For the past 24 years, culture enthusiasts anticipate the Madrid Fall Festival, or Festival de Otoño (www.madrid.org/fo2007/en/elfestival.html), which is organized by the culture and tourism council for the Madrid region. The formality of the city -- and the passing of brutal summer temperatures -- makes it a natural location to celebrate some of the most refined of artistic forms. More than 140 dance, theater and musical performances will take place throughout the city for five weeks, from October 15-November 18. The festival's line-up is a thoughtful mix of classical texts and styles along with newer or modern renderings and forms.
Artists and performers from more than 13 countries will be in attendance, and the list really runs the gamut to include the incomparable Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso, who will present Cê, a work he wrote and will sing entirely in Portuguese; experimental French rock group Nosfell, and a top-notch modern music orchestra, Ensemble Modern. Audiences will be treated to the Spanish premiere of Book of Longing, in which Leonard Cohen's poetry is put to music composed by the versatile yet singular Philip Glass; it's presented with an ensemble, and with singers, spoken word and imagery. Theater lovers can witness pieces from Michael Ondaatje, Samuel Beckett and Molière, and ballet enthusiasts can be treated to companies from Britain, France, Japan, Spain and Belgium. The whole thing kicks off with the Spanish premiere from Oscar-winning composer Nicola Piovani's Concerto Fotogramma. You say you've never heard of him? Well, if you've seen the Fellini film Intervista, or more recently, the 2000 film Life is Beautiful, you've heard his work. It may help you to have familiarity with multiple languages, but anyone who has responded to the crooning of Veloso, for example, knows it's not essential. Art can speak to you to you even if you can't completely understand what it's saying.
Even though the festival starts in less than a week, visitors should not anticipate any trouble finding a hotel room, as the city has increased its number of rooms in past four years; the region itself, too, has seen a tremendous expansion in its metro and suburban rail capacity. According to tourism promotion officials, recommended stays include the recently restored Palace Hotel (which is a Westin), the AC Santo Mauro, which is housed in the former residence of the Duke of Santo Mauro. Other noteworthy properties to investigate include the contemporary-styled Hotel Urban, along with the reliable Hotel Ritz, which tourism officers call "the old standby for sophisticated travelers." While most of these properties are more upscale and pricey, there are plenty of options for the budget traveler; these options were updated earlier this year in another story on Frommers.com. If you're interested in exploring the performances taking place outside the city, seven venues in nine municipalities of the Madrid region are involved, including but not limited to Getafe, Alcala de Henares, La Cabrera, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, and Tres Cantos.
While you are in Madrid, in between performance perhaps check out the $208 million expansion of the Prado Museum (https://museoprado.mcu.es/ihome.html), which opens October 31 with a special exhibit highlighting its collection of 19th century works from Francisco Goya and Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, among others. On the day after the festival wraps up, considering sticking around for a couple more days, as a show by artist Velasquez Fables of Velasquez will start on November 19 and run through February 24, 2008.
I forgot to mention the circus: Acrobats from the Stardust Circus Company, based in the Netherlands, will hang, catapault, twist and contort themselves from in the Spanish premiere of ?Piratas, Piratas! Yes, that's right -- acrobatic pirates.
For more information about Spanish tourism, visit www.spain.info or call tel. 212/265-8822.
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