Edinburgh International Festival treasures to give the Olympics a run for its money

A BLOOD-SOAKED, Polish language production of Macbeth performed on a multi-storey theatre set built inside a giant agricultural hall close to the city airport has set the tone for the Edinburgh International Festival’s 2012 programme.

Festival director Jonathan Mills unveiled a strong and striking line-up for the Olympic year yesterday, in what critics declared his strongest programme since his debut in 2007.

The programme ranges from the heights of Wagnerian opera to a didgeridoo master from Australia and the court musicians of the Emperor of Japan.

It features the “best of British” orchestras and opera companies, from the London Symphony Orchestra to Opera North, among 3,000 artists from 47 countries.

The festival features 185 performances ranging from three major Shakespeare productions, to the Marinsky Ballet of St Petersburg’s lavish version of Prokofiev’s Cinderella. It includes 11 plays, eight operas, 13 dance pieces and 51 concerts.

The Shakespearean offerings are part of the World Shakespeare Festival, a cornerstone of this year’s Cultural Olympiad. Alongside 2008:Macbeth, a multi-media production set amid a Middle Eastern war on terror with a machine-gun toting Major Macbeth, they include a Russian Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Irish cabaret singer Camille O’Sullivan performing the narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece.

The festival’s turnover tops £10 million this year for the first time, with a 15 per cent rise in sponsorship, meaning “2012 is a big festival,” according to Mr Mills. Last year, people from 74 countries bought tickets.

Scottish Opera is back in the festival programme this year, although the National Theatre of Scotland is not, after its ill-starred production of Caledonia in 2010. The NTS will have work in the Edinburgh Fringe this year, the company confirmed.