The programme at the second Manchester International Festival is so remarkable—Steve Reich, Kraftwerk, Zaha Hadid, and Marina Abramovic on just the first two days—that director Alex Poots has surely made a pact with the devil. The festival has gathered its all-star cast by commissioning only new work (a rarity in this world of artistic regurgitation) and by targeting artists with the power to lend cultural capital to a city still undergoing regeneration. No less than “20 world premieres” are billed, including Neil Bartlett’s theatrical critique of our bingo-loving nation, Everybody Loves A Winner, and conspiracy filmmaker Adam Curtis’s “haunted house walkthrough” which captures the rise of American power during the 1960s to music by Damon Albarn. With so much new work in one place, critical casualties are likely, but risk-taking is central to MIF’s appeal.
The stakes are particularly high for singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, whose first opera Prima Donna debuts here after being commissioned in 2006 and then rejected by the Metropolitan Opera. Partly inspired by an archive interview with Maria Callas, it relates an ageing opera singer’s struggle with new love and fading talent. Wainwright has written his score for a large orchestra (provided by Opera North) and penned the libretto in French, promising big romantic themes and “good old tunes.” A self-confessed opera buff, he has spent years on the project, and one can only applaud his ambition and insouciance over the prospect of a flop (tickets are still available). Yet this spirit of experimentation, shared by many of the artists here, will almost certainly rank Manchester among Britain’s most intrepid cultural events.
The Manchester International Festival. Various venues, 2nd-19th July, tel: 0161 238 7300, www.mif.co.uk. Prospect will be at the opening of the festival and will be reporting on some of the highlights here at First Drafts.
