Zurich starts summer on a high note

Keystone

Zurich, normally considered a staid banking city, will be coming alive over the next few weeks with a festival of music, dance, theatre and art.

The Zurich Festival, which is in its 13th year, had to compete with the European football championships last year. It is hoping for more attention, both local and international, in 2009.

The three-week event, which starts on June 19, brings together artistic institutions across the city. During this time, visitors will be able to watch the Opera House’s festival premiere Così fan tutte by Mozart, or see an exhibition of German contemporary artist Katharina Fritsch at the Kunsthaus Fine Arts Museum.

The Tonhalle Orchestra and invited guests will be honouring German composer and Switzerland fan Felix Mendelssohn in the 200th anniversary year of his death.

“The Zurich Festival is a unique combination of concerts, opera, dance, theatre and art,” Peter Wiebel, the festival’s chairman, told swissinfo.ch ahead of its launch.

The festival is a huge undertaking – at least 12 cultural institutions will be taking part – and it is not always easy to get artists to work together, Weibel said.

“Because they are artists, they like to stay on the stage on their own. They sometimes get into a dilemma, but overcoming this and really working and celebrating their success together is a big achievement.”

Cultural showcase

The festival is seen as an opportunity to showcase the city’s culture – its Opera House and Tonhalle orchestra have a global reputation – and to introduce it to a wider audience. For this reason, some events, such as the opening one, will be free to the public.

Last year the festival made an almost SFr18,000 ($16,560) loss and had fewer visitors –56,514, compared with around 65,407 in 2007. This was mainly to do with the Euro 2008 football championships, of which Zurich was a host city, held at the same time.

“It was competing with our art events and sometimes there were so many people in the streets, it was sometimes difficult for those who wanted to get to the theatre to arrive in time,” Weibel said.

“On the other hand, the Euro organisers were very generous and offered us their arena on the Sechseeläutenplatz in central Zurich for a performance of Carmen. This was on a Saturday evening where there was no game and it was beautiful weather. 6,000 people came and it was a great atmosphere.”

Zurich highlights

According to Maurus Lauber, head of marketing at Zurich Tourism, the Zurich Festival is a real cultural highlight for opera and concert lovers.

But it can’t quite yet compete in terms of popularity with the city’s other events. “Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and it has a large variety of events going on all year like the Europride festival earlier this month and the Street Parade in August,” Lauber told swissinfo.ch.

“We have the Weltklasse athletics meeting and other events like the Zurich Film Festival which target other groups than the Zurich Festival.”

For example, around 50,000 people from Switzerland and abroad attended the Europride final parade on June 6, according to the organisers.

Grey Zurich?

The Zurich Festival would like to attract more guests this year, including international ones. Weibel believes that a good cultural offering could also help shake the city’s somewhat grey image.

He points out that Zurich is already regularly at the top of quality of life rankings. “Quality of life would of course be unthinkable without culture,” he said.

For his part, Lauber says that it’s important to show tourists that there is more to Zurich than banking and business.

“Often people are surprised by how colourful and attractive the city is, how full of life it is with its gastronomy and party life. These cultural highlights give people another view of Zurich,” Lauber said.

Isobel Leybold-Johnson in Zurich, swissinfo.ch

Festival facts

The Zurich Festival takes place from June 19-July 12.

Further highlights include The Sound of Silence theatre play, based on the 1968 Simon and Garfunkel concert in Riga that never took place, and an openair concert series which includes broadcasts of festival productions on a big screen.

Mendelssohn is a major theme. Among the conductors on the podium in Zurich will be Roger Norrington and Thomas Hengelbrock. Elias will be performed by Peter Schreier with the Swiss Chamber Orchestra. There will also be a Mendelssohn symposium on June 19-20.

The Zurich Festival prize for exceptional work in the arts, worth SFr50,000, will go to German director Peter Stein.