La Folle Journée
Encyclopedia
La Folle Journée is a French annual classical music festival held in Nantes
. It is the largest classical music festival in France
. The festival's name refers to the Pierre Beaumarchais
play The Marriage of Figaro
, whose alternative title is La Folle Journée ("The Follies of a Day").
René Martin founded the La Folle Journée festival in 1995, with the intention of presenting short classical music concerts for diverse audience, on one day. The primary venue is La Cité, Nantes Events Center in Nantes. Since its founding, the festival has expanded to cover 5 days of events. Each year focuses on a theme, initially on composers such as Mozart
(1995) and Beethoven
(1996), but since expanding to encompass subjects such as Tolstoy
's Ivan Ilyich
(2001).
The festival has expanded to other cities in Pays de la Loire
, including Challans
, Cholet
, Fontenay-le-Comte
, La Roche-sur-Yon
, La Flèche
, Sablé-sur-Sarthe
, Saint Nazaire, Saumur
, L'Île-d'Yeu and Fontevraud-l'Abbaye
. Other cities have developed their own festivals based on the format of La Folle Journée, including Madrid
, Bilbao
, Tokyo
, Rio de Janeiro
and Warsaw
.
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
. It is the largest classical music festival in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The festival's name refers to the Pierre Beaumarchais
Pierre Beaumarchais
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French playwright, watchmaker, inventor, musician, diplomat, fugitive, spy, publisher, arms dealer, satirist, financier, and revolutionary ....
play The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
The Marriage of Figaro ) is a comedy in five acts, written in 1778 by Pierre Beaumarchais. This play is the second installment in the Figaro Trilogy, preceded by The Barber of Seville and followed by The Guilty Mother. The Barber begins the story with a simple love triangle in which the Count has...
, whose alternative title is La Folle Journée ("The Follies of a Day").
René Martin founded the La Folle Journée festival in 1995, with the intention of presenting short classical music concerts for diverse audience, on one day. The primary venue is La Cité, Nantes Events Center in Nantes. Since its founding, the festival has expanded to cover 5 days of events. Each year focuses on a theme, initially on composers such as 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...
(1995) and Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
(1996), but since expanding to encompass subjects such as Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's Ivan Ilyich
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
The Death of Ivan Ilyich , first published in 1886, is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, and is considered to be one of the masterpieces of his late fiction, written shortly after his religious conversion of the late 1870s.-Characters:...
(2001).
The festival has expanded to other cities in Pays de la Loire
Pays de la Loire
Pays de la Loire is one of the 27 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the late 20th century to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" ¹...
, including Challans
Challans
Challans is a commune in the Vendée département in the Pays de la Loire région in western France....
, Cholet
Cholet
Cholet is a commune of western France in the Maine-et-Loire department. It was the capital of military Vendée.-Geography:Cholet stands on an eminence on the right bank of the Moine, which used to be crossed by a bridge from the fifteenth century...
, Fontenay-le-Comte
Fontenay-le-Comte
Fontenay-le-Comte is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:The Vendée River flows though the town. The town has an area of .-History:...
, La Roche-sur-Yon
La Roche-sur-Yon
La Roche-sur-Yon is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France.It is the capital of the department. Its inhabitants are called Yonnais.-History:...
, La Flèche
La Flèche
La Flèche is a municipality located in the French department of Sarthe and the region of Pays de la Loire in the Loire Valley. This is the sub-prefecture of the South-Sarthe, the chief district and the chief city of a canton. This is the second most populous city of the department. The city is part...
, Sablé-sur-Sarthe
Sablé-sur-Sarthe
Sablé-sur-Sarthe, commonly referred to as Sablé, is a commune in the Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region in west France.-Geography:...
, Saint Nazaire, Saumur
Saumur
Saumur is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.The historic town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc...
, L'Île-d'Yeu and Fontevraud-l'Abbaye
Fontevraud-l'Abbaye
Fontevraud-l'Abbaye is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. It is situated both in the Loire Valley, an UNESCO World Heritage Site between Chalonnes-sur-Loire and Sully-sur-Loire, and the Loire Anjou Touraine French regional natural park.-External links:****...
. Other cities have developed their own festivals based on the format of La Folle Journée, including Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
and Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
.