The 60th Ljubljana Festival gets its diamond jubilee underway with a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic under the prestigious baton of Sir Simon Rattle.

Among the highlights of this year's special anniversary summer festival are certain to be the hosting of Belgrade's Atelje 212 with 'The Glembays' and Boris Cavazza in the leading role, the premiere of 'Love Capital', an opera by Jani Golob, a concert by violinist Vadim Repin and by famous composer and pianist Michael Nyman (among others, he composed the music for the three-Oscar-winning film The Piano), a visit by the Béjart Ballet from Lausanne, soprano Inva Mula and baritone Leo Nucci at a concert of operatic arias and conductor Valerij Gergijev with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra from St Petersburg. The popular musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar' comes over from London's West End, while the stage at Križanke plays host once again to Edward Clug with his latest choreographic creation 'Hommage à Stravinsky'. Ljubljana Festival's diamond jubilee concludes on 13 September 2012 with Medea by Tomaž Pandur.

A small portion of this year's festival atmosphere moves down to the coast. The Smolny Choir put on a performance of Russian folk and spiritual music in Piran's St George's Church on Sunday 29 July.

The 60th Ljubljana Festival's diamond jubilee programme can be found at the following link.

 

To the Festival by train

This year, it is also possible to travel to Ljubljana summer festival in style and comfort on a Slovenian Railways train, official rail carrier of Ljubljana Festival 2012. Upon purchasing a ticket for an event at Ljubljana Festival 2012 at a Slovenian Railways Info Centre in Ljubljana, Celje or Maribor, rail travel to it is 50% cheaper.

Until 16 September 2012, it is also possible to get home from a summer event with additional night trains, leaving Ljubljana for Maribor at 00.50, and leaving Maribor for Ljubljana at 01.10. Under the current timetable, Slovenian Railways also runs trains at night to certain other towns.