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58-448: The Edinburgh International Festival began in 1947, and significant visual art exhibitions were included in the early years. Exhibitions included the French artists Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard in 1948; a retrospective of the three Scottish Colourists , Samuel Peploe , Francis Cadell and Leslie Hunter in 1949; and Rembrandt in 1950. Thereafter, there was acknowledgement from

116-533: A Festival Guide, commissions, and collaborative projects, to celebrate and promote the exhibitions of Edinburgh museums and galleries in August, creating a collective and united marketing platform in which to showcase their artistic programmes. Since 2004 Edinburgh Art Festival has grown to be Scotland's largest annual visual arts festival, and comprising over 45 exhibitions across more than 30 venues. The festival has also commissioned or co-commissioned major artworks around

174-605: A bookseller at the prestigious Viennese shop of Gilhofer & Ranschburg before moving on to Hugo Heller, who also ran a theatrical and concert agency. He then studied music and art history at the University of Vienna . In 1927, he went to Berlin , Germany , and subsequently served as general manager of opera houses in that city and in Darmstadt . While in Berlin he married a Russian ballerina, Nina Schelemskaya-Schlesnaya. In 1934, with

232-415: A centre of world resort for lovers of music, drama, opera, ballet and the graphic arts. Certain preconditions were obviously required of such a centre. It should be a town of reasonable size, capable of absorbing and entertaining anything between 50,000 and 150,000 visitors over a period of three weeks to a month. It should, like Salzburg, have considerable scenic and picturesque appeal and it should be set in

290-894: A complication of Alzheimer's disease on September 2, 1997, aged 95, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers, New York . He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. In New Year Honours List of 1956, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Bing a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for "services to music." In 1971, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for "services to Anglo-American relations," becoming Sir Rudolf Bing. Throughout his years in America, Bing had remained

348-555: A country likely to be attractive to tourists and foreign visitors. It should have sufficient number of theatres, concert halls and open spaces for the adequate staging of a programme of an ambitious and varied character. Above all it should be a city likely to embrace the opportunity and willing to make the festival a major preoccupation not only in the City Chambers but in the heart and home of every citizen, however modest. Greatly daring but not without confidence I recommended Edinburgh as

406-556: A homeless shelter in Leeds, England , before being coaxed to return to New York by Sir Rudolf's lawyers. By 1989, a lawyer for Bing reported that his estate had been reduced during the marriage from $ 900,000 to less than $ 200,000, much of it spent on bodyguards hired to keep Douglass from spiriting him out of New York. For this reason, and owing to Bing's mental impairment, a New York state court in September declared him incompetent to enter into

464-598: A marriage contract and annulled the union. Douglass was a patient in the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital at the time and received no settlement except $ 25,000 to cover hospital expenses. In May 1989, Roberta Peters and Teresa Stratas arranged for Bing to be admitted to the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Riverdale section of the Bronx , New York, where he resided until his death. Bing died from respiratory failure as

522-516: A series of other important British companies such as the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre , The English Stage Company , Royal Shakespeare Company , Traverse Theatre , Prospect Theatre Company , and the National Theatre of Great Britain . One of the festival's first dramatic success came in 1948 when an adaptation of Sir David Lyndsay 's The Thrie Estaites was performed to great acclaim for

580-572: Is a collection of festivals with more than 2,500 performances and events every day in Edinburgh in August, which is said to be many times larger than any similar conglomeration of arts and media festivals anywhere in the world. Rudolf Bing Sir Rudolf Bing , KBE (January 9, 1902 – September 2, 1997) was an Austrian-born British opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and

638-469: Is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh , Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially classical music ) and the performing arts are invited to join the festival. Visual art exhibitions, talks and workshops are also hosted. The first 'International Festival of Music and Drama' took place between 22 August and 11 September 1947. Under

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696-576: The British Council in Scotland, Sidney Newman, Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University , and a group of civic leaders from the City of Edinburgh, in particular Sir John Falconer . Bing had looked at several English cities before shifting his focus to Scotland and settling on Edinburgh, a city he had visited and admired in 1939. In particular, Edinburgh's castle reminded him of Salzburg where he had been

754-462: The English Opera Group . Major artists came to Edinburgh during the first thirty years, such as the conductors Claudio Abbado , Daniel Barenboim , Thomas Beecham , Fritz Busch , Christoph von Dohnányi , Ferenc Fricsay , Alexander Gibson , Carlo Maria Giulini , Vittorio Gui , Rafael Kubelik , Georg Solti , Alberto Erede , János Ferencsik , John Pritchard , and Carlos Kleiber , and

812-730: The Le Comédie Française , Düsseldorf Theatre Company , The Stratford Ontario Festival Company , Abbey Theatre Dublin , Theatre on the Balustrade, Prague , La Mama Company, New York and the Noh and Bunraku companies from Japan. Noted directors in the early years included E. Martin Browne , Peter Ustinov , Gustav Gründgens , Tyrone Guthrie and Michael Benthall , while in the 1960s and 1970s Frank Dunlop , Richard Eyre , Toby Robertson , Luca Ronconi , and Andrei Serban brought productions to

870-580: The Royal Scottish Academy , and Canada 101 , a focus on contemporary Canadian art, all in 1968. Sixteenth century Italian drawings from British private collections (at Merchants' Hall), Contemporary Polish art , and Jack Coia gold medallist were shown in 1969. For 1970, the exhibitions were Early Celtic art and Contemporary German art from Düsseldorf . The Belgian contribution to surrealism , Sir Walter Scott Bicentenary and Contemporary Romanian art exhibitions were offered in 1971. In 1972

928-558: The Sonja Henie — Niels Onstad Collection in Oslo in 1962. Modigliani and Soutine were shown in a double exhibition, together with Music and Dance in Indian Art, in 1963. There was an exhibition of Delacroix in 1964, Corot in 1965, and Rouault in 1966. The third decade began with Derain in 1967, followed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh , Wotruba , a Boudin to Picasso exhibition at

986-611: The Stuttgart State Opera , Royal Opera Stockholm , Glyndebourne Opera, Covent Garden Opera , Belgrade Opera , the English Opera Group , Teatro San Carlo, Naples , Budapest Opera and Ballet , National Theatre, Prague , the Holland Festival and the Bavarian State Opera , with an average of four or five productions each year. Also from 1965, an Edinburgh Festival Opera began to offer locally created shows. During

1044-520: The 1960s and 1970s. The visual arts were not featured in the first two festivals in 1947 and 1948, but from 1949 they became an important part of the events. There were major exhibitions at the National Gallery of Scotland and Royal Scottish Academy . These included Rembrandt in 1950, Spanish Paintings ( El Greco to Goya ) in 1951, Degas in 1952, Renoir in 1953, Cézanne in 1954, Gauguin in 1955, and Braque in 1956. The second decade of

1102-550: The Art Newspaper, Tim Cornwell, noted that 'The Black Lives Matter movement continues to resonate strongly over this weekend's post-Covid opening of Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF)'. Venues in the festival include the Royal Botanic Garden , Jupiter Artland , Fruitmarket , Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and National Galleries of Scotland . Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival

1160-642: The Festival are: Other venues that have sometimes been used in the past include: About ten other festivals are held in Edinburgh at about the same time as the International Festival. Collectively, the entire group is referred to as the Edinburgh Festival or Edinburgh Festivals. Most notable is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe , which started as an offshoot of the International Festival in

1218-579: The Festival authorities that the visual arts needed to be more "emphatically represented" in the Festival itself, and a series of partnerships was forged between the Festival Society and the then Arts Council of Great Britain , the Royal Museum of Scotland , the National Galleries of Scotland , the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Scottish Academy . With a few exceptions, these looked beyond

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1276-460: The General Manager of Glyndebourne Opera Festival , the arts patron Lady Rosebery, theatre director Sir Tyrone Guthrie, and Audrey Mildmay (wife of John Christie ) during a wartime tour of a small-scale Glyndebourne production of The Beggar's Opera . Rudolf Bing conceived of the festival to heal the wounds of war through the languages of the arts. This is its principal raison d’être . It

1334-784: The Jockey Club Cup in 1944. This sum was matched by Edinburgh Town Council and then some money in turn was matched by the Arts Council of Great Britain under the chairmanship of John Maynard Keynes. Bing also co-founded the Festival with Henry Harvey Wood, Head of the British Council in Scotland, Sidney Newman, Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University, and a group of civic leaders from the City of Edinburgh, in particular Sir John Falconer. The first International Festival took place between 22 August and 11 September 1947, and it remained an event straddling August and September until 2015, when

1392-643: The Met's artist roster became integrated for the first time. Marian Anderson became the first African American to sing a leading role in 1955. She was soon followed by Robert McFerrin , Gloria Davy , Mattiwilda Dobbs , Leontyne Price , George Shirley , Grace Bumbry , Shirley Verrett , Reri Grist , and many others. He was noted for his preference for European singers and an apparent lack of interest in some leading American performers. Beverly Sills had to wait until after Bing's retirement to make her Met debut in 1975, although Bing later said that not engaging Sills earlier

1450-663: The Metropolitan Opera the following year, a post he held for 22 years. During the 1960s, he supervised the move of the old Metropolitan on Broadway and 39th Street, to its new quarters in Lincoln Center and presided over one of the most prominent eras of the Met. It was summed up in 1990 by James Oestreich in The New York Times as follows: "Wielding his powerful position at the Metropolitan Opera with intense personal charisma over two decades, Sir Rudolf Bing ruled much of

1508-608: The Paperback Bookshop and Traverse Theatre, eventually led to the Edinburgh International Book Festival also staged in August. The British Army's desire to showcase itself during the festival period led to the independent staging of the first Edinburgh Military Tattoo , featuring displays of piping and dancing, in 1950. This annual event has come to be regarded as a part of the official festival, though it continues to be organised separately. The result

1566-739: The Scottish painter Alan Davie was featured at the Royal Scottish Academy, followed in 1973 by Permanences e l'Art Francais in the same gallery, as well as Objects USA at the City of Edinburgh Art Gallery, and a Tyrone Guthrie exhibition . Many works have received their world premieres at the Edinburgh International Festival, from T. S. Eliot 's The Cocktail Party and The Confidential Clerk in 1949 and 1953, to James MacMillan 's 2018 version of Quickening and Symphony No. 5 , both in 2019. The principal venues of

1624-597: The Spanish Ballet of Pilar López , the Yugoslav Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet . Drama was an important feature of the Edinburgh International Festival from its inception, and right through the successful early years. The Old Vic Theatre Company, like Glyndebourne for opera and Sadler's Wells for ballet, gave their strong support to the festival in the beginning, and over the years they were joined by

1682-632: The United States, including as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1950 to 1972. He was naturalized as a British subject in 1946 and was knighted in 1971, although he spent decades living in the United States, where he died. Born Rudolf Franz Joseph Bing in Vienna, Austria-Hungary to a well-to-do Jewish family (his father was an industrialist). Bing was an apprentice to

1740-532: The art of Scotland and contributed to a declared part of the Festival’s international aims. Not only did the exhibitions bring the works of foreign artists to Scotland, they cultivated an interest in Scotland amongst wealthy collectors and patrons from around the world. From 1966, the visual arts existed outside the programme of the Edinburgh Festival, presented instead across a wide range of organisations, from

1798-407: The beginning of their careers, while the long-lived pianist Artur Rubinstein had a career that seemingly spanned both eras. Some of the most impressive performers of the early years had their careers cut short in the 1950s, notably Kathleen Ferrier , Guido Cantelli , Ginette Neveu and Dennis Brain . Edinburgh remained at the centre of the musical world during the second decade (1957–1966) of

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1856-407: The centre and promised to make preliminary investigations. Wood approached Falconer, who enthusiastically welcomed the initiative on behalf of the city. As it was too late to finalise arrangements for 1946, plans were made for the following year. It was first financed by Lord Rosebery with the £10,000 winnings of his horse Ocean Swell that won the only two major horse-races run in wartime including

1914-565: The city by artists including Martin Creed , Callum Innes , Richard Wright and Susan Philipsz . Following a scaled down offering in 2020 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic , Edinburgh Art Festival launched a hybrid programme for summer 2021. The 2021 festival included work by Isaac Julien , Archie Brennan , Emeka Ogboh , Alberta Whittle , Sekai Machache , Christine Borland , Andrew Gannon, Karla Black and Alison Watt among others. Writing for

1972-399: The city's permanent galleries to artist-led initiatives. This left many galleries with no visible profile in August, a time when they were programming substantial exhibitions. In 2001 a campaign by newspaper Scotland on Sunday brought together a representative group of gallery directors, and the first visual art festival was piloted in 2004. Between 2005 and 2007 the organisation produced

2030-449: The city. Well-known actors included Ralph Richardson , Alec Guinness , John Gielgud , Sybil Thorndike , Lewis Casson , Emlyn Williams , Claire Bloom , Alan Badel , Peter Finch , Richard Burton , Fay Compton , Ann Todd , Eric Porter and Edwige Feuillère in the early period, while Anna Calder-Marshall , Derek Jacobi , Felicity Kendal , Ian McKellen , John Neville , Edward Petherbridge , and Timothy West first appeared in

2088-477: The conductors Herbert von Karajan , Rafael Kubelík , Charles Munch , Wolfgang Sawallisch , and Leonard Bernstein , the pianists Claudio Arrau , Solomon , and Rudolf Serkin , the string players Yehudi Menuhin , Pierre Fournier , Isaac Stern , and Amadeus String Quartet , and the singers Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau , Victoria de los Ángeles , Boris Christoff , Elisabeth Schwarzkopf , and Peter Pears were all present in Edinburgh concert and recital halls from

2146-669: The dates of the Edinburgh International Festival was brought forward to begin and end in August. This brought the International Festival back in sync with the Fringe which had shifted dates several years earlier. From the beginning, the festival had a broad coverage, but with an emphasis on classical music, a highlight of the first season being concerts given by the Vienna Philharmonic , reunited with their erstwhile conductor Bruno Walter , who had left Europe after Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938. Many notable musicians appeared at

2204-887: The directors Carl Ebert , Peter Ebert , Götz Friedrich , Colin Graham , Jean-Pierre Ponnelle , Günther Rennert , Giorgio Strehler , Luchino Visconti , Wieland Wagner and Franco Zeffirelli . Star singers appearing in staged operas included Victoria de los Angeles , Teresa Berganza , Maria Callas , Lisa della Casa , Ileana Cotrubaș , Sena Jurinac , Birgit Nilsson , Magda Olivero , Renata Scotto , Anja Silja , Elisabeth Söderström , Joan Sutherland , Galina Vishnevskaya , and Ljuba Welitsch , Luigi Alva , Sesto Bruscantini , Boris Christoff , Fernando Corena , Geraint Evans , Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau , Nicolai Gedda , Tito Gobbi , Alfredo Kraus , George London , Luciano Pavarotti , Peter Pears , Hermann Prey , Giuseppe Di Stefano , Wolfgang Windgassen , and Fritz Wunderlich . Ballet

2262-611: The festival began with Monet in 1957, followed by two exhibitions, Masterpieces of Byzantine Art and the Moltzau Collection ( Cézanne to Picasso ) featured in 1958, Masterpieces of Czech Art in 1959, German Expressionist Painting in 1960, and an Epstein Memorial Exhibition together with a selection from the Bührle Collection ( Zürich ) in 1961. Modern Primitive Paintings from Yugoslavia and Matisse and After (from

2320-456: The festival director before the war. Harvey Wood described the meeting at which the idea was hatched: The Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama was first discussed over a lunch table in a restaurant in Hanover Square , London , towards the end of 1944. Rudolf Bing, convinced that musical and operatic festivals on anything like the pre-war scale were unlikely to be held in any of

2378-438: The festival during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Besides Bruno Walter , they included the conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler , John Barbirolli , Thomas Beecham , Adrian Boult , Fritz Busch , Josef Krips , Pierre Monteux and Vittorio Gui , the pianist Artur Schnabel , the violinist Joseph Szigeti , and the singer Lotte Lehmann , all of whom appeared in Edinburgh late their careers. Rising stars of post-war Europe, such as

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2436-477: The festival. In the early years, Glyndebourne fulfilled this role, bringing two productions a year between 1947 and 1951. Hamburg took over in 1952, with no less than six productions. Glyndebourne returned from 1953 to 1955, now with three operas each year, with Hamburg coming again in 1956 with four productions. During the second decade (1957–1966), Edinburgh received a series of different opera companies, starting with La Scala (Piccola Scala) , and continuing with

2494-404: The festival. Leading conductors who performed in the city at that time included Otto Klemperer , Ernest Ansermet , Georg Solti , Carlo Maria Giulini , Yevgeny Mravinsky , István Kertész , Bernard Haitink , George Szell and Leopold Stokowski . During the third decade (1967-1976) a new group of artists came to Edinburgh, many of whom would dominate music for the rest of the century and into

2552-470: The first festival director, the distinguished Austrian-born impresario Rudolf Bing , it had a broadly-based programme, covering orchestral, choral and chamber music, Lieder and song, opera, ballet, drama, film, and Scottish 'piping and dancing' on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle , a structure that was followed in subsequent years. The Festival has taken place every year since 1947, except for 2020 when it

2610-646: The first time since 1552 in the Assembly Hall on the Mound. The work was revived in 1948. 1949, 1951, 1959 and 1973. Companies came from all over the world, and with increasing frequency. In the first decade (1947–1956), from France, Italy and Canada, in the second (1957–1966), from France, Italy, Greece, Russia, and Poland, and in the third (1967–1976), from the USA, Sweden, Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany, Italy, Romania, Japan, Belgium, and Switzerland. Notable groups included

2668-401: The first year of its operation (although not known as such at the beginning), and has since grown to be the world's largest arts and media festival. The Edinburgh International Film Festival also began in August 1947 with a programme of documentary films. In the 1990s this festival moved into June. The 1966 Writers' Festival begun by John Calder , Richard Demarco , Jim Haynes , founders of

2726-524: The next. They included conductors like Pierre Boulez , Colin Davis , Claudio Abbado , Kurt Masur , Zubin Mehta , Riccardo Muti , and Daniel Barenboim (who also often appeared as a pianist) and soloists like the pianists Claudio Arrau , Alfred Brendel , Murray Perahia , and Marta Argerich , and the string players Jacqueline du Pré and Itzhak Perlman . In addition an outstanding group of Soviet artists included

2784-557: The operatic universe in autocratic fashion, nurturing young artists and cutting superstars down to size with equal enthusiasm. He oversaw the abandonment in 1966 of the stately but somewhat dilapidated old Metropolitan Opera House [which he then had razed] and the construction of a grand monument to his regime, the building the company now occupies, which dominates Lincoln Center. His conservative musical and dramatic bent, preference for Italian opera and concern for theatrical values yielded an identifiable artistic legacy." During Bing's tenure

2842-545: The pianist Sviatoslav Richter , cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich , violinists David Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan , and the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya . The founders of the Edinburgh Festival had been closely connected with the Glyndebourne Opera and from the beginning opera was an important part of the programme. The city did not have, and still does not have, ideal facilities for creating original staged opera productions, so guest companies were invited to

2900-781: The rise of Nazi Germany , the Bings moved to the United Kingdom , where, in 1946, he became a naturalised British subject. There, together with Fritz Busch and Carl Ebert , he helped to found the Glyndebourne Festival Opera . After the war in 1947, he co-founded and was the first director of the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland . In 1949, he moved to the United States , and became General Manager of

2958-592: The roles she would sing. Bing invited Callas to return to the Met for two performances of Tosca in 1965, the year that turned out to be her final season in opera. After leaving the Met, Bing wrote two books of memoirs, 5000 Nights at the Opera (1972) and A Knight at the Opera (1981). While living in Berlin, Bing married the Russian ballerina Nina Schelemskaya-Schlesnaya in 1928. They remained together until her death in 1983. They had no children. In January 1987, when Bing

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3016-467: The shattered and impoverished centres for many years to come, was anxious to consider and investigate the possibility of staging such a Festival somewhere in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1946. He was convinced and he convinced my colleagues and myself that such an enterprise, successfully conducted, might at this moment of European time, be of more than temporary significance and might establish in Britain

3074-654: The third decade (1967–1976), Edinburgh Festival Opera were prominent performers, together with the Glasgow -based Scottish Opera . Meanwhile, the tradition of inviting guest companies continued with the German companies Deutsche Oper Berlin , Deutsche Oper am Rhein , Hamburg State Opera , and Frankfurt Municipal Opera , the Italian companies Teatro Comunale, Florence and Teatro Massimo, Palermo , as well as National Theatre, Prague , Hungarian State Opera , and Royal Opera, Stockholm and

3132-473: Was a mistake. He fostered the careers of many American artists. Roberta Peters , Leontyne Price , Anna Moffo , Sherrill Milnes , and Jess Thomas are just a few that flourished during his time. Bing is also remembered for his stormy relationship with the era's most famous soprano, Maria Callas . After hiring her for the Met with a debut as Norma on opening night in 1956, he famously canceled her contract in 1958 when they could not come to terms regarding

3190-564: Was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . A scaled-back version of the festival was held in 2021. The idea of a Festival with a remit to "provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit" and enrich the cultural life of Scotland, Britain and Europe took form in the wake of the Second World War . The idea of creating an international festival within the UK was first conceived by Rudolf Bing ,

3248-429: Was first financed by Lord Rosebery with the £10,000 winnings of his horse Ocean Swell that won the only two major horse-races run in wartime including the Jockey Club Cup in 1944. This sum was matched by Edinburgh Town Council and then some money in turn was matched by the Arts Council of Great Britain under the chairmanship of John Maynard Keynes . Bing also co-founded the Festival with Henry Harvey Wood , Head of

3306-418: Was inaugurated at the festival with performances of The Sleeping Beauty with Margot Fonteyn , Robert Helpmann and the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company at the Empire Theatre . They returned in subsequent years, together with companies including the Ballets des Champs-Élysées from Paris, American National Ballet Theatre from New York, the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas (Le Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo),

3364-435: Was suffering from Alzheimer's disease , he married Carroll Douglass, a 45-year-old woman with a history of mental illness, who then took him, in violation of a court order, on a 10-month-long excursion to Florida, then Anguilla , and eventually to Italy and the United Kingdom, where she had sought to buy Rolls-Royce automobiles and a helicopter to give to the Pope , for whom she had a fixation. The couple were found living in

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