La Strada turns the city of Graz and the surrounding area into a grand theater

Opening with Christian Mothspiel

However, the festival will open on July 29 (7.30 pm) at the Graz Opera. “We asked Christian Mothspiel for a tune for our anniversary,” said coach Werner Schrempf. “It became more than just a melody,” says Styrian jazz pianist, composer, conductor and trombonist Mothspiel. He composed the composition “La Melodia della Strada”, in which he was inspired by Federico Fellini’s artistic philosophy.

“It is a collective tribute to the world of Fellini and Nino Rota, which arose from the atmosphere of films,” Mothspiel said on Wednesday, reviewing nine months of intense involvement with the Italian director’s films. He will conduct the premiere of the resulting composition himself and will bring it to the stage twice with the Vienna Orjazztra.

Art in the city

After the second show, on July 31, under the auspices of the main sponsor Steiermärkische Sparkasse, a “Festival of Art” will take place around the opera house with acrobatics, dance, music and hospitality from local gastronomy, such as Diana Brus, commercial director of the festival. Until August 6, the squares, gardens, inner courtyards, shopping center and fountains in Graz were in the hands of local and international artists such as Leandre Clown (Spain), Dries Verhoeven (Netherlands), Circus Ronaldo from Italy, Barcode Circus Campany (Canada) or Follow the Rabbit from Graz. Starting July 30, the latter will proclaim “Fear of Women in the Dark” as their slogan and invite you to his piece in a park with a pond near an electric power plant in the Gostings neighborhood. With their play “Qui vive”, the French group Adhok lures people into a large new apartment complex in the west of the city (also from July 30).