Manchester International Festival

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The Manchester International Festival was an international cultural festival of original new work, held in the English city of Manchester between June 28 and July 15, 2007. It is planned to be a biennial event. It has also inspired a fringe type festival The Not Part Of Festival - formerly the Not Part Of Manchester International Festival.

[edit] Pre-festival commissions

The Festival was promoted and initiated with three pre-festival commissions. The first of these took place in November 2005, when Gorillaz performed live at the Manchester Opera House. Recordings of these performances were later released as the Demon Days Live DVD. The second was The Schools Festival Song, a new piece by Ennio Morricone and Nicholas Royle sung by an 8,000-strong schools' choir, organised by Young Voices, which took place on December 4, 2006.

The third was an art installation, in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum, by Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen, as a response to the 2003 Iraq war and as a tribute to British service personnel killed in that conflict. It was exhibited in the Great Hall of Manchester Central Library from February 28 to July 15, 2007.

[edit] 2007 festival

The Festival's showpiece production was Monkey: Journey To The West, a re-working of the ancient Chinese legend Journey to the West by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, who are collaborating on their first major project since Gorillaz. Albarn wrote the score while Hewlett designed the set and costumes.[1] Adapted and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, whose credits range from classical Chinese opera to the forthcoming Meryl Streep movie Dark Matter, the show also featured 45 Chinese circus acrobats, Shaolin monks and Chinese vocalists. The production was designed and created by Théâtre du Châtelet in co-operation with the Manchester International Festival and the Berlin State Opera, and performed at the Palace Theatre.

As well as Monkey, the Festival also showcased two other events. The first is Il Tempo del Postino, a visual arts show curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno and produced in conjunction with the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, performed at the Manchester Opera House. The other was a new stage adaptation of The Pianist, combining the original words of Władysław Szpilman spoken by actor Peter Guinness, with the music of Frederic Chopin performed by leading pianist Mikhail Rudy, and directed by Neil Bartlett at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ David Ward (2007-03-19). From Britpop to Britop. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
  2. ^ Michael Billington (2007-07-04). The Pianist. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.

[edit] External links