Aspendos Festival marks 20th anniversary with Gala concert

Turkey's annual Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival opened its 20th edition on Sunday evening with a gala concert by the Antalya State Opera and Ballet Orchestra, headed by world-famous Argentine operatic tenor and conductor José Cura. The orchestra, soloists and Cura received a lengthy standing ovation at the end of the concert from the audience, who were treated to a program dedicated in its entirety to works by Giuseppe Verdi -- the Italian Romantic composer whose 200th anniversary of birth is being marked around the world throughout the year. Organized by the Ankara-based State Opera and Ballet Directorate General (DOBGM), the Aspendos festival each summer brings a small but impressive selection from the staples of the world's opera and ballet repertoire to the historic Roman theater of Aspendos near Antalya."Art is the sole legacy to be left to next generations," said Rengim Gokmen, DOBGM director-general and one of Turkey's best known orchestra conductors, in his opening speech Sunday night as he launched the 2013 festival's six-concert program that runs until June 22. The second performance on the bill, scheduled for Wednesday night, is the world premiere of a ballet piece called "Aspendos Yuzyilların Aski" (Aspendos: The Love of Centuries), by Turkish composer Hasan Niyazi Tura, to be performed by the Antalya State Opera and Ballet. "Aida," Verdi's world-famous grand opera that has been a fixture of the festival's program since its beginning, will be this year performed by the National Theater Brno from the Czech Republic, with music by the Ankara State Opera and Ballet Orchestra. The performance is set for June 12. It will be followed by "Rigoletto," another opera by Verdi, to be staged on June 15 by the Ankara State Opera. The Istanbul State Opera and Ballet will present its production of the Tchaikovsky classic "Swan Lake" on June 19, and the program will close with "Carmen," Georges Bizet's opera in four acts, to be performed on June 22 by the Mersin State Opera. All performances at the festival begin at 9 p.m. For tickets, visit the DOBGM website www.dobgm.gov.tr.