THE BALLETS RUSSES AND THE FESTIVAL D’AIX: A LONG HISTORY OF MODERN STAGECRAFT
— History of the Festival— At the Festival
Tuesday21March 2023
Share
The spirit of the Ballets russes — the epitome of interdisciplinarity and modernism — served as a guide for Gabriel Dussurget, the first director of the Festival d’Aix, as he forged the Festival’s artistic identity, favouring in particular the collaboration between painters-set designers and choreographers. In July 2023, an evening event devoted to Stravinsky’s three ballets The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring (works initially commissioned by Diaghilev for his company, the Ballets russes) and illustrated by three world-premiere films (by Rebecca Zlotowski, Bertrand Mandico and Evangelia Kranioti) has been programmed four times — thus reconfirming the Festival d'Aix’s position in this rich artistic tradition.
THE FOUNDING OF THE FESTIVAL BASED ON THE BALLETS RUSSES DANCE COMPANY
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russian impresario Serge de Diaghilev created the Ballets russes dance company, which toured Europe, including Paris, between 1909 and 1929. The Rite of Spring, a ballet composed by Stravinsky for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1913), is emblematic of this period of artistic fervour, and of a certain alliance proposed by the company between dance, sets and music.
Before he was even thinking about founding a festival in Aix, Gabriel Dussurget recounted the aesthetic shock he had discovered while attending performances in Paris during the interwar years:
The Ballets russes has revealed dance to me; but thanks to [the company] I have also fallen in love with painting.
Le Magicien d’Aix. Mémoires intimes, p. 48
The ideal of a total work of art conveyed by the Ballets russes would thus be reflected in the Festival’s operas.
STAGING AND CHOREOGRAPHING OPERA
The productions performed at the Festival d’Aix as of 1948 bore witness to this concept, which seeks harmony between the set, the costumes and the staging. Without actually initiating this practice of employing painters–set designers, Gabriel Dussurget transposed the practice to opera — a practice to which ballet directors and producers frequently resorted in the first half of the twentieth century. Having founded the Ballet du Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with Roland Petit and Boris Kochno in 1945, Gabriel Dussurget called upon many artists from this network to ask for their involvement.
By asking André Derain, Antoni Clavé, Georges Wakhévitch, Suzanne Lalique and André Masson to paint the canvases to be used as backdrops for all operas produced at the Festival, Gabriel Dussurget kept the spirit of the Ballets russes alive in Aix-en-Provence several decades after its heyday in Paris.
Gabriel Dussurget also called upon artists from the main discipline of the Ballets russes: i.e. dancers. Special attention was paid to the dance interludes of the various operas that graced the stage of the Archevêché: Monteverdi's L’Orfeo (1965) was choreographed by Clotilde Sakharoff (a figure of early-twentieth-century German expressionist dance), while Georges Skibine (the son of Boris Skibine, a dancer in Diaghilev's troupe) worked on the ballets in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (1962) and Idomeneo (1963).
Gabriel Dussurget thus applied the approach of the Ballets russes to the world of opera, thereby injecting that world with new life.
IGOR STRAVINSKY AT THE FESTIVAL
The works composed by Stravinsky for the Ballets russes have often been heard at various editions of the Festival, but mainly as concerts.
Petrushka was performed in 1973 by the Orchestre national de l’ORTF (conducted by Jean Martinon) in Le Tholonet; and The Firebird was performed in 1983 at the Pavillon Vendôme, under the baton of Jean-Claude Casadeus conducting the Orchestre national de Lille. The Rite of Spring entered the Festival’s repertoire in 1958 via a concert devoted to Stravinsky conducted by Hans Rosbaud at the head of the Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks, and has been performed numerous times since — including in 2016, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, as part of the Festival’s Stravinsky cycle (2015–2017).
Other Stravinsky works have also been performed as stage versions, such as his ‘Russian choreographic scenes for four pianos' entitled Les Noces, performed twice at the Festival, in 1962 and 1972.
The work was premiered in Paris in 1923 by the Ballets russes, with sets and costumes designed by Natalia Gontcharova (1881–1962), one of the main artists who worked under Diaghilev. The scenography, which remained almost untouched for the revival, transformed the Aix production into a direct tribute to the Ballets russes. Georges Skibine choreographed this production of Les Noces for two dancers (Pierre Lacotte and Hélène Sadovska), thus demonstrating the high degree of aesthetic continuity between the events, which occurred more than thirty years apart. The production featured vocalists Mady Mesplé, Christiane Gayraud, Michel Hamel and André Vessières.
Eventually, but only much later, Stravinsky’s operas — and other related works — found their way onto the Festival’s stages, with The Soldier's Tale (1965), followed by The Rake's Progress (1992 and 2017), The Nightingale (2010), Oedipus Rex (2016).
Therefore, the Ballets Russes evening in 2023 represents a return to the very first performances of Stravinsky’s works at the Festival. The talented and masterful Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Klaus Mäkelä, will achieve the remarkable feat of performing the three ballets in a single concert.
INNOVATIVE PROJECTS FOR THE STAGE
Many projects from the Festival’s subsequent periods have followed this tradition of creating a dialogue between the arts, and of especially focusing on musical and theatrical research, although they have not claimed to be ‘Ballets russes’. In 1961, Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, madrigals by Monteverdi, were staged and choreographed by Janine Charrat.
In more recent years, other a priori non-theatrical works have come to life at the Festival’s different venues: e.g. Winterreise and Trauernacht (2014); and even more recently, under the direction of Pierre Audi, Requiem (2019) and Resurrection (2022). By choosing to broaden the traditional limits of opera, the Festival d’Aix still questions the porosity between artistic disciplines and advocates for new theatrical forms of total works of art.
The Ballets russes evening, programmed at the Stadium de Vitrolles on 8, 10, 11 and 12 July, pays tribute to the modern spirit of the Ballets russes a century after their initial success in Paris, and to the course that the Festival d’Aix has always pursued: the interdisciplinarity that lies at the very heart of opera.
Anne Le Berre
English translation: Donald Stoudt
FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT BALLETS RUSSES
Ballets russes is supported by The Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
75 YEARS OF HISTORY
THE BALLETS RUSSES AND THE FESTIVAL D’AIX: A LONG HISTORY OF MODERN STAGECRAFT
The spirit of the Ballets Russes — the epitome of interdisciplinarity and modernism — served as a guide for Gabriel Dussurget, the first director of the Festival d’Aix, as he forged the Festival’s artistic identity, favouring in particular the collaboration between painters–set designers and choreographers.
— History of the Festival— At the Festival
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
THE TURANGALÎLA-SYMPHONIE AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSICAL CREATION AT THE FESTIVAL D’AIX
The Festival d’Aix is renowned for its operatic productions, and especially for the many operas that have premiered there. But since its foundation, the Festival has also been a centre for contemporary instrumental creation. Through its generous programme of concerts, the Festival offers its audiences and the international stage a window onto contemporary music and creation.
Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie (1949) — which will be conducted this summer by Esa-Pekka Salonen, leading the Orchestre de Paris — takes us back to the beginnings of the Festival d’Aix: it was there that Roger Désormière conducted the French premiere of the piece in 1950, only a few months after its world premiere in Boston.
Thus, since its early years, the Festival d’Aix has been a central arena for contemporary music, which, like its operatic productions, is one of the Festival’s key components. The following provides an overview of the symphonic and instrumental creations that have made Aix a vibrant space for instrumental composition since 1948.
1950 — OLIVIER MESSIAEN’S TURANGALÎLA-SYMPHONIE
Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the end of 1940s. After two years of work, the piece was performed at Symphony Hall in Boston and conducted by Leonard Bernstein; a few months later, on 25 July 1950, the French premiere took place at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, as part of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. You can listen to a short programme on France Musique devoted to this high-profile musical event.
The title of the Turangalîla-Symphonie, one of the composer’s iconic works, was taken from Sanskrit and can have many meanings — e.g. love song, elapsing time, or a horse’s gallop. The piece stands out especially for its bright colours and its atypical and varied choice of instrumentation.
Under the baton of Roger Désormière, the Orchestre national de France (known at the time as the Orchestre national de l’ORTF) accompanied the same two soloists who had performed the piano and ondes Martenot parts in Boston: Yvonne Loriod and Ginette Martenot.
Ginette Martenot was the sister of Maurice Martenot (1898-1980), who invented the ondes Martenot at the beginning of the twentieth century; as a performer, she played an important role in popularising the instrument. The ondes Martenot is a keyboard with an electromagnetic ribbon, which produces novel sounds and possesses a flexibility that is similar to that of the human voice. With a metal ring, you can also modulate the notes it plays.
Olivier Messiaen was not the first person to utilize this instrument, although his symphony helped spread its renown more quickly. The ondes Martenot had also been employed by other composers, like Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud, for some of their orchestral pieces. The two composers were members of “Les Six”, a group of avant-garde musicians who spent time with Jean Cocteau shortly after World War I and met frequently at the Festival d’Aix in the 1950s — either as simple festivalgoers, or as artists invited to present their work. Thus, an entire avant-garde musical network converged at Aix-en-Provence every summer, and the Turangalîla-Symphonie was but one manifestation of their talent.
However, the Festival’s relationship with this piece did not stop in 1950: in 2008, the Turangalîla-Symphonie was performed at Aix once again to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Olivier Messiaen’s birth. The Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling, accompanied Roger Muraro and Valérie Hartmann-Claverie on the ondes Martenot, this time at the Grand Théâtre de Provence.
On each occasion, the orchestra performing the symphony has been on the cutting edge of contemporary music: the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, for example, has often spearheaded world premieres at Aix-en-Provence. Founded in Baden-Baden in 1946, the orchestra first achieved success under the baton of Hans Rosbaud and then Ernst Bour, performing lyrical works by Mozart as well as of contemporary pieces.
This year, to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of Olivier Messiaen’s passing, the Festival will be presenting, for the third time, what is undoubtedly the composer’s most famous orchestral piece.
1970 — HENRI DUTILLEUX’S TOUT UN MONDE LOINTAIN…, CONCERTO FOR CELLO & ORCHESTRA
In the summer of 1970, another major work of contemporary music made its premiere at the Festival — and this time, it was a world premiere. Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013) composed the piece specifically for the cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch (1927–2007), a great twentieth-century performer, remembered notably for playing a Bach cello suite next the fallen Berlin wall in November 1989.
Gabriel Dussurget, founder and first director of the Festival, introduced the two artists to each other, as well as to Serge Baudo, a young conductor from Marseille. Rostropovitch learned the concerto in record time, just a few days before the premiere. The performance was a huge success — so much so that the artists played the entire concerto twice, in response to the audience’s sustained applause at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché.
[[{"fid":"42391","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Mstislav Rostropovich au violoncelle et Serge Baudo à la direction – répétition du Concerto pour violoncelle n°1 d’Henri Dutilleux, au Théâtre de l’Archevêché (juillet 1970), Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Mstislav Rostropovich au violoncelle et Serge Baudo à la direction – répétition du Concerto pour violoncelle n°1 d’Henri Dutilleux, au Théâtre de l’Archevêché (juillet 1970), Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"photographie Philippe Coqueux, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence, Musée des Tapisseries."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Mstislav Rostropovich au violoncelle et Serge Baudo à la direction – répétition du Concerto pour violoncelle n°1 d’Henri Dutilleux, au Théâtre de l’Archevêché (juillet 1970), Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Mstislav Rostropovich au violoncelle et Serge Baudo à la direction – répétition du Concerto pour violoncelle n°1 d’Henri Dutilleux, au Théâtre de l’Archevêché (juillet 1970), Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"photographie Philippe Coqueux, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence, Musée des Tapisseries."}},"attributes":{"alt":"Mstislav Rostropovich au violoncelle et Serge Baudo à la direction – répétition du Concerto pour violoncelle n°1 d’Henri Dutilleux, au Théâtre de l’Archevêché (juillet 1970), Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique","title":"Mstislav Rostropovich au violoncelle et Serge Baudo à la direction – répétition du Concerto pour violoncelle n°1 d’Henri Dutilleux, au Théâtre de l’Archevêché (juillet 1970), Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"1"}}]]Mstislav Rostropovich at the cello and Serge Baudo in the conductor's pit – rehearsal of Henri Dutilleux's Concerto for Cello n°1 d’Henri Dutilleux, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché (July 1970), Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique, photographie Philippe Coqueux, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence, Musée des Tapisseries.
—
The work was based on Charles Baudelaire’s “La Chevelure”, a poem in five movements that evokes a world of magical reverie. The sounds of the marimba, the glockenspiel and the celesta enhance this harmonic journey composed by Henri Dutilleux.
1977-1986 : THE CENTRE ACANTHES AT AIX: CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AT THE HEART OF THE FESTIVAL
This creative momentum was perpetuated thanks to the bond formed at the end of the 1970s between the Festival and the brand-new Centre Acanthes — originally the Centre Sirius, named for a piece of electroacoustic music by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The world premiere of Sirius, coproduced by the Festival d’Aix, marked the beginning of a decade-long collaboration and an exploration of contemporary music at the Festival.
[[{"fid":"42392","view_mode":"wysiwyg","fields":{"format":"wysiwyg","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Extrait du programme de salle 1977 : annonce de la création mondiale de Sirius (Karlheinz Stockhausen), le 8 août 1977","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Extrait du programme de salle 1977 : annonce de la création mondiale de Sirius (Karlheinz Stockhausen), le 8 août 1977","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, programme de salle 1977, Association pour le Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"7":{"format":"wysiwyg","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Extrait du programme de salle 1977 : annonce de la création mondiale de Sirius (Karlheinz Stockhausen), le 8 août 1977","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Extrait du programme de salle 1977 : annonce de la création mondiale de Sirius (Karlheinz Stockhausen), le 8 août 1977","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, programme de salle 1977, Association pour le Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence."}},"attributes":{"alt":"Extrait du programme de salle 1977 : annonce de la création mondiale de Sirius (Karlheinz Stockhausen), le 8 août 1977","title":"Extrait du programme de salle 1977 : annonce de la création mondiale de Sirius (Karlheinz Stockhausen), le 8 août 1977","class":"media-element file-wysiwyg","data-delta":"7"}}]]Extract of the concert programme dating back to 1977 : notice of Sirius' world premiere (Karlheinz Stockhausen), on 8 August 1977. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, programme de salle 1977, Association pour le Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence.
—
Every year, the Centre Acanthes would invite a major figure of contemporary music to Aix in order to introduce various trends to audiences, and instruct “trainees” (100–150 people per edition) in the cultivation of contemporary music. In the period from 1977 to 1986, Iannis Xenakis (1978 and 1983), György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen (1977), and Maurice Béjart (1982) came to Aix, where they taught masterclasses and supported the creation of innovative works. Sessions devoted to percussion instruments (1984) and musical theatre (1986) were also interspersed among the other courses at the Centre Acanthes.
The Festival would thus coproduce one or two of the Centre Acanthes’s concerts per edition and include them in the Festival programme; these concerts would generally be held at the Cloître Saint-Louis.
With the arrival of the first sessions of the Centre Acanthes — which would later become affiliated with the Festival d’Avignon (in 1987), and then Metz (in 2004), and finally IRCAM (since 2011) — many works by contemporary composers made their world premiere at the Festival d’Aix in the 1970s and 1980s, and helped solidify the Festival’s role in the propagation of contemporary music.
THE ACADÉMIE EUROPÉENNE DE MUSIQUE: A CRUCIBLE FOR MUSICAL CREATION SINCE 1998
When it was re-founded by Stéphane Lissner in 1998, the Festival added the Académie Européenne de Musique to its structure: this training centre for young artists focused primarily on singing and vocal instruction through residencies and masterclasses for not only singers, but for instrumentalists as well.
A lesser known, but equally important, aspect of the Académie is its residencies for composition, opera making, and chamber music. With these additional tools to support young musicians, the Académie has served as a crucible for musical creation for nearly a quarter of a century now.
[[{"fid":"42393","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Ana Sokolović et Carlo Rizzi (direction musicale) venant saluer à la fin de la création du Concerto pour orchestre de la compositrice bulgare, le 20 juillet 2015, avec l’Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerrané","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Ana Sokolović et Carlo Rizzi (direction musicale) venant saluer à la fin de la création du Concerto pour orchestre de la compositrice bulgare, le 20 juillet 2015, avec l’Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerrané","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Vincent Beaume"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"4":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Ana Sokolović et Carlo Rizzi (direction musicale) venant saluer à la fin de la création du Concerto pour orchestre de la compositrice bulgare, le 20 juillet 2015, avec l’Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerrané","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Ana Sokolović et Carlo Rizzi (direction musicale) venant saluer à la fin de la création du Concerto pour orchestre de la compositrice bulgare, le 20 juillet 2015, avec l’Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerrané","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Vincent Beaume"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Ana Sokolović et Carlo Rizzi (direction musicale) venant saluer à la fin de la création du Concerto pour orchestre de la compositrice bulgare, le 20 juillet 2015, avec l’Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerrané","title":"Ana Sokolović et Carlo Rizzi (direction musicale) venant saluer à la fin de la création du Concerto pour orchestre de la compositrice bulgare, le 20 juillet 2015, avec l’Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerrané","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"4"}}]]Ana Sokolović et Carlo Rizzi (conductor) on stage after the world premiere of the Concerto for Orchestra by the young Bulgarian composer, on 20 July 2015, with the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra. Photographie Vincent Beaume.
—
Ana Sokolović, a resident of the first Académie in 1998, thus returned to the Festival in 2015 for the European premiere of her Concerto for Orchestra at the Grand Théâtre de Provence. During its 2015 session, the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, was coached by musicians of the London Symphony Orchestra. Another artist who attended the composition residency was Alexandros Markéas, whose Rondo notturno premiered in 1998.
The composition residencies are not the only places where new works are created, since the Académie as a whole serves as a setting for encounters between young artists, like a veritable incubator for talent.
[[{"fid":"42394","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Quatuor Gerhard, Anaëlle Tourret (harpe) et Dorian Selmi (percussions), création mondiale de Lyrae (Camille Pépin) le 10 juillet 2017 dans la cour de l’Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède.","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Quatuor Gerhard, Anaëlle Tourret (harpe) et Dorian Selmi (percussions), création mondiale de Lyrae (Camille Pépin) le 10 juillet 2017 dans la cour de l’Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède.","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Vincent Beaume"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"5":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Quatuor Gerhard, Anaëlle Tourret (harpe) et Dorian Selmi (percussions), création mondiale de Lyrae (Camille Pépin) le 10 juillet 2017 dans la cour de l’Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède.","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Quatuor Gerhard, Anaëlle Tourret (harpe) et Dorian Selmi (percussions), création mondiale de Lyrae (Camille Pépin) le 10 juillet 2017 dans la cour de l’Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède.","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Vincent Beaume"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Quatuor Gerhard, Anaëlle Tourret (harpe) et Dorian Selmi (percussions), création mondiale de Lyrae (Camille Pépin) le 10 juillet 2017 dans la cour de l’Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède.","title":"Quatuor Gerhard, Anaëlle Tourret (harpe) et Dorian Selmi (percussions), création mondiale de Lyrae (Camille Pépin) le 10 juillet 2017 dans la cour de l’Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède.","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"5"}}]]Quatuor Gerhard, Anaëlle Tourret (harpsichord) and Dorian Selmi (percussions), world premiere of Lyrae (Camille Pépin) on 10 July 2017 in the Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède Courtyard. Photographie Vincent Beaume.
—
Hence, for the 2011 contemporary vocal residency, Karol Beffa composed Mes heures de fièvre to offer Académiciens a piece of music they could work to hone their skills. In 2017, as part of the chamber music residency, Camille Pépin (recipient of the 2020 Victoire de la musique classique award for composition) presented the world premiere of her piece Lyrae, performed by the Gerhard string quartet, Anaëlle Tourret (harp), and Dorian Selmi (percussion).
Lastly, former students of the Académie contribute to the vast movement of musical creation in the Festival’s programme. Two years after she participated in the 2012 Académie, Sabine Devieilhe premiered three works by Manfred Trojahn at the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud: L’Éternité à Lourmarin (based on a poem by René Char dedicated to Albert Camus), the prologue to Contrevenir, and L’Allégresse, all composed specifically for the soprano and for a chamber music ensemble.
[[{"fid":"42395","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) et l’Ensemble Modern dirigés par Franck Ollu à l’Auditorium Darius Milhaud pour un concert Manfred Trojahn le 13 juillet 2014.","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) et l’Ensemble Modern dirigés par Franck Ollu à l’Auditorium Darius Milhaud pour un concert Manfred Trojahn le 13 juillet 2014.","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Jean-Claude Carbonne"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"6":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) et l’Ensemble Modern dirigés par Franck Ollu à l’Auditorium Darius Milhaud pour un concert Manfred Trojahn le 13 juillet 2014.","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) et l’Ensemble Modern dirigés par Franck Ollu à l’Auditorium Darius Milhaud pour un concert Manfred Trojahn le 13 juillet 2014.","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Jean-Claude Carbonne"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) et l’Ensemble Modern dirigés par Franck Ollu à l’Auditorium Darius Milhaud pour un concert Manfred Trojahn le 13 juillet 2014.","title":"Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) et l’Ensemble Modern dirigés par Franck Ollu à l’Auditorium Darius Milhaud pour un concert Manfred Trojahn le 13 juillet 2014.","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"6"}}]]Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) and the Ensemble Modern conducted by Franck Ollu at the Auditorium Darius Milhaud for a Manfred Trojahn Concert on 13 July 2014. Photographie Jean-Claude Carbonne.
—
Often a meeting place for musical innovators, and always a centre for the creation of orchestral and chamber music works, the Festival has, since its inception, been a major space for contemporary musical creation.
— History of the Festival— At the Festival
Monday, May 2, 2022
MONTEVERDI AT THE FESTIVAL
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) will be in the spotlight in 2022, with two of his most famous operas: L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA (1642), the culmination of his work in musical drama, will be staged by Ted Huffman, and L’ORFEO (1607), his first dramatic work, will be performed in concert version. Leonardo García Alarcón, a specialist in Baroque music — and more specifically, in Monteverdi — will be conducting his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea.
From L’Orfeo to L’Incoronazione and via Monteverdi’s madrigals and religious music, the Festival has helped give the Italian composer his rightful place in the history of opera while still affirming his profound modernness.
MONTEVERDI’S L’ORFEO: THE BEGINNINGS OF OPERA AND OF THE FESTIVAL D’AIX
While the Festival d’Aix began under the auspices of Mozart, Monteverdi was never far away. In 1950, Gabriel Dussurget programmed a “Monteverdi concert”: it was a concert version of L’Orfeo, an opera rarely seen by audiences at the time. Although the composer’s oeuvre was not exactly unknown, it was seldom performed, or was performed for limited audiences. The fact that the Festival director had many musicologists in his entourage — including Georges de Saint-Foix, who had become familiar with Monteverdi when he attended the Schola Cantorum — explains this tendency in the early years of the Festival d’Aix.
Monteverdi quickly became one of the pillars on which the Festival built its identity: he was “Latin”, “Mediterranean”, and, above all, was considered the father of opera thanks to L’Orfeo (1607): he thus had his rightful place in a festival that strived to revitalize opera and embody the genre in Provence.
L’Orfeo was first performed on stage at the Festival in the summer of 1965, in a production by the Italian dramaturge Sandro Sequi. Rather than conform to previous, historically-informed versions, the orchestra, conducted by Gianfranco Rivoli, accompanied a production that had one major objective: to bring this founding work of opera into the twentieth century.
With this same “returning-to-the-roots-of-opera” spirit, and in an effort to rebuild an institution, Stéphane Lissner programmed a “Monteverdi trilogy” when he arrived at the helm of the Festival, with L’Orfeo in 1998, L’Incoronazione di Poppea in 1999, and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria in 2000.
Hence, L’Orfeo was once again present at the rebirth of the Festival in 1998: it was staged by the American choreographer Trisha Brown (1936–2017), who breathed new life into the work through dance. In 1965, Sandro Sequi’s production of L’Orfeo had likewise integrated choreography, thanks to the expressionist dancer and choreographer Clotilde Sakharoff (1892–1974).
The 1998 production, conducted by René Jacobs (a Belgian singer and conductor specialised in Baroque music), was reprised in 2007 under the Festival’s general director Bernard Foccroulle, with Stéphane Degout in the role of Orpheus.
[[{"fid":"9975","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L'Orfeo de Monteverdi - Mise en scène de Trisha Brown - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L'Orfeo de Monteverdi - Mise en scène de Trisha Brown - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Elisabeth Carecchio"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"8":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L'Orfeo de Monteverdi - Mise en scène de Trisha Brown - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L'Orfeo de Monteverdi - Mise en scène de Trisha Brown - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Elisabeth Carecchio"}},"attributes":{"alt":"L'Orfeo de Monteverdi - Mise en scène de Trisha Brown - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","title":"L'Orfeo de Monteverdi - Mise en scène de Trisha Brown - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"8"}}]]Stéphane Degout as Orphée in L'Orfeo by Monteverdi - Staged by Trisha Brown - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007 (revival of the 1998 production). Photographie Elisabeth Carecchio
—
One should also note the significant role of the Académie européenne de musique in the Festival’s productions of Monteverdi’s works — as though the youth of the Academy’s singers reflect the luminous birth of the operatic genre.
RE-PREMIERES: BAROQUE OPERA UNVEILED AT AIX
The Festival offered audiences a production of L’Incoronazione di Poppea in 1961, thereby staging one of the first productions of the work in the twentieth century. To recreate imperial Rome, Suzanne Lalique designed an ancient palace in trompe l’oeil and draped all the singers in togas.
[[{"fid":"41875","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L’Incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L’Incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"L’Incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961 reprise en 1964 (décors et costumes de Suzanne Lalique, mise en scène de Michel Crochot). Les chœurs Elisabeth Brasseur sur la scène du Théâtre de l’Archevêché. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique, photographie Bouville, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries. "},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L’Incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L’Incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"L’Incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961 reprise en 1964 (décors et costumes de Suzanne Lalique, mise en scène de Michel Crochot). Les chœurs Elisabeth Brasseur sur la scène du Théâtre de l’Archevêché. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique, photographie Bouville, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries. "}},"attributes":{"alt":"L’Incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","title":"L’Incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"1"}}]]
L’incoronazione di Poppea, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961 revived in 1964 (set and costumes by Suzanne Lalique, staged by Michel Crochot). Les chœurs Elisabeth Brasseur on the stage of the Théâtre de l’Archevêché. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique, photographie Bouville, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries.
—
Dans la fosse, Bruno Bartoletti dirige une large formation orchestrale « classique » et de grandes voix habituellement dimensionnées pour un répertoire lyrique italien du XIXe siècle : Teresa Berganza (Octavie) Robert Massard (Néron) et Jane Rhodes (Poppée) forment ainsi un trio quelque peu anachronique, mais convaincant. Sur les trois heures de musique auxquelles nous sommes désormais habitués, seule une heure et demie de représentation est assurée : de larges coupures sont effectuées, certains airs ne sont pas donnés (notamment le célèbre ‘Pur ti miro’ final) dans cette version de Gianfranco Malipiero.
While it delighted audiences, the production disappointed some music lovers and experienced musicologists. It went on tour at the “Mai de Versailles” festival in 1962, before returning to Aix in the summer of 1964.
[[{"fid":"41877","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Jane Rhodes en Poppée, dans la production de L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique, photographie Dany, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Jane Rhodes en Poppée, dans la production de L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique, photographie Dany, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries"}},"attributes":{"alt":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","title":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"2"}}]]Jane Rhodes as Poppée, in the production of 1961. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique, photographie Dany, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries
—
Nearly 40 years later, in 1999, a new production of L’Incoronazione di Poppea was yet another Festival milestone. Klaus Michael Grüber offered a sleek and sensual staging, with a set designed by the painter Gilles Aillaud. Tuscany pines and frescos of Pompei helped create a tableau of the Italian countryside in this meticulously-staged production with superbly directed actors.
[[{"fid":"41878","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Répétition de L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1999. Mireille Delunsch (Poppée) devant la fresque imaginée par Gilles Aillaud, inspirée des vestiges de Pompéi. Photographie Festival d’Aix."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"3":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Répétition de L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1999. Mireille Delunsch (Poppée) devant la fresque imaginée par Gilles Aillaud, inspirée des vestiges de Pompéi. Photographie Festival d’Aix."}},"attributes":{"alt":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","title":"L'incoronazione di Poppea de Monteverdi - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1961","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"3"}}]]Rehearsal of L’incoronazione di Poppea, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1999 (staged by Klaus Michael Grüber). Mireille Delunsch (Poppée) in front of the fresco imagined by Gilles Aillaud, inspired from the remains of Pompéi. Photographie Festival d’Aix.
—
The production was equally striking in terms of music, since it was the first opera that Marc Minkowski conducted at Aix-en-Provence. The conductor opted to use the so-called “Venice” manuscript, in which the plot is more focused around the couple formed by Nerone (Anne Sofie von Otter) and Poppea (Mireille Delunsch), and eliminates the role of the nurse. Sylvie Brunet portrayed an unsettling Ottavia alongside this couple.
Without including a “Baroque” orchestra, Marc Minkowski greatly enhanced the part of continuo (the instruments that play basso continuo in Baroque music) and offered a score full of éclat. The production was a great success and was reprised in 2000.
Finally, in 2000, as part of its ongoing commitment to introducing lesser-known works, the Festival programmed a production of Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria by the Académie européenne de musique, as the culmination of its vocal residency that same year.
[[{"fid":"41879","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2000","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2000","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria, (Théâtre du Jeu de Paume). Mise en scène d’Adrian Noble, 2000. Photographie Festival d’Aix-en-Provence."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"4":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2000","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2000","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria, (Théâtre du Jeu de Paume). Mise en scène d’Adrian Noble, 2000. Photographie Festival d’Aix-en-Provence."}},"attributes":{"alt":"Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2000","title":"Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2000","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"4"}}]]
Il Rittorno d’Ulisse in patria, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2000, revived in 2002 (staged by Adrian Noble). Photographie Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
—
MADRIGALS AND STAGING: THE FESTIVAL AS A CENTRE FOR EXPERIMENTATION
As of the 1960s, the Festival d’Aix offered staged versions of Monteverdi’s madrigals. The performances were conceived of as veritable demonstrations: they aimed to prove that the madrigal is one of the sources of opera and yet is intrinsically modern, through its minimalist means and its unprecedented emotional expression.
Among Monteverdi’s vast number of madrigals, the eighth book is a focal point: Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda in particular attracted the attention of Festival programmers and of stage directors.
In 1961, the Festival offered a choreographed version of Combattimento, in which two stars of the Opéra de Paris, Claude Bessy and Attilio Labis, portrayed the dancing doubles of Jane Berbié and Luigi Alva. In 1967, this scena from Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (i.e. the eighth book of madrigals) was staged once again by a dancer: Pierre Lacotte, alongside set designer François Ganeau, organised an evening around Combattimento, “under the green vault of plane trees in Le Tholonet”, for a single performance on 26 July 1967.
In these versions, focus was placed on dance; for, as it is known, Court galas consisted of true festive balls, which were integrated into Monteverdi’s dramatic works.
In 1970, there was a new attempt at recreating the supposed ambiance of the Court of Mantua in the early seventeenth century. With its period costumes and Baroque dances, Sandro Sequi’s production, performed in the courtyard of the Palais de l’Archevé (which mirrored the palace of Mantua), made the Festival d’Aix a new birthplace for opera.
[[{"fid":"41880","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue (Théâtre de l’Archevêché). Mise en scène de Sandro Sequi, 1970. Orchestre : la Camerata di Cremona, et danse : Académie Nationale de Rome. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"5":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue (Théâtre de l’Archevêché). Mise en scène de Sandro Sequi, 1970. Orchestre : la Camerata di Cremona, et danse : Académie Nationale de Rome. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries."}},"attributes":{"alt":"Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","title":"Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"5"}}]]
Soirée à la Cour de Mantoue, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970 (staged by Sandro Sequi). Orchestra : la Camerata di Cremona, et danse : Académie Nationale de Rome. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Coqueux, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence – Musée des Tapisseries.
—
In 1999, Stéphane Lissner put together another “evening of madrigals” at the Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède, with a programme structured around Cena Furiosa, in a true musical banquet staged by Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski and conducted by Marc Minkowski.
These madrigal-based stagings have always been one of the specialities of the Festival d’Aix, and have revealed Monteverdi’s madrigal work to be a linchpin in his overall oeuvre and a turning point in the history of opera. The productions performed at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché and the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume honoured these works as opera productions in their own right.
[[{"fid":"41881","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Les Madrigaux de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Les Madrigaux de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Madrigaux (Théâtre du Jeu de Paume). Mise en scène d’Arco Renz et direction musicale de Kenneth Weiss, 2007. Un spectacle de l’Académie européenne de musique, aboutissement de sa résidence de chant. Photographie Elisabeth Carecchio"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"6":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Les Madrigaux de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Les Madrigaux de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Madrigaux (Théâtre du Jeu de Paume). Mise en scène d’Arco Renz et direction musicale de Kenneth Weiss, 2007. Un spectacle de l’Académie européenne de musique, aboutissement de sa résidence de chant. Photographie Elisabeth Carecchio"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Les Madrigaux de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","title":"Les Madrigaux de Monteverdi, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"6"}}]]
Madrigaux, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007. (staged by Arco Renz and conducted by Kenneth Weiss). A performance of the Académie européenne de musique. Photographie Elisabeth Carecchio
—
MONTEVERDI: A BRIDGE BETWEEN EARLY AND CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Through all of the productions and concerts of Monteverdi’s work that it has offered, the Festival d’Aix has been an educational space for his oeuvre.
It also helped develop a discourse around Monteverdi, by identifying him both as the first link in a chain of great figures in opera — and thereby connecting him to Lully, Mozart and Wagner — and as the founder of the modern language of music. This double definition is an essential part of the Festival’s identity as well.
In the programme of the 1967 Festival, you could read this tribute by Claude Rostand for the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi’ birth: “The soul of the Festival d’Aix is opera. And it was only fitting that this festival should aim to honour with constancy, regularity and diversity the creator of opera, the one who, by inventing the genre, and bringing it from the threshold of lyrical history to its most complete point of perfection, solved, in advance and at a single stroke, all the technical and expressive problems on which its most ingenious or brilliant successors would then work, or even stumble, throughout the centuries.”
The Festival has often created a dialogue between Monteverdi’s oeuvre and that of contemporary composers, as in its 1983 edition: Ian Strasfogel’s production of Il Combattimento was preceded by Lucianno Berio’s production of Passaggio (1963). This French premiere of a messa in scena for soprano, double chorus and orchestra — a reflection on the genre of opera, on singing and on dramaturgy — echoes the experimentation carried out by Monteverdi four centuries earlier.
PERFORMANCES: SPECIALISING IN BAROQUE MUSIC
A long series of ensembles specialised in Monteverdi’s work have performed at Aix — in concerts, operas and staged madrigals — and the tendency has accelerated since the 1980s, including René Jacobs, the Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie, and, this year, Leonardo García Alarcón’s ensemble Cappella Mediterranea.
The Festival also programmes concerts of Monteverdi’s religious music, often performed by the same musical groups that are specialised in Baroque repertoires.
In 1965, the Princeton Choir came to Aix to perform Selva Morale e spirituale (1641), a collection of 40 religious pieces that are closely related to Monteverdi’s non-religious music. Then on 22 July 1992, Les Arts Florissants performed fragments of the same Selva morale e spirituale at the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur.
— History of the Festival— At the Festival
Monday, April 4, 2022
THE MANY FACES OF ROSSINI AT AIX
Rossini’s Moses and Pharaoh (1827) is being performed for the first time this summer at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. This rare work, and grand opera, corresponds to a long-standing tradition of the Festival, which has introduced and brought to life Rossini’s operas and religious music.
After the opera buffa (Il barbiere di Siviglia), the opera seria (with productions of Semiramide and Tancredi in the early 1980s), and the composer’s religious music during the 1990s, the Festival is starting a new Rossinian chapter in 2022 with Moses and Pharaoh.
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA: A SINGLE ROSSINIAN GEM IN A WORLD OF MOZART
Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816) is one of the Festival’s “founding” productions. It premiered in 1953, was reprised five times by 1969, and is deeply connected to the period during which Gabriel Dussurget served as director of the Festival. Alongside Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia completed Mozart’s operas and became part of the canon of works for the early years of the Festival.
Although it is quite different from early music and from Mozart’s oeuvre, Rossini’s opera found its place at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence thanks to its subject matter. The libretto of Barbiere, like that of Le nozze di Figaro, is based on Beaumarchais’s plays Le Barbier de Séville (1775) and Le Mariage de Figaro (1784).
Hence, the two operas make up a diptych that justified including Barbiere, a nineteenth-century opera buffa, as part of the Festival. Critics at the time proclaimed Rossini as “the other tutelary deity of Mediterranean Aix”, and saw in his approach the same spirit and the same lightness as in Mozart’s.
[[{"fid":"41789","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia de Gioacchino Rossini - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia de Gioacchino Rossini - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967. Roger Soyer dans le rôle de Basilio, devant le clavecin et le paravent peints par André Derain. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Bouville, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia de Gioacchino Rossini - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia de Gioacchino Rossini - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967. Roger Soyer dans le rôle de Basilio, devant le clavecin et le paravent peints par André Derain. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Bouville, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries."}},"attributes":{"alt":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia de Gioacchino Rossini - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967","title":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia de Gioacchino Rossini - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"1"}}]]
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1967. Roger Soyer in the role of Basilio, in front of André Derain's harpsichord and folding screen. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Bouville, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries.
—
At a time when Barbiere was practically the only work by Rossini being performed, the opera was appreciated for its rhythm, its lightness, and its theatricality. The sets by André Derain, the joyful staging by Maurice Sarazzin, the conducting by Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini (who had just been named director of La Scala in Milan the year Barbiere premiered at Aix), and the performances by Teresa Berganza, Luigi Alva, Marcello Cortis and Roger Soyer, beginning in the late 1950s, ensured its popularity.
THE FESTIVAL D’AIX AND THE “PURE PLEASURE” OF ROSSINI
At the beginning of the 1970s, another one of Rossini’s opera buffa entered the Festival repertoire: L’italiana in Algeri (1970). It was followed by Il turco in Italia (1982) and La Cenerentola (1983). These works were seen as an extension of Barbiere and were appreciated for the same aesthetic qualities: freshness, humour, and exoticism. The productions of these turquerie-themed operas were warmly received by audiences.
[[{"fid":"41790","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L’Italiana in Algeri - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L’Italiana in Algeri - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Matias, maquette de costumes de L’Italiana in Algeri, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"L’Italiana in Algeri - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"L’Italiana in Algeri - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Matias, maquette de costumes de L’Italiana in Algeri, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries."}},"attributes":{"alt":"L’Italiana in Algeri - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","title":"L’Italiana in Algeri - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"2"}}]]Matias, costumes models of L’Italiana in Algeri, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1970. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries.
—
This repertoire has maintained a place of honour at the Festival d’Aix, and has been the subject of frequent productions up through even recent years.
[[{"fid":"41791","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984 (mise en scène de Roberto de Simone, décors de Mauro Carosi et costumes d’Odette Nicoletti). Au centre, Magali Damonte. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Ville d’Aix-en-Provence."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"3":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984 (mise en scène de Roberto de Simone, décors de Mauro Carosi et costumes d’Odette Nicoletti). Au centre, Magali Damonte. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Ville d’Aix-en-Provence."}},"attributes":{"alt":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984","title":"Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"3"}}]]
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 1984 (staging by Roberto de Simone, set design by de Mauro Carosi and costumes by Odette Nicoletti). At centre stage, Magali Damonte. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Ville d’Aix-en-Provence.
—
[[{"fid":"41792","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014 (mise en scène de Christopher Alden, décors d’Andrew Lieberman). Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Pascal Victor / ArtcomPress."},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"4":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014 (mise en scène de Christopher Alden, décors d’Andrew Lieberman). Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Pascal Victor / ArtcomPress."}},"attributes":{"alt":"Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","title":"Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"4"}}]]
Il Turco in Italia, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014 (staging by Christopher Alden, set design by Andrew Lieberman). Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Pascal Victor / ArtcomPress.
—
A (RE-)PREMIERE: BRINGING NEW LIFE TO ROSSINI’S OPERA SERIA
Former opera singer Bernard Lefort took over as director of the Festival in 1974 and greatly modified the orientation of its repertoire. Following the revival of Mozart, it was now time to revive another portion of Rossini’s oeuvre: the opera seria.
The Pesaro Festival (Italy), held in Rossini’s birthplace, was founded in 1980 and aimed to restore the prestige of the composer’s entire operatic oeuvre. Yet it was at Aix-en-Provence that Rossini’s “serious” works soon found new life, with Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra (1975); Semiramide (1980); and Tancredi (1981).
This movement began in 1975 with a brand new production of Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra at the Arles Amphitheatre. Montserrat Caballé took on the title role. The production led to a recording that was long considered the definitive version, until the end of the 1990s.
In 1980 and 1981, Bernard Lefort ended his time as Festival director with two crowning achievements — and two huge successes —before assuming his new duties at the helm of the Opéra de Paris. The productions of Semiramide (staged by Pier Luigi Pizzi) and Tancredi (staged by Jean-Claude Auvray) proved that Rossini was more than just the composer of the light opera Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Their success can be attributed especially to the two pairs of singers who embodied the protagonists of these operas. Very demanding in terms of both vocal virtuosity and dramatic expression, these pairs of women performers (with mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne playing the male characters in both productions) portrayed the painful separation of couples wrenched apart by political stakes. The brilliant execution of the arias within the innovative staging transformed these productions into great moments in the history of the Festival.
VIDEO REPORT (IN FRENCH): MONTSERRAT CABALLÉ (SEMIRAMIS) & MARYLIN HORNE (ARSACE)
Louis Erlo, the Festival director from 1982 to 1996, furthered Bernard Lefort’s momentum. In 1988, he programmed Armida, which was a more mitigated success despite its top-level cast, including the American soprano June Anderson in the role of Armida.
This summer, the grand opera Moses and Pharaoh will also feature great singers, and will pursue the Festival’s commitment to excellence when staging Rossini’s works: Michele Pertusi, Pene Pati and Jeanine De Bique will all be participating in this new production.
PERFORMING ROSSINI: FROM THE OPERA STAGE TO THE CONCERT HALL
As the 1990s were being ushered in, Rossini’s repertoire found a new place at the Festival. In 1992, the world celebrated the bicentenary of the composer’s birth. This event intensified research around his oeuvre and brought out another aspect of the musician — as a composer of religious music.
Rossini had finally lost his label as a composer of light opera, and was lauded for the rich musical diversity of his oeuvre.
Beginning in 1990, the Festival presented concerts of Messa di Gloria (1820), Stabat Mater (1842) and Petite messe solennelle (1864) at the Aix Cathedral.
In 1992, the Festival d’Aix marked the bicentenary of Rossini’s birth in its own way, by offering a tribute concert by Samuel Ramey at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché. This master of bel canto had participated in the 1980 production of Semiramide. In 1992, he sang excerpts from Barbiere, Semiramide and Tancredi — Rossini’s most noteworthy operas at the Festival.
For Parade[s] in 2014, the orchestra and soloists of the production of Il turco in Italia celebrated the composer once again, this time on the Cours Mirabeau during a large free concert.
[[{"fid":"41793","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Alessandro Corbelli et Olga Peretyatko interprètent des extraits du Turco in Italia sur le cours Mirabeau, sous la statue du Roi René, à l’occasion du concert public Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014. Ils sont dirigés par Marc Minkowski et accompagnés par les Musiciens du Louvre. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Festival d’Aix / Photographie Patrick Berger / ArtcomPress"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"6":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Alessandro Corbelli et Olga Peretyatko interprètent des extraits du Turco in Italia sur le cours Mirabeau, sous la statue du Roi René, à l’occasion du concert public Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014. Ils sont dirigés par Marc Minkowski et accompagnés par les Musiciens du Louvre. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Festival d’Aix / Photographie Patrick Berger / ArtcomPress"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","title":"Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"6"}}]]Alessandro Corbelli and Olga Peretyatko interpret extracts from Il Turco in Italia on the cours Mirabeau, under the statue of the Roi René, on the occasion of the concert Parade[s] - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2014. Both are conducted by Marc Minkowski and accompanied by the Musiciens du Louvre. Fonds du Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, photographie Festival d’Aix
—
Now, in 2022, Florian Sempey and Karine Deshayes will be exploring yet another facet of Rossini at the Festival by performing a concert of art songs by the composer.
— History of the Festival— At the Festival
Monday, March 21, 2022
MOZART’S IDOMENEO: A [RE-]PREMIERE
This year, the Festival is offering a new production of Mozart’s Idomeneo, Re di Creta (1781). It is being staged by Satoshi Miyagi — an internationally renowned Japanese stage director, who combines Eastern and Western theatrical traditions, and whose Idomeneo is the first opera he has staged in Europe — and conducted by Raphaël Pichon — director of the Pygmalion ensemble, a loyal friend of the Festival, and a conductor who is celebrated for his interpretations of ancient and classical music. This is only the fourth production of this rare work offered by the Festival d’Aix since the Festival was founded in 1948.
Aix-en-Provence is the French arena of choice for re-introducing Mozart to the general public. Some of the Austrian composer’s works had already been rediscovered by audiences a first time during the interwar period, but were often performed in an abridged or partial form, in French instead of German or Italian. The Festival carried on this musical resurrection after World War II. Quickly forgotten after its premiere, rediscovered at the turn of the twentieth century — notably by Strauss — and then again at the beginning of the 1950s at Salzburg and Glyndebourne, Idomeneo became a part of the Festival’s Mozartian canon in 1963. The Festival d’Aix then became a musical laboratory for work on Idomeneo, and more broadly on Mozart’s entire operatic oeuvre, in particular by entrusting the musical direction to orchestras or ensembles specialised in the interpretation of music from the Classical period.
1963–1966: GIVING NEW LIFE TO IDOMENEO
Gabriel Dussurget, founder and artistic director of the Festival from 1948 to 1972, wanted to give new life to Mozart’s opera seria in Provence. The production was a great success, and was reprised in 1966. Each time, Peter Maag conducted the Concerts Colonne orchestra. The Swiss conductor, who was at the beginning of his career as a great conductor of Mozartian operas, revived Mozart’s score for the Aix audience, in a version that was nevertheless slightly abridged. Suzanne Lalique designed the sets for this first production of Idomeneo at the Festival. The large articulated dragon that emerges from the waves during the second act was without a doubt the emblematic object for the work. The young artist had made a name for herself in painting and in set design in the interwar period; in particular, she had designed the set for productions staged by Jean Meyer at the Comédie Française. At the Festival d’Aix, Gabriel Dussurget asked her to work on Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1960), Monteverdi’s Il combatimento and L’incoronazione di Poppea (1961), and then Idomeneo.
In Idomeneo, Mozart composed two moments of ballet: an intermezzo and a final ballet. In 1963, George Skibine, ballet master at the Opéra de Paris and former dancer for Ballets Russes, choreographed the intermezzo of Act 1. It wasn’t the only time heirs to the Ballets Russes participated in the Festival: Gabriel Dussurget had a decided taste for dance styles and companies he had discovered through his work at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. He wanted to make Aix a melting pot for artistic modernity and recreate this intermingling of plastic arts, music and dance.
1986: IDOMENEO’S FIRST FORAY INTO THE FAR EAST
In 1986, Louis Erlo —director of the Festival from 1982 to 1996, and concomitantly director of the Opéra de Lyon and the Opéra Studio of the Opéra de Paris — put on a new version of the work. It was conducted by Hans Graf, an expert in Mozart and head of the Mozarteum in Salzburg at the time. The stage director was Pierre Strosser, who offered a streamlined set design loosely based on the Noh theatre. On a long inclined plane that represented the shores of Crete, the characters slowly marched. The dramatic tension of Mozart’s music was echoed in the nearly immobile stage direction.
[[{"fid":"41768","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":false,"field_caption[fr][0][value]":"DR"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"4":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":false,"field_caption[fr][0][value]":"DR"}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"4"}}]]Idomeneo, produced in 1986. Act II, n°11, « Se il padre perdei », Sylvia Greenberg and Philip Langridge.
Patrice Cauchetier designed costumes inspired by Korean styles, and thereby extended the Asian universe evoked by Pierre Strosser. Patrice Cauchetier is one of the leading costume designers of his generation, and has a special talent for creating theatrical costumes that are credible, rooted in their era, and historically informed. His work for Idomeneo is an excellent example of his talent. This year, with Satoshi Miyagi’s stage direction, Idomeneo will join the imaginary dimension of the Far East for a second time, with influences from Korea in 1986 and from Japan in 2022.
[[{"fid":"41775","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Patrice Cauchetier, maquettes de costumes pour Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, don de l’artiste","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Patrice Cauchetier, maquettes de costumes pour Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, don de l’artiste","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Patrice Cauchetier, maquettes de costumes pour Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, don de l’artiste"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"7":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Patrice Cauchetier, maquettes de costumes pour Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, don de l’artiste","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Patrice Cauchetier, maquettes de costumes pour Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, don de l’artiste","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Patrice Cauchetier, maquettes de costumes pour Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, don de l’artiste"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Patrice Cauchetier, maquettes de costumes pour Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, don de l’artiste","title":"Patrice Cauchetier, maquettes de costumes pour Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, don de l’artiste","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"7"}}]]
Patrice Cauchetier, costumes model for Idomeneo, 1986. Fonds du Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence - Musée des Tapisseries, donation of the artist.
2009: IDOMENEO BY OLIVIER PY
In 2009, Bernard Foccroulle was the next person to programme Idomeneo: he entrusted the musical direction to the Musiciens du Louvre, under the baton of Marc Minkowski.
[[{"fid":"41769","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Elisabeth Carecchio"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"5":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Elisabeth Carecchio"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","title":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"5"}}]]Idomeneo by Mozart in Olivier Py's staging - Richard Croft (Idomeneo), conducted by Marc Minkowski - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009 © Elisabeth Carecchio
In an impressive set designed by Pierre-André Weitz — a veritable “cosmogony on three levels” — Olivier Py treated Idomeneo’s mythological theme as a social issue. The conflict between Idamante and his father echoed the subconscious malaise of the post-1968 generation, who were bewildered by the arbitrary orders of their elders. The chorus, who performed under large scaffolding, amplified the familial tragedy that was unfolding above them.
[[{"fid":"41770","view_mode":"newsletter","fields":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Elisabeth Carecchio"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"6":{"format":"newsletter","field_file_image_alt_text[fr][0][value]":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","field_file_image_title_text[fr][0][value]":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","field_caption[fr][0][value]":"Elisabeth Carecchio"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","title":"Idomeneo de Mozart dans la mise en scène d'Olivier Py - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009","class":"media-element file-newsletter","data-delta":"6"}}]]Idomeneo de Mozart in Olivier Py's staging - RIAS Kammerchor in a set by Pierre Weitz - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2009 / © Elisabeth Carecchio
— History of the Festival— At the Festival
Tuesday, March 8, 2022