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Reviews, Stage Reviews

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Elīna Garanča & Malcolm Martineau in Recital

https://operawire.com/festival-daix-en-provence-2024-review-elina-garanca-malcolm-martineau-in-recital/

“Dignifed” is perhaps the best word to define Elīna Garanča and Malcolm Martineau’s recital. At a time when recitals have become more and more either causal occasions or rallies for a pressing cause, the Latvian mezzo-soprano reminds us of the ennobling power of music itself. Such elevation sentiment comes along with Garanča and Martineau’s fairly intellectual nature. This duo thinks {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Sondra Radvanovsky & Anthony Manoli

https://operawire.com/festival-daix-en-provence-2024-review-sondra-radvanovsky-anthony-manoli/

Pardon my French, but Screaming Sopranos are fundamental. It just does not feel like opera without them. And, with a voice that often overflows concert halls, nowadays nobody screams like Sondra Radvanovsky. Still, in Aix she seeks to rebrand herself as a recitalist, an intimate performer who shares her life with a cozy audience. It is tricky to jump from {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Pelléas et Mélisande

https://operawire.com/festival-daix-en-provence-2024-review-pelleas-et-melisande/

(Photo credit: Jean-Louis Fernandez) Eight years ago, Katie Mitchell’s staging of “Pelléas et Mélisande” was opera-lovers’ favorite summer topic. Echoes of its greatness could be heard in the wintery Brazilian July, and in the fall, when I was in Scotland, people still commented how great—or heterodox—it was. Its return to Aix’s stage reminds us of its scenic beauty and proves {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Lea Desandre + Thomas Dunford

https://operawire.com/festival-daix-en-provence-2024-review-lea-desandre-thomas-dunford/

 (Photo credit: Julien Benhamou) Let’s talk about chemistry. Cher and Sonny had it; so did Joey and Chandler. And, nowadays, the duo with the most chemistry in classical music is French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and French lutenist Thomas Dunford (D+D for the fans). The concert was extremely solar, gleeful, and gay, reflecting their bright partnership. Their youthful joyfulness even brightened {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Madama Butterfly

https://operawire.com/festival-daix-en-provence-2024-review-madama-butterfly/

(Photo credit: © Ruth Walz) Puccini in Aix-en-Provence is not an obvious combination, and it was not until 2019 with Christophe Honoré’s “Tosca” production that Lucca’s maestro made his debut in the festival. It was an ultra-revisionist “Tosca”: two primissime donne on the stage, several videoclips, and many other bold choices. It was glorious and thought-provoking. Therefore, expectations for a “Madama {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Songs and Fragments

https://operawire.com/festival-daix-en-provence-2024-review-songs-and-fragments/

(Photo credit: Monika Rittershaus) Who’s afraid of a double bill? Part two. If Gluck’s Iphigénies required stamina from Aix operagoers, the double bill of Peter Maxwell Davies’s “Eight Songs for a Mad King” and György Kurtág’s “Kafka-Fragments” beseech us to be attentive. It was just an hour and a half of music, and the performances were vivid. But the musical {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Samson

https://operawire.com/festival-daix-en-provence-2024-review-samson/

(Photo credit: Monika Rittershaus) “So, who is signing the work?” an operagoer asks Raphaël Pichon and Claus Guth at a lunchtime panel about their opera-project “Samson.” The music is Rameau’s, but it is not that simple. According to Guth (and his Wikipedia search), Rameau did indeed compose a “Samson” with a libretto by Voltaire; however, it is all lost. Pichon {…}
News, Streaming

Arte to Stream Three of Festival Aix-En-Provence’s 2024 Productions

https://operawire.com/arte-to-stream-three-of-festival-aix-en-provences-2024-productions/

Arte is set to present three of Festival Aix-En-Provence’s productions on its streaming platform. It all starts with “Iphigénie en Aulide-Iphigénie en Tauride” on July 11 and will be available until Dec. 11, 2025. The productions stars Corinne Winters, Russell Braun, Véronique Gens, Alasdair Kent, Nicolas Cavallier, Soula Parassidis, Florian Sempey, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, and Alexandre Duhamel. Emmanuelle Haïm conducts the production by Dmitri Tcherniakov. Then on July 12, {…}
News

Ermonela Jaho, Julia Bullock, Huw Montague Rendall, Corinne Winters, Marina Rebeka Headline Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024

https://operawire.com/ermonela-jaho-julia-bullock-huw-montague-rendall-corinne-winters-marina-rebeka-headline-festival-daix-en-provence-2024/

The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence has announced its 2024 slate. Here is a rundown of the vocal and operatic works on offer. First up is “Iphigénie en Aulide” and Iphigénie en Tauride,” presented as a double bill. The Gluck operas will feature Corinne Winters in the title role of both works. In “Aulide,” she is joined by Russell Braun, Véronique Gens, Alasdair {…}

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