annual r e p ort 2015 Alcina avec Patricia Petibon (Alcina) et Philippe Jaroussky (Ruggiero) 67th Festival d’aix-en-provence acclaimed by the public and critics! With 83,000 spectators, the 67th Festival was a great success – new community-based project, brought together professional rich in shared emotions and musical pleasure. The national and singers and musicians with 300 amateur choir singers from the international press gave it a warm reception. region for a performance of rare intensity. The Théâtre de l’Archevêché saw the triumph of Britten’s A This production, like many others, will now go on tour in France Midsummer Night’s Dream, a revival of the legendary production and abroad, as further proof of the Festival’s national and Robert Carsen first directed 24 years ago. It alternated at the international reputation. Archevêché with the annual Mozart production, this time Die I would like to express my gratitude to the State, to the City of Aix- Entführung aus dem Serail. en-Provence, to the Aix Regional Community, the Department At the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Patricia Petibon and Philippe and the Region, and all the local authorities working closely Jaroussky electrified audiences in Katie Mitchell’s daring together with such effectiveness on the Festival d’Aix Board, production of Handel’s Alcina, while Peter Sellars bewitched which it is my honour to preside. festival-goers with the radiant diptych Iolanta / Perséphone, I would also like to thank all the partner patrons, companies and conducted with power and sensitivity by Teodor Currentzis. private individuals, from France and overseas, with a special Performing new works is one of the aims of the Festival, as was mention for the Altarea Cogedim group, which became our shown this year with Svadba by Ana Sokolovic´, a particularly official partners this year. inventive and poetic chamber opera. Be With Me Now, a musical production, was created to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Bruno Roger the enoa European network, which the Festival d’Aix and its President of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence Académie helped to launch. Lastly, The Monster in the Maze, a a point of view on the Festival and the world Each member of the audience leaves the Festival with their own the Arab-Muslim world, are fighting the tyranny of dictators and highly personal images, experiences and emotions. Here I will the insanity of Daech. Is it not more the role of artists to encourage give some of my own – entirely subjective – impressions. us to deepen our relations with reality, to go beyond clichés and superficial images, instead of reinforcing them? Alcina was the second part of our Handel cycle. Katie Mitchell gave us a highly personal and very contemporary vision of the opera, These present-day realities, the images of refugees putting their marked by an authentic feminine viewpoint. At the heart of the lives in danger to cross the Mediterranean, could be seen in The sparkling cast led by Andrea Marcon, Patricia Petibon lent her Monster in the Maze. The magic of this opera came from Jonathan voice, her body, her emotion – in short, all the resources of her Dove’s music, Sir Simon Rattle’s inspired conducting, Marie- being to bring an exceptional character to life with such skill. Eve Signeyrole’s astute and skilful staging, but above all from the presence of 300 amateur participants, children, teenagers Peter Sellars and Teodor Currentzis gave us an incandescent and adults, who amazed us, as the adventure came to an end reading of Iolanta and Perséphone, a reading where the spiritual after more than six months, with their commitment, their talent dimension linked and transcended these two rare works. The and their professionalism. revival of Robert Carsen’s staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream confirmed the impressions of those who saw it first produced 24 Meanwhile, Ana Sokolovic´’s Svadba kept all its promises: a subtle years ago, and delighted opera-goers and opera professionals composition for voices, a small-scale work for six singers, in a who were seeing it for the first time. sober staging that brought out all their presence. The fact that these two operas were such a success with the public and that Martin Kušej’s staging of Die Entführung aus dem Serail provoked there are now plans for them to go on tour all over the world is a extensive press coverage and a good deal of controversy. Do opera refreshing sign for new opera. directors have the right to offer a resolutely “modern” reading of a classic work? Of course they do, since that is opera’s lifeblood! I was also struck and moved by the artistic commitment shown Do they have the right to oppose a composer’s intentions, in this by the Perm MusicAeterna choir, at Silvacane Abbey and at case by contradicting Mozart’s humanist and tolerant outlook? the Conservatory. Their performance of Stravinsky’s Les Noces I think they do too, and I see it as a sign of an artist’s freedom to reached an incredible intensity, and unprecedented virtuosity shift the meanings of a work and to uncover, here and now, all its in the approach to traditional vocal forms and to Stravinsky’s contemporary resonances. And yet, I cannot accept Martin Kušej’s musical colour and rhythms. I will also treasure memories of so world view, although I believe I did everything I could to make sure many moments shared, of rehearsals and concerts, of meeting that the production was presented as faithfully as possible to the artists from the Académie and enthralling discussions. It seems director’s intentions: in the dark hours we are living through today, to me that once again this year we took another step forward as to present the West as the sole bearer of humanist and tolerant a creative, convivial Festival that is open onto society and the values, confronted with an archaic, uncultured and aggressive East, world. A huge thank you to all those who took part, to artists and is only to caricature contemporary realities. It is a negation of the technicians, professionals and amateurs, regular opera-goers East’s cultural riches; of its traditions of hospitality; of the artistic and newcomers to the Festival! exchanges that have always characterised relations between the West and the East down the centuries, until a very recent period. It Bernard Foccroulle is also the negation of the combat of all those who, in Syria and in Director of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 5 Iolanta with Ekaterina Scherbachenko (Iolanta) and Arnold Rutkowski (Vaudémont) "a Festival’s imaginative vision"* Alcina Alcina with Patricia Petibon (Alcina) and Anthony Gregory (Oronte) alcina After Ariodante in 2014, the Festival d’Aix continued its Handel cycle this year with a new production of one of his most famous operas. Under the precise direction of Katie Mitchell, this acerbic reading sets the action in a strange and diabolic world, symbolised by a highly sophisticated decor. This was a landmark production of this year’s festival, performed by the baroque stars Patricia Petibon and Philippe Jaroussky, and conducted by the maestro Andrea Marcon at the head of the Freiburger Barockorchester. FrAnce inFo OperA Today LiBération This production will stay in our memories. Katie Mitchell makes This was magical, completely magical, made magnificent by Patricia The result is in line with Katie Mitchell’s other works, with its strong Les inrocKs sure the audience always has something to look at, the Freiburger Petibon as the ravishing, red haired Alcina, whose "Ah, mio cor" theatre influences and superb visuals, and its well-adapted staging. With the extraordinary vocal talent possessed by Patricia Petibon, Barockorchester conducted by Andrea Marcon is in harmony with the included a high E shriek and then ended the first part of the evening. The cast, led by the two French stars Philippe Jaroussky and Patricia Handel’s Alcina fires on all cylinders under Andrea Macron’s staging and the most beautiful arias, such as “Verdi Prati”, sung to The audience was left stunned and remained in their seats to give an Petibon, is outstanding. Petibon, unlike other sopranos, refrains from musical direction and Katie Mitchell’s breathtaking staging. (…) perfection by Philippe Jaroussky, send shivers down the spine. extended ovation to the fallen curtain. continually ornamenting her role with oriental-style minor scales. Attentive both to the modernity of the amorous exchanges of their With her delicate frame, a moment of silence and two notes are all heroines and to the hair-raising plot that takes us to the comic, THe new YorK TiMes KUrier she needs to make the witch’s misfortune seem movingly palpable, in fantasy world of a remake worthy of an episode of The Avengers That production (…) was excellent musically, top to bottom. (…) Ms. The audience could only celebrate, after seeing such a modern and this dark element of the drama where many fear to tread. (complete with guns and time bombs), Katie Mitchell and Andrea Mitchell’s production, though hugely elaborate and confusing at the bewildering staging. (…) Patricia Petibon sings and plays Alcina Marcon are also united in raw emotion and in deliberate pastiche. start, settled into a nice groove and was almost lovable by the end. with perfect mastery and total commitment, the Austrian soprano TéLérAMA The unanimity of the ovation the company receives every evening is a Anna Prohaska is a perfect counterpart in the role of Morgana, and The launch of the 2015 Festival, at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, sure sign that something unique is on offer. FinAnciAL TiMes the countertenor Philippe Jaroussky is a real gift for the eyes and the could not have had a more striking, nor strangely unique Part Fifty Shades, part Eyes Wide Shut, with a sprinkling of Dorian ears in the role of Ruggiero.