?Our festival ? following one of the most important vocations of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma ? aims to be a scene of encounter of different ages and cultures?.We would like to stay completely open to the specific questions and problems of our world and the sincere search for a spiritual way,? the festival?s organisers say on the homepage for the event.
Last year?s festival featured religious music by the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina coupled with the works of Joseph Haydn. The Gubaidulina works performed at the festival examined the relationship between faith and suffering. The festival?s theatrical works focused on the same theme, with eight theatre companies playing scenes from Dante?s Divine Comedy.
This year?s festival honours the Sicilian composer Salvatore Sciarrino. Although religious references in Sciarrino?s works are far less evident than in Gubaidulina?s, the pairing of his music with that of Mozart takes one step further the questions raised in Mozart?s music: Is there a path through the darkness? Is there ground above the abyss?
The same questions are posed by the buto theatre of the Japanese-American Eiko and Koma, who, through their gestures, show a journey into the self and into the unknown.
A midnight concert by the musical group Muzsikás will also show a decent and confrontation evoking the meditative tone of popular laments and dirges. And, as in the buto theatre, Ilona Lovas?s video installation takes up as its main theme the idea of return. The radical purism of her work probes the question of where time and space end begin and end as well as the difference between human and non-human.
To see the full programme for the festival visit www.arcustemporum.hu
Source: Fidelio.hu
