The Rain in Spain May Fall Mainly on the Plain

But the Music and Dance Fall on the Alhambra

As if the Alhambra itself weren’t enough of a reason to visit Granada, Spain, now there’s the International Festival of Music and Dance of Granada as well. From June 20 through July 11, great names in contemporary dance, flamenco and classical music from France, Germany, Holland, India, Sweden, the U.S. and Spain will play in some 50 performances.

The performances will be held throughout the city, including the Palace of Daralhorra and the Albaicín district, the largest and most characteristic Moorish quarter left in Spain. From June 21 to July 6, classical music aficionados can enjoy ten free concerts performed at the Hospital Real, the Corral del Carbón, Santa Iglesia Catedral and the Monasterio de San Jerónimo.

Eva Yerbabuena, one of Granada's outstanding artists, will be celebrating her company's tenth anniversary with the premiere of a new work presented in the lush Generalife Gardens bordering the Alhambra.  This rose-colored palace fortress, one of the world's most beautiful buildings, epitomizes the brilliance and spirit of Moorish culture that reached its height in Andalusia between the 13th and 15th centuries.

Some of the additional highlights include the Miami-based New World Symphony Orchestra performing Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in its return to the festival after 24 years with Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, which has never been performed here before, and, in their first appearance in Granada, Les Musiciens du Louvre performing Handel's Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno, the composer's closest work to an opera.

www.granadafestival.org/festival.asp | spain.info

courtesy of the Tourist Office of Spain

Edited by Ellen Schofield