Danube Fest dedicated to centenary of World War I

BELGRADE - The fourth iteration of Danube Fest, a festival of Danubian culture, will be held in Belgrade on September 5-14, commemorating the centenary of the outbreak of World War I.

Inspired by a 1937 film by the famous French director and screenwriter Jean Renoir, the event will be held under the motto "The Great Illusion."

The film carries a strong anti-war message and highlights the illusion of conflict, war and everything that war itself brings, the chairman of the festival's artistic council, renowned theatre director Nebojsa Bradic, has told Tanjug.

The council, which also includes opera singer Katarina Jovanovic and celebrated film artist Goran Markovic, decided that the festival should focus on Serbian-French ties during the Great War.

Music accounts for most of this year's festival programme, because the music of the WWI period - European music in particular - was very characteristic of its era, and some of the leading 20th century composers gave their take on war, either by actively participating in war or by actively fighting against it, Bradic said.

"We dedicate the concert to French composers who served in the military - such as Maurice Ravel, who was a driver during the war - but created exciting music in which we sense the drama, see scenes from the frontline and relive scenes of sorrow and remembrance," he said.

The concert, titled The Music of French Authors and the Great War, will open the festival at Belgrade's Kalemegdan Fortress on September 5, with compositions by Ravel, Debussy and Poulenc to be performed by prominent Serbian musicians - soprano Katarina Jovanovic, pianist Dejan Sinadinovic and the Loncar-Pavlovic piano duet.

Bradic said that he is confident that...