In Salzburg, author Trojanow conjures up art as a counterpoint to violence
In his opening speech at the Salzburg Festival, the writer Ilija Trojanow broke a lance for art in times of war.
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- At the same time, he emphasized that people and governments in the West are also to blame for global violence.
«We can become blunted against the television pictures. There is no immunization against the outcry of art as long as we still have feelings,” said the author, who was born in Bulgaria and lives in Germany and Austria. “So let’s desert the monotony of war into the multiplicity of art.”
Trojanow objected to demands that Russian composers no longer be performed in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. At the same time, he supported the boycott of artists such as the conductor Valery Gergiyev, who had learned directly of their proximity to the Kremlin.
Trojanow (“The Collector of Worlds”) pointed out to the high-ranking audience from politics and business that the economic exploitation of raw materials and people is also a form of war. “In times of peace, death sometimes roams the country disguised as money,” he said. It was therefore right that the Salzburg Festival recently ended its sponsorship agreement with the controversial mining company Solway.
Around 200 performances of plays, operas and concerts are planned in Salzburg by the end of August. The first premieres on Tuesday are Béla Bartók’s opera “Bluebeard’s Castle” and Carl Orff’s oratorio “De temporum fine comoedia”. The Greek-Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis, who has been criticized for his silence on the Ukraine war, was hired for the double production.
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