The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence is celebrating its 75^th anniversary!

For 75 years, and more than ever, in the magical setting of Aix-en-Provence and its region, the Festival has presented artistic proposals that renew approaches and repertoires, broaden the contours of opera genre, enter into dialogue with other art forms and change the relationship between works, audiences and venues – thus sketching new directions for creation. The opening event of this year's edition at the Théâtre de l'Archevêché is The Threepenny Opera, a masterpiece of satirical musical theatre performed by the troupe of the Comédie-Française, which marks Thomas Ostermeier's debut on an operatic stage.

Hailed as a major international event, the reopening of the Stadium de Vitrolles is just as emblematic: thanks to this modular venue, all kind of projects can arise, which help develop the Festival's identity and attract new audiences. This year, the Orchestre de Paris under the direction of Klaus Mäkelä will achieve the feat of performing Stravinsky's three most famous ballets in a single evening, freely revisited by inventive filmmakers – Rebecca Zlotowski, Bertrand Mandico and Evangelia Kranioti – who create parables showing art, the human condition, and nature in the grip of excess.

This desire for innovation runs through the entire programme, in particular with Così fan tutte – the work that marked the Festival's debut in 1948 – conceived by Dmitri Tcherniakov as a bitter role-playing game for experienced couples; the concert version of Meyerbeer's rare Prophète, proudly representing a repertoire into which the Festival has never ventured before; or a great cabaret evening in which the pianist Kirill Gerstein, one of the most fascinating musical personalities of our time, presides as a master of ceremonies. (…)

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