k2 is here to give you the lowdown on upcoming art and culture happenings around the Centrope region.
But we’re surrounded by an ever more dazzling array of activities, a comprehensive review of which would easily fill a whole book: 2011 brings Pink Floyd to Prague, Daniel Lanois to the Brno jazz festival, Klimt and El Greco masterpieces to Budapest as well as Picasso and Fauvism to Bratislava. Sir Neville Marriner conducts Haydn in Eisenstadt, a Nurejew gala by the State Opera Ballet premieres in Vienna, “Orfeo ed Euridice” plays at St. Pölten’s Festspielhaus. La la la Human Steps and Marie Chouinard will perform at the “ImPulsTanz” festival, Anne Sophie Mutter in Grafenegg, and Jan Bosse’s “Lulu” will open at the Burgtheater; Vienna’s Albertina will feature Roy Lichtenstein, Max Weiler, and René Magritte; the highlight at Wiener Kunsthalle is Salvadore Dalí. A Madame Tussauds wax museum is opening in Vienna. Hieronymus Bosch and gelitin are juxtaposed at Kunstmeile Krems. And there are overarching series of events: Liszt and Mahler are the brightest stars on the 2011 anniversary calendar. Daniel Barenboim, Elisabeth Leonskaja, and Adrian Eröd will stage pieces of the former, and Vienna’s Musikverein, State Opera, and Konzerthaus will celebrate the latter. Schiele shines just as bright – the Leopold Museum and Vienna’s Belvedere will host exhibitions of his works, the Schiele Museum will reopen in Tulln. The Romans in Carnuntum are the focus of Lower Austria’s Landesausstellung … there’s no end in sight – but why do we need a comprehensive list? Because it would show that the sum, i.e. Centropian culture, is more than its parts? Or to find the one event that will blow your mind – and sum up more than a regional perspective? That would fill another book …
