Pick of the Fringe 2005

10 April 2012

From exuberant dance to a crazed Nutcracker, our critics take their pick of pop, dance, opera and film at this year's festival...

BASEMENT JAXX
(Corn Exchange, 28 Aug)
Glastonbury's surprise headliners bring their exuberant dance pop to a significantly smaller venue, although the carnival vibe will be the same.

THE CORAL
(Liquid Room, 28 Aug)
Not long after playing the stadiums with Oasis, an intimate set for the Merseyside experimentalists.

FRANZ FERDINAND
(Princes Street Gardens, 30 and 31 Aug)
Previewing new material over two nights will be Scotland's latest heroes, whose second, self-titled album is due later this year.

PIXIES, IDLEWILD, TEENAGE FANCLUB
(Meadowbank Stadium, 30 Aug)
T on the Fringe's biggest show features two muchloved local acts and alt.rock giants the Pixies, who have just announced plans to record their first album in 14 years.

REGINA SPEKTOR
(Cabaret Voltaire, 23 Aug)
Supercool Strokes associate (left) who works wonders at the piano. Get near the front so you can actually see the diminutive seated singer.

CLASSICAL/OPERA

LA CLEMENZA DI TITO
(Usher Hall, 16 Aug)
Mozart's last opera, with a superb cast that includes Czech mezzosoprano Magdalena Kozená and British tenor Ian Bostridge. Charles Mackerras conducts.

BELCEA QUARTET
(Queen's Hall, 18 Aug)
Superfine young foursome play quartets by Haydn, Beethoven and Schoenberg.

THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER
(Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 23-29 Aug)
John Adams's opera, about the 1985 hijacking by Palestinian terrorists of a cruise ship, has never been more relevant. A Scottish Opera production.

BAMBERG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
(Usher Hall, 29 Aug-3 Sep)
The German orchestra, under Jonathan Nott, takes up residency in Usher Hall for five concerts that include everything from Wagner to Ligeti, Bruckner to Ravel.

DANCE

PENNSYLVANIA BALLET/SWAN LAKE
(Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 15-19 Aug)
A Swan Lake about Swan Lake is the best way of describing Christopher Wheeldon's new take on the classic ballet: he has a troupe rehearsing the Tchaikovsky classic. This is the first of the big, old shows that the Royal Ballet-trained, New York City Ballet-based wÃ¼nderkind has choreographed, and there's much interest in what he makes of it.

THE BANG GROUP NUT/CRACKED
(Demarco Roxy Art House, 22-27 Aug)
The American troupe recasts the Christmas ballet as a neo-vaudeville riot. "The Nutcracker on crack" is how the New York Times put it.

DUTCH NATIONAL BALLET/MIXED BILL
(Edinburgh Playhouse, 1-3 Sep)
The glorious dancers of Dutc National Ballet close the Festival with a programme including Balanchine's La Valse (to Ravel), Jerome Robbins's The Concert (to Chopin) and The Grey Area by young-ish British choreographer David Dawson (to Niels Lanz).

RUSSIAN COSSACK STATE DANCE COMPANY/COSSACK PASSION
(George Square Theatre, 5-27 Aug)
With acrobatic moves and rousing music and song, the Russian Cossack company is the dance event of the Festival Fringe.

SCOTTISH BALLET DANCES BALANCHINE
(Edinburgh Playhouse, 26-28 Aug)
The Scottish national troupe takes on the master dance-maker in a mixed bill featuring Apollo, Episodes and Rubies. All dazzling stuff, although it's the witty, jazzy Rubies, with its jogs and irreverent gestures, that you don't want to miss.

FILM

ASYLUM
Ian McKellen and Natasha Richardson are brilliant in David Mackenzie's gothic adaptation of John McGrath's frightening bestseller.

THE BEAT MY HEART STOPPED
Highly praised French remake of James Toback's classic thriller. Could be one of the key European films of the year.

FATELESS
Moving Hungarian Holocaust drama taken from the novel by survivor Imre Kertész. In many ways better than Schindler's List.

GYPO
Surprising Jan Dunn debut from Kent, hailed as the first British Dogme feature, about the working class, asylum seekers and trouble just around the corner.

STONED
Steve Woolley's film about Brian Jones, the Stones' doomed genius.

MORE ABOUT

Ballet

Classical Music Composers

Festive Events (including Carnivals)

Opera

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pick of the Fringe 2005

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