A FEW REFLECTIONS: PIERRE AUDI
GENERAL DIRECTOR OF THE FESTIVAL D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE

Opera neither replicates nor diverts us from a world which grows more and more confusing with every day that passes. It links this world with times immemorial and primeval passions, nurturing their brilliant impact with its inimitable riches.

Iphigenia, the granddaughter of Atreus, morphs from victim to murderess, Samson the chosen one is marked out by his strength to the point of bloodshed, Butterfly’s vulnerability drives her to her death: the festival of 2024 is peopled by these powerfully ambivalent destinies. We are faced with a storm of violence, madness and destruction; but these are balanced by fidelity, will power, the fight for justice and freedom. Here we find human fragility fighting against its own barbarity by means of the most sublime and passionate of languages.

Each annual Festival programme has its own identity. Two main styles give each its colouring: French, in that it allows us to hear refined French prosody from Rameau’s Samson to Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande, by way of Gluck’s Iphigenias; baroque, in that it bends its elegant bow from Monteverdi’s The return of Ulysses to his Homeland to Mozart’s The Clemency of Titus – also engaging with the trinity that dominates 18th-century opera and lays down the bases of modernity: Rameau, Gluck and Mozart. We also celebrate Puccini in the centenary of his death; as we do music theatre, with a fascinating double bill of Peter Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for a Mad King and György Kurtág’s Kafka-Fragments. We also include The Great Yes, The Great No by the wonderful William Kentridge, performed at LUMA Arles.

This edition is marked by confidence in orchestras and their musical directors, in exceptional stage directors and interpreters, working together in artistic adventures that are for the most part original – such as Samson, a free creation based on a lost opera by Rameau and a censored libretto by Voltaire, or the programming together of Gluck’s Iphigenia in Aulis and Iphigenia in Tauris, allowing us to appreciate in a single evening the whole tragic destiny of the above-named princess.

As well as partners of long standing such as Raphaël Pichon and the Ensemble Pygmalion, Daniele Rustioni and artists from the Opéra de Lyon, or Leonardo García Alarcón and Cappella Mediterranea, the Festival is delighted to welcome back Emmanuelle Haïm and the Concert d’Astrée as well as the Ensemble Intercontemporain and its new music director Pierre Bleuse. Dmitri Tcherniakov, Claus Guth, Andrea Breth and Barrie Kosky come with new proofs of their unique talent – as does Katie Mitchell, whose already historic Pelleas and Melisande we wanted to revive, conducted this time by Susanna Mälkki. The violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, a star who played for us in 2021, is now one of the main artists in Songs and Fragments.

Mozart’s The Clemency of Titus and Verdi’s Sicilian Vespers, given in semi-staged concert performances, follow the Festival’s traditional pattern and include popular artists such as Pene Pati as Titus and Karine Deshayes as Vitellia. Marianne Crebassa, Marina Rebeka and John Osborn return to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence having shone in various recent offerings, while Igor Golovatenko and Roberto Tagliavini are making their debuts.

Great voices of today are especially feted this year. So we can enjoy first visits from Ermonela Jaho, the great Butterfly of our time, from Corinne Winters, undertaking the daunting task of singing both Iphigenias in one evening, from Johannes Martin Kränzle in the crazy role of King George III of England or Sondra Radvanovsky who appears for the first time in recital. We welcome return visits from Elīna Garanča, for a recital-event in the Grand Théâtre de  Provence, from Julia Bullock in taking the role of Melisande beside Huw Montague Rendall’s Pelleas, from Jacquelyn Stucker as Delilah and Anna Prohaska lending her voice to Kafka, also from John Brancy and Deepa Johnny in the roles of Ulysses and Penelope. Finally, we are particularly glad to see again at Aix the fine flower of French song, with a portrait dedicated to Lea Desandre, but also the presence of Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Véronique Gens, Laurent Naouri, Florian Sempey and Alexandre Duhamel.

As an essential counterpoint to the operatic performances, our ambitious number of recitals and concerts covers every epoch and every style, with the intention of renewing each format through the creation of disruptive synergies and paths, of configurations that are unexpected and challenging. This is not to say that the monuments of the repertoire will be neglected, notably upheld by the Orchestre de Paris and Klaus Mäkelä in a great orchestral week-end around 14 July. New music and, more broadly, contemporary music are present throughout, from the delightful concert concocted by the JACK Quartet to commissions from composers Diana Soh, Charlotte Bray and Golfam Khayam. The innovative concerts that conclude the three Residencies Voice, Instrumental and Multidisciplinary of the Académie, conceived in close collaboration with their tutors, Barbara Hannigan, Emmanuelle Haïm, the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Piersandra Di Matteo, reflect the new dynamics evident in today’s live spectacles. In this area, the concerts by Hiromi and Kinan Azmeh’s City Band ratify at the highest level the encounter between jazz and the classical heritage on one hand, and Mediterranean music on the other. Finally, the 40 years of the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée provide an occasion for restating the values of our foundation – as a contribution that is more than ever necessary to peace.

Between Panorama, a presentation of seasonal music played in the Place des Prêcheurs, and the major concert Parade[s], an anthology of the best of French and Italian opera in the Cours Mirabeau, Aix en juin offers its rich programme entirely free, including public performances by the service Passerelles, the week-end of the Voix de Silvacane, a rich Mediterranean programme, public master classes and concerts by the Voice and Instrumental Residencies of the Académie, as well as the showing of films in partnership with the cinemas of the Ville d’Aix. During the whole Festival it will be possible to take part in meetings with artists (‘tête-à-tête’), debates with professionals (‘midis’) and introductions to stagings (‘préludes’), or find them later on #THEDIGITALSTAGE.

May this Festival imbue you with the same enthusiasm and feeling of urgency that we, the Festival organisers and I, have felt in putting it together.