The largest arts festival in Scandinavia takes place from May 23 to June 6. Bergen, which holds the homes of famous composers Edvard Grieg and Ole Bull, will present artists from both the Nordic and the international arena.
"In 2012 we aim to emphasize how the local, the national and the international are connected by highlighting the extensive European collaborations of Nordic artists. In Bergen we will present the international projects of some of Norway’s most highly profiled musicians and stage artists with the festivals or institutions for which they work", says festival director Per Boye Hansen.
A youthful 60-year-old
Conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen will give concerts with NDR Radiophilharmonie and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes brings the Mahler Chamber Orchestra to the west coast of Norway. Opera director Stefan Herheim presents his performance of Xerxes from the Komische Oper in Berlin, and the Danish/Norwegian artistic duo Elmgreen & Dragset stage their play Happy Days in the Arts World, a new production in collaboration with the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen.
This year’s music programme consists of concerts by well-known names such as Les Arts Florissants, Truls Mørk, Fretwork, Vilde Frang and Bryn Terfel . Experience Terfel as the very devil alongside fellow operatic stars Paul Groves and Christine Rice in The Damnation of Faust, which will conclude the 2012 Bergen International Festival.
"At this Diamond Jubilee it is a youthful 60-year-old that wishes you welcome, hoping to thrill and inspire everyone in the audience", says Boye Hansen.