Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, 4 June – 21 July
Open-air performances at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, one of the most beautiful and romantic top-level European opera festivals, start at sunset; it is said that it never actually rains in this small town in Southern France - well, perhaps a few drops now and then, but only at daytime. Recently, there has been an addition to the usual list of venues: thinking of winter performances a new theatre has been built. Enthusiasts of open-air performances are not all pleased, however: they say watching an opera under the nocturnal Aix-en-Provence skies is an unforgettable experience.
At Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, excellent musical quality is a given. It does not stop there, however: the festival has always made a point of involving powerful directors in its opera productions. This year the festival has commissioned a new work by the Canadian theatre alchemist Robert Lepage who offers his take on Nightingale and Other Tales by Igor Stravinsky, an opera that, since its Paris premiere in 1914, has always brought success to its interpreters. Stravinsky wrote the opera as a reading of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales and an attempt to recreate them in music. A few years ago, Lepage staged his Andersen Project - a tribute to the great Danish writer, a bittersweet beautiful saga of loneliness; the monoplay starred the great Canadian master himself. When creating his Nightingale, Lepage seems to have given quite a lot of thought to addressing children as well in addition to his usual grownup audience. Lepage is a real virtuoso of miracles and wonders, a rare phenomenon in the contemporary theatre: shadow theatre; Vietnamese water puppets; ancient and modern techniques join forces to tell a 21st-century version of the timeless fairytale. The opera is conducted by Kazushi Ono.
The most vivid representative of the new Russian opera direction Dmitry Chernyakov is also contributing a new work to the festival programme: the new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni features Chernyakov as the director, set designer and costume designer in one, as well as the Latvian soprano Kristīne Opolais make her Aix-en-Provence debut as Donna Elvira.
Programme: www.festival-aix.com
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