(Ctedit: © Lea Meienberg, 2023) Ted Huffman has been appointed General Director of the Festival Aix-en-Provence, effective Jan. 1, 2026. The news was announced after it was approved by Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, Sophie Joissains, Mayor of the City of Aix-en-Provence, Martine Vassal, President of the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence and the Conseil départemental des Bouches-du-Rhône and Renaud Muselier, President of {…}
(Photo: Monika Rittershaus) By the middle of the second act, a third of the audience had already gone home. They were not necessarily bored—some complained that the seats were too harsh on their spines; others that, because the opera started so late, they were unwilling to return home well after midnight. The fact is, this production of “La Calisto” did {…}
(Photo: © Monika Rittershaus) “Don Giovanni” is an opera of seductions and escapes, moral wreckage and divine retribution, a shimmering mosaic of comedy, tragedy, farce, and existential dread. Yet “the mother of all operas” is also a uniquely treacherous work—at once alluring and intractable, irresistibly open yet elusive. Music’s sublimity rarely fails to connect with audiences, even in a less-than-stellar {…}
It is official: Britten is in now. It is not as if the Master of Snape was ever ‘out,’ but Aix’s adaptation of “Billy Budd” — along with Deborah Warner’s “Peter Grimes” from a couple of years ago — reiterates the timeliness of his work and theater. Watching Britten today, it feels like his works have just been waiting for {…}
The new Robert Icke staging of “Don Giovanni” might upset more than a few spirits. The scenic proposal is certainly disruptive, and its insistence on intervening digitally in the opera’s soundscape is the most acute symptom of “directivitis” (the terrible disease that has afflicted opera directors for the last seven decades). However, I really had a great time watching “Don {…}
Arte.tv is set ot broadcast Charpentier’s “Louise” for the Festival Aix-en-Provence. The broadcast will take place on July 12, produced by Christof Loy. The work will star soprano Elsa Dreisig in the title role alongside Adam Smith, Nicolas Courjal, Sophie Koch, Marianne Croux, Annick Massis, Grégoire Mour, Carol Garcia, Karolina Bengtsson, Marie-Thérèse Keller, Julie Pasturaud, Marion Vergez-Pascal, Marion Lebègue, Jennifer {…}
Pierre Audi, General Director of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, has appointed Olivier Leymarie as Deputy General Director of the Festival. The news was announced after the deliberation of a jury chaired by Paul Hermelin, Chairman of the Festival’s Board of Directors, and including state and local authority representatives, as well as several qualified members of the Board. Leymarie will take up {…}
“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 {…}
Credit: Vincent Beaume When Pierre Audi, the director of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, announced that Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tézier would sing in a one-night-only concert version of “Otello,” tickets sold out in a minute. Even admittance for critics was scarce, and the festival gave seats out only when audience members turned in their tickets. Ill in London, Kaufmann canceled. This reviewer’s {…}
(Photo Credit: Monika Rittershaus) It is a minor cliché to stress how modernist avant la lettre George Büchner’s “Woyzeck” appears to be on a first reading. The play, written by a 22-year-old in 1836, reads today so close to its fellows in the early twentieth century that it seems only logical that the opera would come from the hands of {…}
The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence has announced cast changes for “Idomeneo” and “Norma.” The festival noted that Anna Bonitatibus will replace Anna Stéphany as Idamante in the production of “Idomeneo.” Meanwhile, Amina Edris will sing the role of Adalgisa, replacing Nina Minasyan in a concert performance of “Norma.” Bonitatibus is known for her work in Handel and Rossini while Edris has performed {…}