The 68th edition of the Festival was a great success, both for the The Festival d'Aix 2016 was particularly present both over July ‘Festival’as well as AIX EN JUIN. the airwaves and on the web. The five summer operas were rebroadcast on Arte, France Musique, France Télévisions, The keywords of this year’s opera programme were excellence and Mezzo, Arte Concert, Culture Box, Medici.tv and The Opera diversity. With a dream cast in the expert hands of Katie Mitchell Platform. Three of them - Così fan tutte, Pelléas et Mélisande and and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pelléas et Mélisande was presented after a Kalîla wa Dimna - were projected on the big screens of 73 cities long wait of 44 years. Film-maker Christophe Honoré offered a in France and abroad. Several musical events also benefited new vision of Così Fan Tutte, set in Africa. Krzysztof Warlikowski from 360°immersive recording. Finally, the closing concert of revealed the theatricality of a sublime Handel oratorio, while the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra (MYO) was broadcast live Peter Sellars once again deeply moved festival-goers with a most on YouTube. convincing Stravinsky diptych. Among the nine world premieres of this edition, Moneim Adwan’s Arabic opera Kalîla wa Dimna If more than 75,000 spectators from the local area and further enchanted a wide and highly diverse public. afield were able to participate in the summer magic of the Festival d'Aix, it is in part thanks to the renewed support of The new feature of AIX EN JUIN 2016 was OUVERTURE[S] : a the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the City Council musical walk through the Jas de Bouffan district for a festive and of Aix-en-Provence, Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence, participatory inauguration event. The fruit of a long-term effort Territoire Pays d’Aix, the Departmental Council, the Regional by the outreach and socio-artistic services of the Festival and Council of Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur, the European Union the European Académie of Music, 62 events were offered free of as well as that of our corporate and private patrons. I would like charge or at affordable prices both in Aix and the surrounding to express my deep appreciation to them all. communities. These artistic events brought together nearly 18,000 spectators, including many young people. Once again, Bruno Roger Parade[s] set the Cours Mirabeau ablaze with a free concert President of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence mixing traditional African songs and opera. 1 Œdipus Rex THE STRENGTH AND DIVERSITY OF ARTIST RESIDENCIES Our Festival in Aix-en-Provence has been developing artist Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and saxophonist Raphaël Imbert residencies for several years. The 2016 edition allowed us to were associated artists for this edition of the Festival. Jean- appreciate the results of several of these. Guihen Queyras gave several concerts, participated in the last two public performances given by the Arcanto Quartet and gave Pelléas et Mélisande was the fifth consecutive opera staged in master classes for string quartet. Raphaël Imbert opened the Aix by Katie Mitchell, after Written on Skin, The House Taken Festival on 4 June during a musical walk involving marching Over, Trauernacht and Alcina. In the continuity of her previous bands from school orchestras, gave several concerts and achievements, she constructed her stage production from accompanied an intercultural session of the Mediterranean a feminine point of view, proposing a dreamlike reading of Youth Orchestra, where he joined his friend Jean-Guihen. the opera through the eyes and imagination of Mélisande. These two artists demonstrated a commitment and a sense of In addition to her stage production, Katie Mitchell has been sharing that was as enthusiastic as it was communicative. extremely generous, year after year, in her encounters with the young artists of the Académie. This year, she initiated a Beyond these residencies, we must also underline all the workshop with young creative women that will extend through relationships that have been built over the years with Louis next year, the results of which will be shared with the profession. Langrée, Jérémie Rhorer, Esa-Pekka Salonen and many other artists from the Académie... These loyalties, residencies and Invited on several occasions, Peter Sellars also marked our relationships are built over time with patience, passion and Festival: a charismatic stage director who is adulated by all the creativity, and yield results that would be unimaginable under artists and teams he works with, he was able to touch the public other conditions. They permeate the identity of our Festival and of Aix by the density of his theatrical language and the depth of contribute to make it a unique event in the world. his approach in Iolanta / Persephone in 2015 and Oedipus Rex / Symphony of Psalms in 2016. Bernard Foccroulle Director General of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence This year we presented the world premiere of Kalîla wa Dimna, an opera written by Moneim Adwan on a libretto in Arabic and French. Since 2008, this Franco-Palestinian artist has developed an ongoing collaboration with our Festival, including the direction of the Ibn Zaydoun choir, which rehearses every week alternating between Aix and Marseille. Without this residency, without the links that have been built over the years and without the stepping-stone of The Dove, the Fox and the Heron (a small opera written and staged in June 2014), the composition of Kalîla would never have obtained the impact it enjoyed this summer. 3 "Music’s greatest scores (…), all played and sung exquisitely and staged with stimulating seriousness." *Les plus grandes partitions (…), interprétées avec raffinement et dans des mises en scène à la fois réfléchies et stimulantes. Pelléas et Mélisande New York Times Così fan tutte Così fan Tutte LE MONDE LES ÉCHOS Set under the burning sun of Africa, this Così disturbs us. Christophe The jeers that accompanied Christophe Honoré and his team on the No edition of the Festival would be complete without a Mozart masterpiece. This year, it was the turn of one of the most emblematic operas of Honoré’s inflexible stage direction explores every scenic space, evening of the premiere of Così fan tutte in Aix were particularly the repertoire, Così fan tutte, to return to the stage of the Théâtre de l’Archevêché. Transposing the action to colonial Eritrea under Mussolini, delves into the souls of the characters and chisels out their fates. inappropriate: their work is indeed the high point of the performance. this new production by film director Christophe Honoré revealed all the brutality of a deceptively light plot by questioning the notion of desire (…) Honoré has given much to his singers, who have given their (…) The director has had the insight to consider the characters as and the struggle for power that it engenders. A dark interpretation, accompanied from the pit by distinguished Mozartian Louis Langrée and utmost in return. Beginning with Despina, portrayed by a stunning an ultimately rather unpleasant mixture of brainless and annoying the Freiburger Barockorchester, which raised debate and invited us to renew our vision of the opera. Sandrine Piau, whose solar voice and radiant presence captivates the people. (…) He shows it with both relevance and finesse in his stage from one end to the other. Singing with one voice throughout meticulous stage directing, even if the transposition to Mussolini’s THE NEW YORK TIMES LE SOIR the first act (magnificent duo), the two sisters gradually abandon Africa is not always entirely convincing. But his laser-sharp reading The use of the opera to understand the relationships between different It is far from the spirit of the Enlightenment but the approach, served their twinhood. Kate Lindsey’s electric and sexual Dorabella only of the libretto, aware of the toughness of human relations and the cultures and to experiment with several ways of linking them is no longer in all its crudeness and cruelty by razor-sharp directing, remains strengthens her predatory temperament, while Lenneke Ruiten’s pitfalls of the heart, reveal a rare effectiveness. a mere aesthetic possibility, it is a moral necessity. The staging of Così coherent. But, fortunately, an opera also consists of music and here lively Fiordiligi little by little ceases to mime her sister as she has endorsed this responsibility as if it were a battle with no quarter. (…) our happiness is immense. Attentive to every inflection, weaving discovers her true nature. (…) With absolute joy from the pit, where LIBERATION As a spectator, one feels the outrage that Così should always inspire. (…) secret dialogues between the instruments or between the singers and magician Louis Langrée doses and dares, through colour and mad Christophe Honoré politicises Mozart’s opera bouffe, transposed to Dark, demanding staging that speaks all too clearly to our time. the instruments, Louis Langrée’s conducting offers us three hours of inventiveness, to offer us a volatile and vigorous Mozart that is both the Eritrea of the 1930s. A risky wager. (…) The interest of this type of theatrical chamber music. The cast is dominated by the ladies, led by powerful and intoxicating, offsetting the natural sound loss of open mechanism is that it develops over time. If the first act is quite dull, EL WATAN the ironic but disillusioned Despina portrayed by a radiant Sandrine air performance and the intimate volume of the ancient instruments the second explodes. (…) Honoré brings out his joker in the finale: We are embraced by an ineffable sense of happiness with this realistic Piau. played by the excellent Freiburger Barockorchester. whereas in the libretto the reconciled lovers are reunited and leave arm Così, so close to the human condition, nourished by the torments of in arm, here one of the girls does not participate in the celebration.