Edinburgh International Festival to announce 2024 Programme on 7th March
The programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, which will run from 2 – 25 August will be announced on 7th March. This is the earliest announcement of the EIF’s programme for a number of years, and indicates a return to stability after the pandemic, as well as giving keen audience members in Edinburgh and elsewhere more time for planning.
In a change from former practice, a week’s browsing time is permitted before the tickets go on sale to the EIF’s membership. A few months ago a more complicated tiered membership was put in place with the introduction of Ambassadors’ and Friends’ Circles - a sensible way to raise funds, as public funding becomes ever chancier. So the generous Gold Ambassadors, paying £1200 a year, start their priority booking period on 14th March, with the other five levels of membership following on at daily intervals until the humble ordinary Friends (£60 a year) get two days of priority booking from 19th March. Public booking opens on 21st March.
The Festival has already announced its main theme for 2024, ‘Rituals that Unite Us’, based on the writings of philosopher Byung-Chul Han, along with two of its main productions. The first of these, “Assembly Hall,” a new dance theatre production about a group of medieval re-enactors clearly fits within this theme. It’s the work of Vancouver choreographer Crystal Pite, working with playwright Jonathon Young, and has already been seen and enthusiastically reviewed in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and Quebec: “multi-layered, witty, poignant and perception-bending” said the Toronto Star. The title, initially confusing for Edinburgh audiences (think school hall rather than Kirk meeting place on the Mound) describes the venue for the re-enactor’s AGM, and its transformation into their medieval performance. We’re promised “a stage within a stage”, which is also a feature of Bizet’s ‘Carmen’, in a production from the Opera-Comique in Paris, which takes the work back to its origins, including a representation of the original stage with Gustave Eiffel’s iron doors. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Opera Comique’s General Director, Louis Langree, accompany a cast which includes Gaelle Arquez as Carmen and Saimir Pirgu as Don Jose. ‘Assembly Hall’ and ‘Carmen’ both take place in the Festival Theatre – this is good news, as Edinburgh’s best performance space was underused in 2023. Not officially announced but widely rumoured and eagerly anticipated is another Mozart concert performance in the Usher Hall with the SCO under its Principal Conductor, Maxim Emelyanychev. A further two staged operas and one more concert performance will also take place in August. At the Edinburgh Music Review we were all clear that our answer to 2023’s question “Where Do we Go From Here?” was “More opera please!” and it’s good to see that Nicola Benedetti has agreed!
There’s much to look forward to in 2024, but many challenges remain for the EIF as they do for all arts organisations. I’ll have a look at some of these in another article.
