Edinburgh International festival director Nicola Benedetti has framed her first festival with the question: “Where do we go from here?” A question, she explained in a short speech before the opening concert, that she believes has helped the event refocus and develop an artistic programme centred on “dialogue and shared points of experience”.
There could hardly have been a better piece to open this year’s festival, then, than Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion (2018), receiving its Scottish premiere. The work’s key message – that truth and interdependency are the basis for a harmonious world – resonates closely with the ethos of Benedetti’s vision.
