Гектор Берлиоз  200 Years Since the Birth of Hector Berlioz

France has already begun preparations for the celebration of the 200-year anniversary of the birth of Hector Berlioz. The festivities will take place in the year 2003.

The series of concerts in honor of the work of Berlioz will be grouped according to theme. The Paris Orchestra already started a series of concerts for this year on March 1 with the Waverly Overture (conducted by Roger Norrington), while on March 8 there will be a performance of "Cleaopatra" (conducted by Rafael Frubek de Burgoss). Further concerts in this season will be dedicated to the theme of Faust- among other works, there will be performed "The Damnation of Faustus" and "Te Deum." Conductors will be Ian Pascal Tortelier, Christof von Danagni and John Nelson.

During the next year the Paris Orchestra will choose themes such as "Byron and the Charm of Italy," (2001), "Berlioz and Shakespeare" (2002), and "Berlioz and Romanticism" (2003). In most of these concerts Claudio Abbado will take the conductor's place. There will also be performances of the operas "Beatrice and Benedict" and "The Trojans" in the Paris Opera-Comique and the Saltzburg festival in Austria during this year.

The Berlioz festivities will not just be bringing up old archive dust- many young composers are already working on compositions developing Berlioz' musical ideas. Throughout the whole world- in the US, Germany, English and France- there will be symposiums, seminars and discussions concerned with Berlioz and his role in music and culture in general. The topics are some of the most surprising, for example, "Berlioz and Feminist Development." There will also be exhibits displaying the life and works of the composer, the largest of which will be organized by the Paris Library.

The culmination of these festivities will be the ceremony of transferring the remains of Berlioz to the Pantheon, where the most accomplished figures and heroes of France have their final rest.

How, then, will all this affect us? There will be a schedule of the program of events of the Berlioz tour. The Paris Orchestra (headed by some of the best composers from all over the world), accompanied by the exhibit, will give concerts in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, England, Italy, and Russia.

По материалам: www.zvuki.ru