PICK OF THE DAY
DANCE Phaedra/minotaur
A double bill bringing together opera and theatre director Deborah Warner and choreographer Kim Brandstrup, Phaedra/minotaur is an evening of music and dance inspired by Greek myth. Phaedra was Benjamin Britten’s final vocal work, and the story of a woman’s lust for her stepson is sung here by mezzo soprano Christine Rice – a performance that has earned her an Olivier nomination – accompanied by pianist Richard Hetherington. In Minotaur, choreographed by Brandstrup, we meet Phaedra’s sister Ariadne, her lover Theseus, and the Minotaur. Lyceum Theatre, tonight and tomorrow, 8.30pm, and tomorrow and 20 August, 3pm, www.eif.co.uk
OPERA The Threepenny Opera
It’s a big night at the International Festival, as it also features the UK premiere for the Berliner Ensemble’s new version of the hugely influential satire about capitalism, love and betrayal, which was first performed in Berlin in 1928 and written by Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann with music by Kurt Weill. It’s a production with impeccable credentials: the Berliner Ensemble were founded by Brecht himself, and the director of this production, Barrie Kosky, is a former artistic director of Komische Oper Berlin.
Festival Theatre, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm and 20 August, 5pm, www.eif.co.uk
MUSIC Matthew Herbert
The concept of this concert – make music from a horse’s skeleton – sounds like Fringe oddity, but in fact this is a prestigious, large-scale new work for which composer Matthew Herbert has made flutes from thigh bones, fashioned bows out of horse hair and made strings from sinew. Herbert’s horsing around
– sorry – will be accompanied by the London Contemporary Orchestra.
Queen’s Hall, 8pm, www.eif.co.uk