This year’s Bergen International Festival, Nordic Impulses, is currently unfolding with a rich programme, running from its opening on 21 May until it closes on 4 June. The Bergen International Festival spans the entire spectrum of cultural expression, from music, theatre, literature and dance to the visual arts.
29/05/2008 :: Per Boye Hansen, the Festival’s Artistic and Managing Director, has sought to make the Festival a meeting place for Nordic artists, and the varied programme aims to provide input in a wider international context. There is general agreement that the Bergen International Festival has come to be regarded as one of the most important cultural events in Europe.
Three specially commissioned compositions will be performed at this year’s International Festival.
Lasse Thoresen, born in 1949, is Norway’s foremost exponent of electro-acoustic music. He is inspired by Norwegian folk music and the Norwegian composer Fartein Valen. Thoresen’s composition Solbøn will be performed for the first time.
Magnus Lindberg, born in 1958, trained at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and is counted among European modernists. His music takes urban settings as its starting point, reflecting both the pulse and rhythm of city life. His composition Trio for piano, cello and clarinet will be performed for the first time.
Ričardas Kabelis, born in 1957, trained at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, completing his PhD in 1989. He specialises in electronic and computer music. His commissioned work for string quartet and Hardanger fiddle will also have its premiere performance in Bergen.
All three composers will attend this year’s Festival.
On the concert’s opening night, the entirely animated opera L’amor de loin (Love from afar), which premiered in 2000, was performed. The opera was written by Kaija Saariaho from Finland, with a libretto by the French-Lebanese novelist and essayist Amin Maalouf. The concert was a collaborative project between Den Nye Opera and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
In a series of nine concerts, the Festival’s resident musician Bjarte Eike will present key works from the Baroque period, including compositions by Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi.
Catalan director Calixto Bieito is participating in the Festival for the third year running, this year with a production of Henrik Ibsen’s Brand on Den Nasjonale Scene (the National Venue of Theatre, Bergen). The Norwegian actor Sven Nordin is playing the part of Brand, in a play considered to be one of Ibsen’s most important works.
This is the 56th time the Bergen International Festival has been held, and it is the largest festival of its kind in the Nordic region. The full programme can be found on the Festival website.