Brighton festival opens May 6

Lasting over three weeks, this year's festival will benefit from online exposure as well as in the Evening Argus. Every day our web reporters and Argus journalists will be sending in reviews of the hottest acts.

The Argus will be pubishing a special 16-page supplement on Wednesday, May 3, over half of which will be in colour. The following Wednesday on May 10, the Argus will also be publishing an eight-page Streets of Brighton pull-out sponsored by the event organisers.

During the festival, the Argus will devote two pages a day to the Festival consisting of both news and reviews. You can also view them on www.thisisbrighton.co.uk as well as extra reviews written exclusively for the web.

So if you want the latest in festival news, it's a case of click (the mouse) or pick (up the paper)...

Click here for the official Brighton Festival web site

Three operas, four major concerts, a recital series in the Music Room of the Royal Pavilion, and a host of lunchtime concerts, that is the classical music element in this year's Brighton Festival.

And this year and next the Dome isn't available so the music could well be described as large chamber music, - there isn't a symphony in sight.

Festival director Chris Barron said: "Yes, of course it is difficult without the Dome, but it gives us the opportunity to use some different venues and to do some different things.

"Last year the classical music component of the Festival was very well received, so this year we are building on that. There will be a little more contemporary music but we are not forgetting the more traditional, and we are taking part in the 250th anniversary of the death of J. S. Bach.

"I am very excited that we shall be able to present all of Bach's orchestral suites exactly as the composer would have heard them in the restored St George 's Church performed by Les Musciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski and all in time for the extension of the New Music Weekend at St Nicholas' Church. St George 's Church will become a major venue as it now seats up to 750 people."

Among the highlights of the classical programme are the Festival's own production of Benjamin Britten's opera The Turn Of The Screw, and a John Adams' opera based on the Los Angeles earthquake, I Was Looking At The Ceiling And Then I Saw The Sky.

The opera programme also includes Mozart's early opera La Finta Semplice. This year's opening concert, on May 7 is at Glyndebourne where the Brighton Festival Chorus joins with the Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightment along with tenor Ian Bostridge and others for a performance of Haydn's The Creation.

Noted bass Willard White will give a recital of songs by Gershwin and Weill at the Theatre Royal and mezzo Louise Winter teams up with the BBC Concert Orchestra for a recital also at the Theatre Royal.

St George's Church in Kemp Town will also feature the Philharmonic Orchestra and solo trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger in a concert of works by both Haydns as well as J. S. Bach 's Concerto for violin and oboe.

Among names to watch for in the Music Room recital series are The Jerusalem String Quartet, violinist Rafael Oleg and pianist Artur Pizarro, cellist Raphael Wallfisch and pianist Richard Goode.

The artistic director and chief executive of Brighton Festival is breathing a sigh of relief that this year's event has all come together despite the fact that the Dome, one of the major venues for orchestral concerts,will be a no-go area.

Chris Barron admits the planning stage has been something of a logistical nightmare this year,but is relieved that the refurbishment of the Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre will be completed in time to stage a big chunk of the first festival of the new millennium there.

"We had a bit of a setback when the lottery funding was capped, not leaving us enough to do what we wanted at the Pavilion Theatre,but we managed to raise £300,000 ourselves to revamp the building and it has all turned out even better that we expected," he said.

Many of the literary events will be staged there as usual, something that seemed well nigh impossible only a year ago. Main concerts are being shared between St George's Church in Kemp Town, which has been given a facelift, enabling it to seat 750, and All Saints Church in Hove.

But there is no return for the much- lamented marquee that made its mark in previous festivals. "Apart from anything else,it is getting much more difficult to stage public events outdoors,"said Mr Barron.

"There is such a lot of red tape these days and the vast number of stewards necessary make the cost prohibitive."

But there will be gigs with a younger audience in mind at the Event and Concorde 2. The days when the festival had a theme running through the programme are long-since gone.

It proved far too rigid to be anything other than an encumbrance. Instead, Mr Barron likes to think in terms of several strands,or leitmotifs running through the three-week event.

This year the strands will be modern China, classical and contemporary music and education with a dedicated education unit offering audiences the chance to find out more about the events being staged.

One of the biggest educational contributions will be the poetry in motion events, which have seen poets working with children in schools this term. It will culminate in a special poetry in motion bus doing the rounds in May.

The Chinese connection is established with the Chinese State Circus and collaboration between dance and theatre groups from China working with Brighton Festival.

Mr Barron is delighted that the Umbrella events have a life of their own, and are growing 'organically' year on year. "Festivals stand or fall by the amount of grass roots support they attract,and ours is showing a very healthy development," he said.

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