Musikfestspiele › Topic

13. until 29. June 2014

Mediterranean Sea

dream and reality

The Mediterranean region has always been an area for cultures to meet and converge. From the Phoenicians to the Byzantines, from the Spaniards and the Turkish people to the Italians: all of them have distinctly influenced the Mediterranean region with their cultures, their religions and of course their musical styles. Somehow there has always been this inspiring spark between political hotspots and the flair of an azure blue sea, olives, islands and oranges.

In 2014 Potsdam celebrates 60 years of Music Festivals in the Palaces and Gardens of Sanssouci.  The Roman Baths, the Sicilian Garden or the Marble Palace in the New Garden all tell the story of Potsdam dreaming of the South. In 1786 Prussian King 1786 appointed Luigi Boccherini »compositeur de notre chambre« creating a resounding link between Lucca, Madrid and Potsdam.

The Music Festival Potsdam Sanssouci presents more than 60 concerts, operas, open air events or the bicycle concert and so the sibyls and the sirens sing together about the sea as the cradle of cultures - from antiquity to the Arab spring and from tarantellas to rebetika. Orangery Palace Sanssouci is turned into the garden of the Hesperides and Potsdam's Island of Friendship becomes the island of Cythera just as Watteau painted it. Fascinating Mediterranean.