entry
Aug 2008
West-Eastern
Ravello Festival
2008
The Ravello Festival used to be called the Wagner Festival, a music event held (for the first time in 1953) in honor of the German composer, who visited the area in 1880 (see this link). The event has now gone well beyond presenting Wagner’s music. This year, the whole shebang runs 127 days (!)—from late June through late October and, besides music, includes, art shows, dance, photographic exhibits, discussions and film.
The
highlight for me so far has been the appearance of Daniel Barenboim and
his youth orchestra (average age around 21), the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
The name is from the title of Goethe’s last volume of
poetry, West-östlicher Divan, a collection of ecumenical poetry in praise
of the unity of east and west and inspired by the verse
of Persian poet Hāfez. (“Divan”
is a Farsi word meaning a collection of poetry. And all
this time you thought the great German eclectic’s
talents extended, yea, even unto oriental furniture.)
Music makes the world go
round
The
orchestra is the brain-child of pianist-conductor
Barenboim and Palestinian-born writer and
Columbia University professor Edward Said (who passed away in 2003). The
unlikely (unfortunately) combination of a Jewish musician
and a Palestinian writer working together to promote
peaceful co-existence in the Middle East resulted in the
first West-Eastern Divan Workshop. It took place in Weimar
in 1999 and involved young
musicians between the ages of 14 and 25 from Egypt, Syria,
Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Israel. The workshop was held
in Chicago in 2001 and since 2002 has had a permanent base
in Seville, Spain. Following each workshop, the orchestra
goes on tour; the two concerts in Ravello this summer are
the only appearances in Italy on the 2008 European Tour.
Throughout its existence, the young musicians have been
supported by financial grants and musical instruction from
some of the world’s finest musicians. The orchestra is the
subject of a recent documentary film, Knowledge
is the Beginning, produced and directed by Paul
Smaczny.
Also see Ravello 2005
and 2014.
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