User:Peaky76/Edinburgh International Festival 1981

critics were unhappy at the number of conventional productions, such as Brahms's First Symphony and The Barber of Seville,'' although paradoxically the Cologne Opera Company's production received one of the best reviews.

But the 1981 festival generated a measure of cultural controversy as well. Perhaps the most discussion was over Bach's St. Matthew's Passion by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, which opened the festival. The performance, including six soloists and a large chorus, ran against modern trends for the piece toward smallness, but twice played to full houses.

Other official productions also received mostly mixed reviews. One of the eagerly awaited events is the premiere Tuesday of On the Razzle, a new play by Tom Stoppard, whose Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was discovered among the offerings of the 1966 fringe. Heavily Theater-Oriented

This year's festival was the most heavily theater-oriented ever. Before the arrival of John Drummond, who is running his third festival, directors have been principally from musical backgrounds. The first director was Rudolf Bing.

However, the theater presentations this year were accorded fair to poor reviews, particularly As You Like It by the Birmingham Repertory Theater, which one critic called a pageant not a play. Leonard Bernstein's Candide, also by the Birmingham company, received only fair notices.

Among the most controversial of Mr. Drummond's decisions was the inclusion of three foreign-language plays. The National Theater of Rumania's The Girl From Andros, a comedy written by Terrence in Greek in 166 B.C., was much criticized, but Jean Racine's Britannicus played to large and enthusiastic audiences.

As for music, the festival featured a variety of well-known groups and performers, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and the pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. Perhaps the most praised performance was the premiere by the BBC Symphony Orchestra of John Tavener's Akhmatova Requiem, a celebration of the Russian poet, described by The Sunday Times as affecting and astonishing. Mr. Drummond was the narrator.

$1.5 million in local grants and $300,000 from corporate sponsors who have been increasingly sought. The festival's organizers contend that the cash benefit of the festival to the city is $7 million to $30 million.

''

the "vibrance of the fringe had to some extent overshadowed the official festival"

At the Edinburgh International Festival, there were 164 performances, largely opera, theatre and music. Ticket sales amounted to about 80 percent of the 171,811 tickets available. Around 100,000 visitors attended.