News

Festival d'Aix-en-Provence opening

3 July 2017

The Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, and the Provence region (events in around 50 cities) principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music. The 69th edition of the Festival will take place between 3rd and 22th of July 2017.

This year the Festival will present 5 new opera productions. Pinnochio, commissioned by the festival, is the opening event on July 3 “The tale of Pinocchio is a true coming of age story: we are not born free, but free we must become” Bernard Foccroulle, director of the Festival, said. Then will follow Carmen, Don Giovanni, Erismena and The Rake’s progress. The festival will also present an opera in concert version: Eugene Onegin, and 16 other concerts.

The festival is involved in the digital transition and will provide this year 100 individual tablets for subtitles available to the public in 6 languages.

In parallel of the Festival, the Academie will take place with around 900 applications, 600 auditions, 15 masterclasses with 24 composers. The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence Académie is since 1998, a center of excellence for vocal and instrumental training, a platform for reflection, experimentation and creation of opera and innovative forms, and also a place that caters for the professional development of young artists.

As part of its commitment to making art and culture more accessible, and in the firm belief that the future of opera must be prepared right now, the Festival d’Aix set up Passerelles – its socio-artistic and educational programmes – in 2007. The initiative aims to include a younger, more diverse audience in the Festival, and offer them an opportunity to experience opera. Constantly evolving, Passerelles is an innovative laboratory that has been enriched over the years by a number of exchanges in which teachers and school partners, community associations and social stakeholders, artist-educators and Festival audiences and teams all play an active part.
In 2016, more than 6,600 participants from 50 surrounding municipalities, whether urban neighbourhoods or villages, have been involved in the various Passerelles projects.

Read the full press release here.