Michael Douglas launches festival

Michael Douglas was back in Majorca yesterday, to present the summer music festival which will be held in the Costa Nord cultural centre of Valldemossa, which he has set up. The festival, which will be called Noches Mediterráneas or Mediterranean Nights, will run from June to September and artists taking part will include Carmen Linares, Philip Glass, Michel Camilo, Tomatito and Maria del Mar Bonet. The Hollywood superstar was accompanied by Enrique Rubio, the festival's artistic director. The festival has a budget of 55 million pesetas and will be held in the small auditorium at the cultural centre, which has seating for 340 spectators. Rubio, a producer specialising in flamenco and classical music, said that the Costa Nord centre, which was opened on March 30, was an ideal place for the type of show which would have a special meeting for Valldemossa. The festival will be opened by flamenco singer Carmen Linares on June 2. Her repertoire includes popular songs compiled by the poet Federico Garcia Lorca. She will be followed by pianist David Peña “Dorantes,” raised in the flamenco tradition, who, with a group of eight instrumentalists will perform works from his record Orobrioy. The third concert will be given by American composer Philip Glass, who will play his own compositions at the piano. Douglas underlined “the tremendous imagination” of Glass, who has composed the soundtrack for various films. He predicted that this will be “a magnificent concert.” Pianist Uri Caine, accompanied by a group of nine musicians, will perform the version of Bach's Goldberg Variations which he presented in the Salzburg Festival, and in which he combines elements such as Afro-American percussion, improvisation and negro spirituals. The mixture of various styles will continue with Dominican jazz pianist Michel Camilo and flamenco guitarist Tomatito, who will perform the innovative fusion sounds which can be heard on their record Spain.