Berlin in concert
Berlin – of all places – is used to the challenge of stitching together divisions between east and west. It’s fitting then that one of the stars of this year’s Festtage concerts is the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra: a project that began as a way to bring Israeli and Arab musicians together. Its co-founder, conductor Daniel Barenboim, is also the leading light behind the Festtage – a festival of opera and classical music held in the German capital since 1996. Orchestral performances take place at the Philharmonie near Potsdamer Platz, while operas are shown at the Schillertheater in Charlottenburg, as Berlin’s 18th-century opera house is under renovation until 2017. Many of the pieces this year pay homage to French composer Pierre Boulez, and the two operas, Wagner’s Parsifal and Tannhäuser, are favourites with Berliners.
4 A scene from Wagner’s Tannhäuser, directed in Berlin by Sasha Waltz