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Big Apple Bacchanal
| Article
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19168 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1991 |
1,478 Words |
| Author
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Lawrence O'Toole
Lawrence O'Toole writes for Entertainment Weekly and other
national publications. |
The New York International Festival of the Arts, a sixteen-day bacchanal of music, theater, dance, and performance in mid-June with participation from twenty-four countries, is enough to slake the thirst of any aesthete--it is everything an arts lover can imagine and then some, ranging from Renaissance Spanish music to Eastern-bloc rock to a Swedish retelling of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Its advisory committee reads like a Who's Who of global artistic endeavor: Peter Brook, Federico Fellini, Riccardo Muti, Peter Sellars, Meredith Monk, Ravi Shankar, Beverly Sills, Toru Takemitsu, Pierre Boulez, and Stephen Sondheim, to name but a few.
It is these people who suggest performers or groups they have seen to the festival organizers--one way performers are decided upon. The other way, of course, is by festival scouting. As a spokesperson points out, some of the lesser known companies, such as one this year from Zimbabwe, would not have made it to New York at all, despite acclaim elsewhere, were it not for the festival. Dedicated to promoting international harmony through the arts, the International Festival is designed to help audiences gain a better understanding of diverse cultures, and to foster, in the words of festival chairman Martin E. Segal, "collaborative ties which can lead to ongoing exchanges among the arts communities around the world." Although not entirely unique in this country (there is, for example, the L.A. Festival), the New York International Festival of the Arts is the largest and most far-ranging.
This year's festival is smaller than the first, which took place in 1988 over a monthlong period and drew half a million viewers. Drawing people to New York--and New Yorkers out of their homes during the summer--is another prime motivation, as the festival stimulates the city's economy. And the price is affordable: Half the tickets cost $15 or less. Naturally, corporate sponsors such as American Express and Chase Manhattan feel the festival helps the city and, ultimately, themselves.
The plan is to present the festival every two years, focusing each time on a different aspect of the arts. This year's theme is the interplay of tradition and innovation as a way to show how past art influences the future. One general and long term goal, says Segal, is to "remind the world of a more positive side of humanity--the civilized and glorious side, which produces creative works in music, dance, and theater, in places where people relate to each other in harmony and peace."
Bergman's
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