There is much to say in favour of festivals. They frequently act as the great equaliser, as people from all walks of life congregate to celebrate the history, traditions and culture of a place. Not infrequently, I plan a journey to a distant land around a festival time, if only to be transported off the straight-and-narrow, into a world that deviates from the routine of the everyday and invites new ways of being. The talent and passion on display at the festivals listed here, is a reminder that an enthusiastic youthful spirit can be awakened in us all.
Bayreuth, Germany, Musical Chairs— July 24 to August 28
Each year, the Richard Wagner Opera Festival unfolds in Bayreuth. This hugely popular event, a dominant feature of Bayreuth’s cultural calendar, has been a summer fixture for over 140 years. Regarded by music aficionados the world over as the pinnacle Wagner event, an intense rush for tickets is a given. If you do manage to secure one of the highly coveted tickets, the soundtrack that accompanies your stay in Bayreuth, will be a sequence of masterpieces by the 19th century composer.
The canon of Wagner’s works that make up the repertoire include, Der Fliegende Hollander, Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Parsifal. The main venue for the event is the Festspielhaus. This substantial edifice constructed in 1872 with the backing of King Ludwig, to accommodate Wagner’s enormous theatrical sets, is still one of the largest opera houses in the world. Crafted with simplicity, stark interiors and pared to the essentials, it is driven by one of a kind acoustics and a complete focus on the work of the composer. A quarter-of-anhour before the start of the programme, regardless of the weather, intermission musicians step onto the balcony of the Festspielhaus and produce a fanfare composed especially for the occasion, a tradition practiced since 1876.
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A Life IN MUSIC
To celebrate five decades of a storied musical career, Padma Shri Hariharan is headlining a special concert in Delhi on November 30
MURDERS MOST FOUL
SAMYUKTA BHOWMICK'S DEBUT NOVEL, A FATAL DISTRACTION, IS A WHODUNIT THAT GOES BEYOND MERELY PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE MASTERS OF THE GENRE
Jungle Book
Avtar Singh creates a compelling tableau of characters brought together and torn asunder by migration, epidemic and circumstance
BON VOYAGE
The award-winning stage adaptation of Yann Martel's Life of Pi is coming to Mumbai this December
Earning His ACTING CHOPS
HIS LATEST STINT IN THE BUCKINGHAM MURDERS, WHICH JUST RELEASED ON NETFLIX, CEMENTS THE MULTI-HYPHENATE RANVEER BRAR'S REPUTATION AS A FINE ACTOR
Strike a Pose
SOONI TARAPOREVALA'S SERIES DEBUT WAACK GIRLS ON PRIME VIDEO SHINES A LIGHT ON THE STREET DANCE STYLE OF WAACKING
FATAL ATTRACTION
In I Want to Talk, Shoojit Sircar continues his exploration of death with the portrait of a tenacious man who beats it time and again
LOVE LETTER TO THE MOUNTAINS
'Journeying Across the Himalayas' is a new multidisciplinary festival in Delhi with a focus on the Himalayan region and its communities
The Art of CURATION
Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron of the Serendipity Arts Foundation, on how one of our biggest multi-disciplinary festivals came about and what to look forward to in this edition
THE ROCKY ROAD AHEAD
A US court's allegations of bribery in solar power contracts and US markets watchdog SEC's charges of concealing wrongdoings have jolted Gautam Adani's business empire. Even as he mounts a strong defence against the indictment, the group faces a crisis of investor confidence that may impact its growth plans