 European Tour.
Throughout its existence, the young musicians have been
supported by financial grants and musical instruction
from some of the world’s finest musicians. The orchestra
is the subject of a recent documentary film, Knowledge is the Beginning, produced and
directed by Paul Smaczny.
Also see
Ravello 2005
to main index
to music portal
|
