Aix-en-Provence Festival
Encyclopedia
The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival
which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence
, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.
, and six further concerts and recitals in various locations throughout the town. An opera was added to these concerts, Mozart
's Così fan tutte
, a work practically unknown by the French public at the time. However, it was not until 1949 that the festival became a success with its production of Don Giovanni
.
From inception until 1974, the festival was directed by Gabriel Dussorget who devoted much attention to the artistic and detailed aspects of the productions, which in turn attracted much attention to the festival.
Under the direction of Bernard Lefort from 1974 to 1982, the Festival became devoted to bel canto
opera and, in general, a celebration of the voice. Performances of 19th century operas by Verdi
and Donizetti
were given by the reigning stars of bel canto such as Montserrat Caballé
, José Carreras
, Marilyn Horne
, and Katia Ricciarelli
, and the Festival spread throughout the town.
From 1982, a broadening of the repertoire to include baroque to modern operas (Britten
and Prokofiev
, in particular) characterized the era of director Louis Erlo, who gave preference to Mozart by staging new productions of his most famous works, but also the early operas written in the composer's youth.
In 1998 Stéphane Lissner took over the Festival, accomplishing a complete renovation of the Théâtre de l'Archevêché
and thus making it the heart of the Festival. New operas were commissioned, most recently the 2005 production of Julie
by the Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans
, based on Strindberg
's Miss Julie
.
In 2006, it featured concerts and operas as well as master classes. These included Wagner
's Das Rheingold
conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
with Sir Willard White
as Wotan; Mozart's The Magic Flute
, conducted by Daniel Harding
; Rossini
's The Italian Girl in Algiers
; the Berlin Philharmonic
playing Mahler
's 5th Symphony
; and Pierre Boulez
, conducting and on the piano and works by Henry Purcell
.
Performances are given in a variety of locations, including:
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence
Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...
, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.
Establishment
The first festival took place in July 1948. It was made up of three or four concerts in the cour de l'Archevêché, a concert in the Saint-Sauveur cathedralCathédrale Saint-Sauveur d'Aix
Aix Cathedral in Aix-en-Provence in southern France is a Roman Catholic cathedral and the seat of the Archbishop of Aix. It is built on the site of the 1st century Roman forum of Aix...
, and six further concerts and recitals in various locations throughout the town. An opera was added to these concerts, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, a work practically unknown by the French public at the time. However, it was not until 1949 that the festival became a success with its production of Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
.
From inception until 1974, the festival was directed by Gabriel Dussorget who devoted much attention to the artistic and detailed aspects of the productions, which in turn attracted much attention to the festival.
Under the direction of Bernard Lefort from 1974 to 1982, the Festival became devoted to bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
opera and, in general, a celebration of the voice. Performances of 19th century operas by Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
and Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
were given by the reigning stars of bel canto such as Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi....
, José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
, Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
, and Katia Ricciarelli
Katia Ricciarelli
-Biography:Born at Rovigo, Veneto, to a very poor family, she struggled during her younger years when she studied music.She studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, won several vocal competitions in 1968, and made her professional debut as Mimì in La bohème in Mantua in 1969,...
, and the Festival spread throughout the town.
From 1982, a broadening of the repertoire to include baroque to modern operas (Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
and Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, in particular) characterized the era of director Louis Erlo, who gave preference to Mozart by staging new productions of his most famous works, but also the early operas written in the composer's youth.
In 1998 Stéphane Lissner took over the Festival, accomplishing a complete renovation of the Théâtre de l'Archevêché
Théâtre de l'Archevêché
The Théâtre de l'Archevêché is a theatre in Aix-en-Provence in southern France and the home of the annual summer Aix-en-Provence Festival of opera.-External links:*...
and thus making it the heart of the Festival. New operas were commissioned, most recently the 2005 production of Julie
Julie (opera)
Julie is a one-act chamber opera written by the Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans who is composer-in-residence of the Brussels opera house, La Monnaie...
by the Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans
Philippe Boesmans
-Life:Boesmans was born in Tongeren and studied piano at the Conservatory in Liège, where he was also introduced to serial composing techniques by Pierre Froidebise. However, it was only after coming into contact with the "Liège Group" in 1957 that he began to write music, as a self-taught composer...
, based on Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
's Miss Julie
Miss Julie
Miss Julie is a naturalistic play written in 1888 by August Strindberg dealing with class, love, lust, the battle of the sexes, and the interaction among them...
.
In 2006, it featured concerts and operas as well as master classes. These included Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
with Sir Willard White
Willard White
Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE is a Jamaican-born British bass-baritone.-Early life:He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole...
as Wotan; Mozart's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, conducted by Daniel Harding
Daniel Harding
Daniel Harding is a British conductor.Harding studied trumpet at Chetham's School of Music and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra at age 13. At age 17, Harding assembled a group of musicians to perform Pierrot Lunaire of Arnold Schoenberg, and sent a tape of the performance to Simon...
; Rossini
Gioacchino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces...
's The Italian Girl in Algiers
L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...
; the Berlin Philharmonic
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...
playing Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's 5th Symphony
Symphony No. 5 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor by Gustav Mahler was composed in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months at Mahler's cottage at Maiernigg. Among its most distinctive features are the funereal trumpet solo that opens the work and the frequently performed Adagietto.The musical canvas and...
; and Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, conducting and on the piano and works by Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
.
Performances are given in a variety of locations, including:
- the Théâtre de l'Archevêché, in the courtyard of the former archibshop's palace;
- the Grand Théâtre de Provence, opened in 2007;
- the Jeu de Paumes, a restored 18th century theatre;
- the courtyard of the Hôtel Maynier d'Oppède;
- the Théâtre du Grand Saint-Jean, in the grounds of a chateau near Aix.