2 festive cities celebrate
There was an indefinable feeling of triumph in the air as dignitaries spoke to 1,000 spectators fanning themselves in the noon heat outside Charleston City Hall for the Spoleto Festival USA's 32nd opening.
Two mayors of cities across the globe from one another stood smiling with their clasped hands raised together in victory, signifying the reaffirmation of the Sister City Partnership between Charleston and Spoleto, Italy.
Digital cameras snapped, with an Italian delegation from Spoleto focused on Charleston Mayor Joe Riley and Spoleto Mayor Massimo Brunini. The two men had achieved their goal: to reunite Charleston's Spoleto Festival USA, running through June 8, and Spoleto's Festival of Two Worlds to take place later in the month. They signed their reaffirmation at the podium, and Riley will venture to Spoleto, Italy, with a Charleston delegation to sign the Italian side of the agreement. The two festivals will begin sharing talent and productions in 2009, although each will fund their own festivals.
Brunini said through an interpreter, "I wish to express much appreciation to Spoleto (Festival USA) General Director Nigel Redden and to Giorgio Ferrara the new artistic director of the Festival of Two Worlds, for starting this process many months ago."
He added, "We are different entities, but we will now work together to have exchanges on the national and international levels, and this also represents a strengthening between the United States and Italy."
Eric Friberg, chairman of the Spoleto Festival USA board, praised the decision and noted that without the support of Riley and the Charleston City Council that the Spoleto Festival would not exist.
"This is not merely a ceremonial event," Riley said. "Rather, it is necessary for us to feel complete. And now our family is back together."
The mayor referred to the 1977 founding of the Spoleto Festival USA by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who in 1958 also had founded the Festival of Two Worlds. Both comprehensive arts festivals feature 17 days of opera, music, dance and theater.
Although declared Sister Cities in 1983, the two cities had ceased sharing festival components in 1993, when, in a dispute over money, Menotti broke with the Spoleto Festival's board. But a rapprochement was set in motion by the death in 2007 of Gian Carlo Menotti.
The festival also had a second reason to rejoice this year: A $6 million renovation of the Memminger Auditorium was inaugurated Thursday with a performance of the opera "Amistad."
A member of the advisory team for the renovation, Kendra Hamilton, the vice mayor of Charlottesville, Va., and a Charleston native, told of how Redden had included an artist's vision into restoring Memminger to its original purpose.
"Last night, as I looked around at the place where hundreds of basketball games had been played, and graduation ceremonies held, I felt Memminger had come back to life," Hamilton said.
As a blast of confetti swirled around the makeshift stage, acrobats from the performance "Monkey: Journey to the West" contorted their bodies into amazing positions and slashed at each other in lightning-like sword play.
But beforehand, for the 32nd time, Riley's traditional festival-opening words rang out: "Let the music begin, the dancers dance, the orchestras play, and the banners fly. Let the festival begin."
Reach Dottie Ashley at 937-5704 or dashley@postandcourier.com.
