Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

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The international Festival d'Aix-en-Provence (full French name Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence ) is a music festival that takes place every summer in Aix-en-Provence . It was founded in 1948 as a festival of opera and classical music and is one of the major European music festivals with a special relationship with Mozart's operas . The performances are given in the open air in the courtyard of the former Archbishop's Palace.

history

The Summer Festival was launched in 1948 by Gabriel Dussurget who wanted to promote musical activities in the Marseille region . The new festival should be all about Mozart:

“Depuis l'évocation d'Aix, une œuvre lyrique chantait dans ma tête. Fiordiligi et Dorabella descendaient comme de légers fantômes le cours Mirabeau, et Mozart me vint aux lèvres. "

“(About :) When I imagined Aix (-en-provence), an opera song came to mind. Fiordiligi and Dorabella sank like light-hearted spirits on the Cours Mirabeau and Mozart was on my lips. "

In the year it was founded, the opera Così fan tutte was performed in the courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace , the Théâtre de l'Archevêché, with a stage design by Georges Wakhevitch and under the musical direction of Hans Rosbaud from the Baden-Baden Südwestfunk Orchestra . About ten concerts and performances were also given in Archevêché, the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral (a coronation mass with the young Maria Stader ) and other places in the city. In 1949 Don Giovanni was staged with great success and with the set by the artist and commercial artist Cassandre . The Schedule has been set at three operas per festival, two of Mozart and a third from the baroque or contemporary repertoire.

In 1974 Bernard Lefort became festival director. He opened the festival to Italian bel canto with operas by Donizetti , Rossini , Bellini and others. He was followed in 1982 by Louis Erlo, former director of l'Opéra de Lyon and l'Opéra-Studio. Baroque operas by Purcell , Gluck , Lully , Campra and Rameau came onto the program .

In 1998 Stéphane Lissner , former director of the Théâtre du Châtelet (La Monnaie), took over the management of the festival. He put a Don Giovanni on the program in a much acclaimed production by Peter Brook . Claudio Abbado and his young student Daniel Harding with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra were the musical directors . He invited directors such as Pina Bausch , Patrice Chéreau , Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff and had contemporary operas such as Le Balcon by Péter Eötvös performed.

For the game between 2006 and 2009, in co-production with the Easter Festival of Salzburg the ring of Richard Wagner listed in a production by Stephane Braunschweig. The musical direction was Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra . The operas were presented in Aix-en-Provence in July and resumed in Salzburg the following spring.

Pierre Audi , former director of De Nationale Opera , has headed the festival since 2019 .

The festival is a founding member of the European Festivals Association .

List of festival directors

Places of performances

The heart of the festival is the courtyard of the former archbishop's palace. The performances take place here in the open air in the late afternoon. The originally small stage about seven meters deep and twelve meters wide has shaped the character of the festival. The courtyard was later furnished with rows of seats and a stage opening (portal).

The concerts and performances take place in many places throughout the city: on the Place des Quatre Dauphins , on the Place des Cardeurs, at the foot of the Sainte-Victoire mountain and, since June 2007, in the specially built Grand Théâtre de Provence .

Award

literature

  • Alain Gueulette: Le Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. Histoire mythologie, divas, renseignements pratiques . Éditions Sans, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-7107-0438-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Historical promenade in Aix-en-Provence - Cours Mirabeau in the French-language Wikipedia.
  2. ↑ quoted from Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence in the French language Wikipedia