STA, 1 July 2021 - A concert by the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, will kick off the 69th Ljubljana Festival on Thursday. As the Križanke open-air venue is under renovation, Congress Square will be this year's main venue.
This year's festival will feature an array of Slovenian and foreign singers and musicians with the likes of Russian soprano Ana Netrebko, Algerian tenor Jusif Ejvazov, Slovenian soprano Sabina Cvilak, German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, the Vienna Boys' Choir, accordion virtuoso Marko Hatlak and Spanish tenor Placido Domingo taking the stage.
The SNG Maribor theatre ensemble will contribute their version of Puccini's famous opera Madama Butterfly.
Dance lovers will be able to enjoy the Tango Story show by Andreja Podlogar and Blaž Bertoncelj and the Peer Gynt ballet show directed by SNG Maribor's Edward Clug. Even theatre-goers will get their money's worth with the Lolita and Chicago musicals.
The main venue, Congress Square. Photo: Andraž Kobe for Ljubljana Festival
The festival will close on 8 September with a concert by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra performing new pieces by the Slovenian composer Vito Žuraj.
The idea behind this year's programme was the same as in the previous years as organizers were counting on certain Covid-19 restrictions to be lifted by summer.
The biggest issue is the musicians mobility, noted the artistic and general director of the Ljubljana Festival, Darko Brlek, explaining that some guest appearances by foreign musicians had to be postponed. He also stressed that last year's festival had been great and one of the few festivals of such calibre to even take pace.
Most of the events will be held in Congress Square, and will move to the Cankarjev Dom art centre and the city's main fairgrounds in case of bad weather. The opening event will be held in Cankarjev Dom in case of bad weather.
