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Small Is Splendid at the Biggest Festival
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11339 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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11 / 1986 |
1,003 Words |
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Iain Crawford
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The Edinburgh Festival is one of the most remarkable cultural phenomena of the Western world. Begun two years after the end of World War II during a period of belt-tightening austerity, the festival was inflicted upon the somewhat surprised capital of Scotland by the Austrian impresario Rudolf Bing and a few Scots culture vultures.
In 1947, Bing (who has since become Sir Rudolf Bing and who was until a few years ago General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York) was the boss of Glyndebourne Opera, that curious countryside haven of stylish opera presentations.
When the war was nearing its end, Bing, a talented and shrewd operator, realized that it would take time for Salzburg, Bayreuth, and other European music festivals to rise again from the ruins of the Third Reich. This provided him an opportunity to fulfill a lifetime ambition to create a major arts festival in Britain.
The result was the Edinburgh Festival. The first festival was blessed with glorious weather. Italian opera stars, who had been warned about the not-always kindly Scottish climate, sweltered in their Dolomite skiing woolens in Princes Street Gardens, but found themselves the center of a new and clamorous international success.
In their company was Bruno Walter, reunited with his beloved Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time since he had been driven out by Nazi persecution in 1938. A clutch of other orchestras from England, Scotland, and France, and the superb chamber music group of Schnabel, Szigeti, Primrose, and Fournier were also resent.
The Old Vic, with Alec Guinness, Bernard Miles, and Trevor Howard, was there. A distinguished team of soloists ranged from Kathleen Ferrier and Todd Duncan to Elisabeth Schumann and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Margot Fonteyn danced with the Sadler's Wells Ballet with Constant Lambert in the pit, and Louis Jouvet's Theatre de 1'Athenee from Paris played Moliere and Giraudoug in French at the Victorian Royal Lyceum Theatre.
Through the years the festival has grown and prospered, fostered reputations, added such items as major art and craft exhibitions, and extended its always-considerable range-firmly based on the original multi-arts structure created by Bing.
This year, on its fortieth birthday, The Edinburgh
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