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From Iceland to Spain, our choices for the best music this summer. For tips on booking last-minute tickets, see Strategies.
Prague Spring 2006 (May 11June 3; 420-296/333-333; www.festival.cz). The venerable festival celebrates Mozart's 250th birthday with opera, chamber music, and symphonies, including Zubin Mehta leading the Vienna Philharmonic in a performance of the Prague Symphony, which premiered in the city in 1787. Maxim Shostakovich marks his father's centennial by conducting the composer's Symphony No. 5 and Cello Concerto No. 1.
Festival d'Avignon (July 627; www.festival-avignon.com). This historic city comes alive each summer with some 40 theater and dance productions. The 60th edition features Eric Lacascade directing Maxim Gorky's The Barbarians; the equestrian theater group Zingaro presenting Battuba; and several world premieres, including Hungarian choreographer Josef Nadj's Asobu, based upon the hallucinatory writings of Henri Michaux. Performances take place in the Court of Honor of the Pope's Palace.
Festival d'Aix-en-Provence (July 222; 33-4/42-17-34-34; www.festival-aix.com). From the festival's inception in 1948, Mozart's music has served as one inspiration, and this summer Aix pays tribute to the composer with a coproduction of The Magic Flute by the Vienna Festival and the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg. Also featured: Don Quixote rubbing elbows with Pierrot and figures from Russian folktales in works by de Falla, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera (May 19August 27; 44-1273/813-813; www.glyndebourne.com). In the English countryside, Mozart is celebrated with director Nicholas Hytner's new production of Così Fan Tutte. The remarkable Emmanuelle Haïm conducts Handel's masterpiece Giulio Cesare, staged by David McVicar.
Edinburgh International Festival (August 13September 3; 44-131/473-2099; www.eif.co.uk). Legendary director Peter Stein brings his vision to Shakespeare's Trojan play, Troilus and Cressida; the Suzanne Farrell Ballet Company stages Balanchine's Don Quixote; and Scottish composer Stuart MacRae debuts his new opera at this festival where the unexpected is the rule.
Reykjaviák Arts Festival (May 12June 2; 354/552-8588; www.artfest.is). Springtime in Iceland finds Garrison Keillor broadcasting A Prairie Home Companion from the capital city, the Brazilian dance troupe Grupo Corpo performing, and two operas receiving their Icelandic premieres: Carl Maria von Weber's romantic masterwork Der Freischütz and Joseph-Guy-Marie Ropartz's rarely produced Le Pays, about a French sailor who is shipwrecked off the Icelandic coast and falls for a local girl.
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (April 30June 23; 39-0424/464-191; www.maggiofiorentino.com). Music director Zubin Mehta conducts a new production of Verdi's Falstaff, while the festival's dance troupe, Maggio Danza, presents German choreographer Reinhild Hoffman's Callas, dance theater exploring the late opera star's conflict between her public success and private life. Led by Lorin Maazel, the New York Philharmonic performs a program of Berlioz , Brahms, and Kodály.
Holland Festival (June 225; 31-20/788-2100; www.hollandfestival.nl). A giant tank of water plays a dramatic role in German choreographer Sasha Waltz's version of Purcell's opera Dido & Aeneas, about the shipwrecked Trojan prince's tragic affair with the queen of Carthage. Also, Kabuki superstar Ebizo XI performs a samurai tale of love, murder, and revenge; at venues throughout Amsterdam.
Granada International Festival of Dance and Music (June 23July 9; www.granadafestival.org). Superb architectural settings—the Generalife and the Palace of Charles V in the Alhambra—lend their grace to a lively mix, including Mozart's early opera Mitridate, concerts by the English Baroque Soloists, and Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras, whose moves and fiery footwork usher the Andalusian art form into the modern era.
Lucerne Festival (August 10September 17; 41-41/226-4400; www.lucernefestival.ch). Opening night features Claudio Abbado leading the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, accompanying mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli in arias by Mozart. Subsequent offerings in the star-studded lineup include Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony, and concerts by the Cleveland Orchestra.
Verbier Festival & Academy (July 21August 6; 41-27/771-8282; www.verbierfestival.com). A pristine Alpine village is the backdrop for musical performances, including violinist Joshua Bell's recital in Verbier Church, and James Levine leading the festival orchestra and soloists and chorus in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
—Leslie Camhi
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