Bangkok’s International Festival of Music and Dance is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023, and taking the opportunity to have audiences seeing stars and opening their waterworks. If you’re considering booking a cultural trip to Thailand, here’s why September and October are good bets.
FROM THE TOP-RANKED VIOLINST in the United States and the world’s greatest living conductor to six of the best female illusionists on Earth and the all-woman cast that makes up a traditional Chinese opera company, Bangkok’s International Festival of Music and Dance is has something for everyone this year. The longest-running international cultural festival in Thailand is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023, with opera, ballet, classical music, musical theater, flamenco and even breakdancing and magic. We’ve got all the details.
Bangkok’s International Festival of Music and Dance got the party started in June with its first performance. Switzerland’s oldest orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony opened with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 5, with soloist Augustin Hadelich, a Grammy-Award-winner who plays an astonishig 300-year-old violin named ‘Leduc, ex Szeryng.’
Now, from September 2 through October 22, the hits will keep coming fast and furiously.
How many conductors do you know have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? Megastar Zubin Metha has been considered the best conductor alive for generations, and he appears in Bangkok with the Symphony Orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, of which he spent decades as Principal Conductor and is now Honorary Director for life, in a performance supported by the Embassy of Italy and Officina di Santa Maria Novella.
Composed by Giuseppe Verdi in 1870. Aida is a tragic love story between an enslaved Ethiopian princess and an Egyptian commander, but while the narrative is set in the ancient era of the Pharaohs, this show by Helikon Opera is an aesthetically rich multimedia innovation with thoroughly modern style.
Granada Flamenco Ballet is set to tap their way into our hearts with two riveting shows that feature live singers and musicians, both supported by the Embassy of Spain. Carmen, Georges Bizet’s sultry, thrilling story of love and jealousy – gosh, aren’t all the best ones? – in a spellbinding new interpretation. Then, Dance for Me journeys through the Andalusian performing arts, themselves rooted in a fascinating mix of gypsy, Moorish and Spanish creative traditions, and leans heavily on the flash of improvisation.
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Aida
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Carmen
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The Roots
Over to France, where Cie Accrorap has us excited for their effervescent hip hop performance, The Roots. is not just the foremost representative of French hip-hop and contemporary dance, it is a movement, a revolution, an evolution! Energetic, innovative and exciting, the group led by barrier-breaking dance pioneer Kader Attou will entrance you with The Roots, an 11-man acrobatic celebration encompassing unbelievable dance moves and astounding visual arts.
An homage to the power of platonic male friendships and collaborations, this show created by dance pioneer Kader Attou and supported by the Embassy of France is set to astound with breakdance, locking, popping, and sometimes gravity-defying moves borrowed from skating, burlesque movies, tap dance, boxing, and even miming.
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Swan Lake
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At a silver jubilee, it’s only fitting that a dance company born of royalty would perform the world’s most famous ballet, Swan Lake. Les Ballets de Monte Carlo was founded in 1985 in accordance with the wishes of Princess Grace of Monaco, is headed by Caroline, Princess of Hanover, her eldest child with Prince Rainier III, and is its national ballet theatre.
Keeping the tragic love stories coming, musical theatre enthusiasts will be psyched to know that Bangkok is one of the first cities in the world where the Jets and the Sharks will face off over the fate of star-crossed Tony and Maria in a show directed by Emmy Award-winner Lonny Prince. West Side Story features an all-American cast dancing the original choreography by Jerome Robbins, under the guidance of Julio Monge, an artistic consultant on Steven Speilberg’s film version.
Dating back to 1609, the Stuttgart Ballet is one of the top 10 ballet companies in the world and has received the Laurence Olivier Award in the UK for achievement in dance. So, who better to take us on a grand tour of a dozen of the most enchanting ballet pieces ever choreographed? Look out for dances from Romeo and Juliet and Don Quixote in this hit list of a show supported by the Embassy of Germany, GTCC and Thai-German Cultural Foundation.
How’s this for girl power? Six of the top female illusionists and magicians in the world will perform together for the first time ever, in the first magic show choreographed in Bangkok by the president of the International Magicians Society, from New York, prepped in just 10 days, and broadcast from Thailand on American TV with the support ot ICONSIAM. We suggest not blinking.
We also suggest another round of applause for the ladies, because the next show also shows off their star wattage. Flipping the conventions of traditional theatre, in which for centuries women were considered too delicate for the stage, Shanghai Yue Opera arrives with its all-female cast to show off one of the two most famous genres of Chinese opera, with the support of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. The truth-seeking, love-losing fable Dream of the Red Chamber has us crying already.
Don’t put away the tissues yet, because the Bangkok’s International Festival of Dance and Music is planning for its dramatic conclusion Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina set to Tchaikovsky’s score. Globally beloved, multi-award-winning Boris Eifman is bringing his eponymous ballet company to perform this classic fatal love story of literature and philosophy in Bangkok, elevating the Thailand Cultural Centre to the level of other major stages of the United States and Europe.
Bangkok’s International Festival of Dance and Music 2023 line-up, at the Thailand Cultural Centre:
Zubin Mehta And Symphony Orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Saturday 2 September 2023 at 7:00pm
Aida by Helikon Opera, Saturday 9 September 2023 at 7:00pm
Carmen by Granada Flamenco Ballet, Friday 15 September 2023 at 7:00pm
Dance for Me by Granada Flamenco Ballet, Saturday 16 September 2023, 7:00pm
The Roots by Cie Accrorap, Saturday 23 September 2023 at 7:00pm
Lac – Swan Lake by Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Saturday 30 September 2023 at 7:00pm and Sunday 1 October 2023 at 2:30pm
West Side Story, Thursday 5 October 2023 at 7:00pm, Friday 6 October 2023 at 7:00pm, Saturday 7 October 2023 at 2:30 & 7:00pm, and Sunday 8 October 2023 at 2:30 & 7:00pm
Gala Performance by Stuttgart Ballet, Thursday 12 October 2023 at 7:00pm
The Magnificent Six Top Female Illusionists, Saturday 14 October 2023 at 7:00pm
Dream of the Red Chamber by Shanghai Yue Opera, Tuesday and Wednesday 17 and 18 October 2023 at 7:00pm
Anna Karenina by Eifman Ballet, Saturday 21 October 2023 at 7:00pm and Sunday 22 October 2023 at 4:00pm
Tickets to Bangkok’s International Festival of Dance and Music 2023 available via www.thaiticketmajor.com.
Images courtesy of Bangkok’s International Festival of Music and Dance.
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