It’s time again for Bangkok’s biggest cultural extravaganza, and for the next two months, the city will be in a frenzy of high-powered musical and dance shows from around the world.
There are many “remarkable firsts” this year, managing director of the festival, Rasina Uberoi, daughter of the well-known Thai-Indian cultural czar, Kukoo Uberoi, said.
After all, this is the year celebrating the Thai King’s auspicious 72nd birthday. That’s why the festival organisers have gone one notch higher, with a larger and grander range of performances, especially ballets.
Starting September 7, the festival is also an important part of the Thai government’s soft power initiatives in the country. While there are smaller cultural festivals around the country, this is the only example of a mega international music and dance festival in Thailand.
The international countries taking part in the festival this year are France, Russia, Israel, Japan, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
One certainly misses the presence of India, who have fielded many brilliant artists at this festival, but hopefully they’ll be back next year.
The festival opens the coming weekend, with a rarely seen ballet titled Marie Antoinette performed by the Malandain Ballet Biarritz from France, with music by the splendid
Opera Royal Chateau de Versailles Orchestra. The contemporary ballet, with grand sets, music, dances, marvellously and movingly resurrects the tumultuous life of one of the most famous queens in French history.
Among the many exciting ballets at this year’s festival, Swan Lake is top of the list. Tchaikovsky’s much-loved ballet is hugely popular in Thailand, and has been performed almost every year at the two-decade festival.
This year, the legendary ballet is being performed by the original Bolshoi Company themselves, who have been enacting it for the last 150 years.
The choreography by the famed Yuri Grigorovich is on a level of its own, and the Bolshoi ballet-shows are easily one of the highlights of the Festival.
There’s a second version of Swan Lake, this time on ice, by the renowned Imperial Ice Stars from the UK, who have popularised these classical ballets on ice, at more than 31 countries around the world.
The Imperial Ice Stars also perform Peter Pan on Ice. The story of the boy who never grew up, is guaranteed to attract a huge number of kids to the show. The festival has now begun to attract large numbers of family audiences, an important market, indeed.
In fact, Thai audiences are lucky to watch this British ballet group on ice, who, with lavish costumes and gravity-defying gestures, perform spectacularly on a stage with 18 tonnes of ice.
The great Novosibirsk Ballet troupe is the second important Russian group performing at this year’s festival, and they have two spectacular ballets lined up, Spartacus and Don Quixote, with a grand cast of nearly 120 artists.
The ballet troupe also have an evening of Ballet Fantasia, with excerpts from various famous ballets, and also George Bizet’s unforgettable Carmen Suite in one act.
A ballet troupe, making their debut at the festival, is Japan’s premier ballet company, the Tokyo City Ballet. They are noted for their school outreach programmes, and their performance of the ever-popular Nutcracker Ballet, should draw in numerous youngsters.
One of the special features of Bangkok’s International Festival of Dance and Music is their own student out-reach programmes, with masterclasses and workshops for various schools, and also special performances for underprivileged kids. This is a very laudable addition, to this high-profile festival.
Among the modern dance troupes at this year’s festival is the Paul Taylor Dance Co from the US, who have performed in more than 600 cities of the world, during their six-decade career. They have been described as “one of the most exciting, innovative, and delightful dance companies in the world”!
The Vertigo Dance Company from Israel is a cutting-edge dance-company noted for its innovative choreography and multimedia forms.
There is only one music-group this year, from a country making its debut at Bangkok’s best-known cultural festival.
This is the State Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, who will be playing out Mahler's monumental Symphony No. 5, and also a violin masterpiece from Faust. One is certainly looking forward to that.
Last but not the least, comes a unique collaboration between Italy and China, to celebrate 100 years of the great Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.
The renowned China National Opera House, with nearly 200 Chinese musicians and dancers, will enact Puccini’s marvelous operas La Boheme and Turandot, and they will be accompanied by soprano and tenor singers from Italy.
This rare east-west collaboration is easily the artistic “scoop” of Bangkok’s best-known cultural festival, this year.
To quote Rasina Uberoi, the managing director of the festival, “This year’s festival exemplifies how the arts transcend borders and unites people.”
The festival will end on October 20.
