On Sunday 24 August 1947, the first Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama opened with a service of praise in St Giles' Cathedral, the Mother Kirk of Scottish Presbyterianism. Present at this ‘civic service of inauguration’ were members of the local authority, Edinburgh Corporation, dressed in their ermine-trimmed robes, ministers of the Church of Scotland, members of the Episcopal and Free churches, civic leaders from around Scotland, representatives of law, medicine and the arts, and all ‘distinguished visitors known to be in the City at that time’. This ceremony officially opened the new festival with hymns, prayers and a blessing, as well as what a critic for The Times described as music of the English Renaissance (Hubert Parry's I Was Glad, normally used in royal coronations, and Ralph Vaughan Williams's Te Deum). This, he wrote, ‘matched in sound the ocular splendour of official uniforms and academic robes’. The inaugural opening concert was performed by L'Orchestre des Concerts Colonne, while the full programme served up a rich feast of European high culture: the Halle, Jacques, Liverpool Philharmonic and BBC Scottish orchestras were all represented; there was chamber music, morning concerts, recitals of Scottish song, and the Glyndebourne Opera presenting Macbeth and Le nozze di Figaro. Sadler's Wells Ballet presented The Sleeping Beauty, and drama lovers could see the Old Vic doing The Taming of the Shrew and Richard II as well as La Compagnie Jouvet de Théâtre de L'Athénée performing L'École des femmes and Giraudoux.