Festival d'Aix-en-Provence Announces Detailed 2011 Season

From July 5 to 25, 2011, the 63rd season of Festival d'Aix-en-Provence will offer six new opera and musical Theater Productions including two world premieres; a concert series featuring symphonic works, chamber music and recitals; and the programs of the 14th Académie Européenne de Musique. In all, more than sixty performances will be dispersed over eight venues with picturesque surroundings and landscapes in the heart of Provence. The Festival's international productions, including Shostakovich's The Nose, a major success at the Metropolitan Opera last spring, and most recently Stravinsky's The Nightingale and Other Tales, in acclaimed performances by the Canadian Opera Company at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, have established Aix as an important leader in the opera world.

For its second year in residence, the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis and Valery Gergiev, will give sixteen opera performances and two symphonic concerts. Chamber music concerts and recitals by exceptional soloists, highlighted by dialogue between traditional and contemporary music, will round off one of the richest concert programs the Festival d'Aix has ever presented.

The opera and musical theater works in the 2011 season of the Festival d'Aix range from works of the early 18th up to the 21st century and offer a vast variety of styles, reflecting the Festival's mission of encouraging new works, presenting traditional works in modern interpretations, and expanding the boundaries of the art form. La Clemenza di Tito, Mozart's Enlightenment gloss on opera seria runs alongside Verdi's classic La Traviata, explored with a contemporary realism which illuminates the scandal that followed the opera's 1853 premiere. The pastoral elegy Acis and Galatea is worlds away from the pungent irony of Gogol and Shostakovich in The Nose. For Joël Pommerat's first appearance in the opera field, his strange and elusive characters will find their expression in music with a score by Oscar Bianchi in Thanks to my Eyes (world premiere), as spectators will be progressively lured into a story that reveals itself as it goes, while the stage alternates between poetic darkness and breaches of light. Jérôme Combier and Pierre Nouvel set off on the traces of a character named Austerlitz, following in his tracks and filming the clues dispersed by W.G. Sebald in his eponymous novel. Austerlitz (world premiere) is not an opera in the literal sense, but a visual and musical production which thoroughly reflects the artistic exploration characteristic of our times. Despite their disparities in musical and dramatic style, these diverse operatic selections are united by their focus on figures on the margins of society, in conflict with their environment and suffering from inner turmoil.

In accordance with this theme, the works of Shostakovich, a composer who showed rare freedom and audacity in the face of official censure, will be at the core of the concerts programmed for the Festival and the Académie. His works will also shed new light on the works juxtaposed with them, by those who were a source of inspiration to the Russian composer, including Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Mahler.

In the words of Festival General Director Bernard Foccroulle, "A common conception underlies the artistic programming and implementation, the relationships with the artists and audiences: opera, as we conceive of it, is a living art, and the Festival d'Aix, we may hope, a place dedicated to creating and sharing. May this 2011 Edition spark off a flow of encounters and debates, of emotions and passions."

The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence has long devoted much of its efforts to training and promoting young artists, thanks to its Académie Européenne de Musique, now celebrating its 14th anniversary. Its programs include The Vocal Académie, including a component established last year for pianists wishing to perfect their skills as vocal accompanists or directors, The Chamber Music Académie, and The Opera in Creation Workshop, which brings together young composers, librettists, dramaturgs, stage directors, scenic designers, costume designers, choreographers and other creators, puts them to work on themes and issues of contemporary lyric creation through meetings, lectures and debates. The Youth Orchestra of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, now in its second season and supported by the musicians of the LSO, welcomes instrumentalists in the final stage of their studies for a symphonic concert which brings the Festival to a close.

OPERA AND MUSICAL THEATER
Tuesday 5 and Saturday 9 July 2011 at 8pm, Wednesday 6, Friday 8 and Monday 11 July 2011 at 6pm. Théâtre du Jeu de Paume

Oscar Bianchi*
THANKS TO MY EYES
Libretto by Joël Pommerat and Oscar Bianchi. Adapted from the play by Pommerat, Grâce à mes yeux.

Musical Director - Franck Ollu
Stage Director - Joël Pommerat
Scenic Designer and Lighting - Eric Soyer
Costumes - Isabelle Deffin

Aymar - Hagen Matzeit
The Father - Brian Bannatyne-Scott
The Mother - Anne Rotger
A Woman in the Night - Keren Motseri
A Young Blonde Woman - Fflur Wyn

Orchestra - Ensemble Modern

WORLD PREMIERE Commissioned by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and T&M-Paris / Réseau Varèse
New production of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, in co-production with T&M-Paris/Théâtre de Gennevilliers CDNCC, the Royal Theatre La Monnaie in Brussels and Musica, the Festival of Today's Music in Strasbourg.

Supported by the Réseau Varèse, subsidized by the Cultural Programme of the European Commission

* Artist who recently participated in the «Académie Européenne de Musique»

Wednesday 6, Friday 8, Saturday 9, Tuesday 12, Saturday 16, Monday 18, Wednesday 20, Friday 22, Sunday 24 July 2011 at 9:30pm, Thursday 14 July 2011 at 10pm. Théâtre de l'Archevêché

Giuseppe Verdi
LA TRAVIATA
Opera in three acts, libretto by Francesco Maria Piave adapted from The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. Created on 6th March 1853 at La Fenice in Venice.

Musical Director - Louis Langrée
Stage Director - Jean-François Sivadier
Scenic Designer - Alexandre de Dardel
Costumes - Virginie Gervaise
Lighting - Philippe Berthomé

Violetta Valéry - Natalie Dessay (July 6, 9, 12, 16, 20, 24)
Irina Lungu (July 8, 14, 18, 22)

Giorgio Germont - Ludovic Tézier

Alfredo Germont - Charles Castronovo (July 6, 9, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24)
Fabrizio Mercurio (July 8, 18)

Annina - Adelina Scarabelli
Flora Bervoix - Silvia de La Muela*
Gastone de Letorière - Manuel Nunez Camelino
Barone Douphol - Kostas Smoriginas
Marchese D'Obigny - Andrea Mastroni
Dottor Grenvil - Maurizio Lo Piccolo*

Choir - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Orchestra - London Symphony Orchestra

NEW PRODUCTION OF THE FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE, in co-production with the Wiener Staatsoper and the Dijon Opera House. Associate Co-producer: Theatre of Caen.

* Artists who participated in the «Académie Européenne de Musique»

Thursday 7, Sunday 10, Wednesday 13, Friday 15, Tuesday 19,Thursday 21 July 2011 at 9:30pm. Théâtre de l'Archevêché

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
LA CLEMENZA DI TITO - The Clemency of Titus
Opera seria in two acts, K.621, libretto by Caterino Mazzolà adapted from Pietro Metastasio. Created on 6th September 1791 at the Prague National Theater.

Musical Director - Sir Colin Davis
Stage and Scenic Director - David McVicar
Costumes - Jenny Tiramani
Lighting - Jennifer Tipton

Titus - John Mark Ainsley
Vitellia - Vitellia Carmen Giannattasio
Sesto - Sarah Connolly
Annio - Anna Stephany*
Servilia - Simona Mihai
Publio - Darren Jeffery

Choir - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Orchestra - London Symphony Orchestra

NEW PRODUCTION OF THE FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE, in co-production with the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and Marseille Opera House.

* Artist who participated in the « Académie européenne de Musique »

Friday 8 and Tuesday 12 July 2011 at 8pm, Sunday 10 and Thursday 14 July 2011 at 5pm. Grand Théâtre de Provence

Dimitri Shostakovich
THE NOSE
Opera in three acts and ten scenes, libretto by Dimitri Shostakovich, Alexandre Preis, Gueorgui Ionine and Evgueni Zamiatine, adapted from the eponymous short story by Nicolai Gogol. Created at the Maly Drama Theater in Leningrad, on 18th January 1930.

Musical Director - Kazushi Ono
Stage and Video Director - William Kentridge
Scenic Directors - William Kentridge and Sabine Theunissen
Costumes - Greta Goiris
Lighting - Urs Schönebaum
Associate Stage Director - Luc De Wit
Video Editor - Catherine Meyburgh

Kovaliov - Albert Shagidullin
The Nose - Alexander Kravets
The Police Inspector - Andrei Popov
Ivan Yakovlévitch - Vladimir Ognovenko
Praskovia Ossipovna - Claudia Waite
Ivan the Servant - Vassily Efimov
The Newspaper Official - Yuri Kissin
The Doctor - Gennady Bezzubenkov
Mrs Podtotchina - Margarita Nekrasova
Mrs Podtotchina's Daughter - Elena Galitskaya*

Choir - Choir of the Lyon National Opera House
Choir Director - Alan Woodbridge
Orchestra - Orchestra of the Lyon National Opera House

NEW PRODUCTION OF THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN OPERA OF THE FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE AND THE LYON NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE. The Nose benefits from the support of the IFILAF, the International Friends of the Festival d'Aix.

* Artist who recently participated in the « Académie européenne de Musique »

William KentRIDGE EXHIBITION
« I am not me, the Horse is not mine »

Aix-en-Provence, Cité du Livre, Atelier Cézanne
From July to September 2011 (dates to be defined)

Installation for 8 film fragments
I am not me, the Horse is not mine takes Gogol's short story (but also its earlier history and literary heirs) as a basis for looking at the formal inventiveness of different strains of Russian Modernism and the calamitous end of the Russian artistic avant-garde.

Those eight short films were made to prepare the production of Shostakovich's opera, presented at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. Everything starts with an errant nose, or a nose on the move (usually appearing as a paper nose placed on a human body).

I am not me, the Horse is not mine is an elegy (perhaps too loud for an elegy) both for the formal artistic language that was crushed in the 1930s and for the possibility of human transformation that so many hoped for and believed in during the Russian revolution.

I have used the transcription of some meetings of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, at which Nikolaï Bukharin, one of Lenin's close lieutenants struggles politically and physically for survival. Here I found my title, which is a popular Russian saying (meaning literally « I am not me, the horse is not mine ») used to deny one's guilt in an affair. This is not about what the owner of the nose would say about his olfactory organ but what the nose might say about him.
William Kentridge
(Extract from William Kentridge, Five themes, 5 continents, Publisher/ Jeu de Paume, 2010, p. 205.)

Exhibition achieved thanks to the support of the artist, of the Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris, New York and the Goodman Gallery, Johannesbourg.

Saturday 9, Sunday 10, Tuesday 12, Wednesday 13, Saturday 16, Sunday 17,
Tuesday 19, Wednesday 20, Friday 22, Saturday 23 July 2011 at 9:30pm.
Domaine du Grand Saint-Jean

George Frideric Handel
ACIS AND GALATEA
Pastoral Opera in one act, libretto by John Gay, Alexander Pope and John Hughes. Created in 1718 in Cannons.

Musical Director - Leonardo Garcia Alarcon
Stage and Set Director, Costumes and Lighting - Saburo Teshigawara

Acis - Julien Behr*
Pascal Charbonneau

Galatea - Julie Fuchs*
Joelle Harvey

Damon - Rupert Charlesworth

Coridon - Zachary Wilder

Polypheme - Joseph Barron
Grigory Soloviov

Soloists Choir - Magali Arnault Stanczak / Christopher Lowrey*
Zachary Wilder / Rupert Charlesworth
Joseph Barron ou Grigory Soloviov

Orchestra - Baroque Orchestra of the Académie Européenne de Musique

NEW PRODUCTION OF THE FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE AND OF THE ACADÉMIE EUROPÉENNE DE MUSIQUE With the support of ENOA, of the Teatro la Fenice in Venice and the Den Nye Opera (Bergen)

* Artists who participated in the «Académie Européenne de Musique»

Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 July 2011 at 5pm. Théâtre du Jeu de Paume

Jérôme Combier
AUSTERLITZ Eine Kindheitsreise - a Childhood Journey
Theater and musical piece, adapted from the novel Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald

Stage Director - Jérôme Combier* and Pierre Nouvel
Video and Scenic Director - Pierre Nouvel*
Lighting - Bertrand Couderc
Sound Engineer - Alex Fostier

Actor - Johan Leysen

Instrumental Ensemble - Ensemble Ictus

WORLD PREMIERE Commissioned by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Ictus

NEW PRODUCTION OF THE FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE in co-production with Ictus and Lille Opera

* Artists who recently participated in the «Académie Européenne de Musique»

CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS

Symphonic

Sunday 17 July 2011 at 8pm at the Grand Théâtre de Provence
London Symphony Orchestra
Musical Director - Sir Colin Davis
Piano - Nelson Freire

Joseph Haydn Symphony n°99 in E flat major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Concerto n°20 for piano in D minor K. 466
Carl Nielsen Symphony n°6 «Sinfonia semplice»

Saturday 23 July 2011 at 8pm at the Grand Théâtre de Provence
London Symphony Orchestra
Musical Director - Valery Gergiev

Claude Debussy La mer
Dimitri Shostakovich Symphony n°8 in C minor op. 65

Chamber Music

Thursday 7 July 2011 at 8pm at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume
Keller Quartet

Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet n°16 op. 135
Dimitri Shostakovich String Quartet no15 in E flat minor op. 144

Monday 11 July 2011 at 9:30pm at the Grand Saint-Jean
Jerusalem String Quartet
Frank Braley, piano

Dimitri Shostakovich Quartet n°3 in F major op. 73
Quintet for piano and strings in G minor op. 57

Tuesday 12 July 2011 at 8pm at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume
Jerusalem String Quartet - The Académie Quartet

Dimitri Shostakovich Quartet n°2 in A major op.68 *another quartet to be determined

Thursday 14 July 2011 at 8pm at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume
Jerusalem String Quartet - The Académie Quartet

Dimitri Shostakovich Quartet n°8 in C minor op.110 *another quartet to be determined

Monday 18 July 2011 at 9:30pm at the Domaine du Grand Saint-Jean
The Berliner Philharmoniker Wind Quintet
Michael Hase, flute - Andreas Wittmann, oboe - Walter Seyfarth, clarinet, Marion Reinhard, bassoon and Fergus McWilliam, horn

Franz Danzi Wind Quintet in F major op. 68 n°2
Johan Kvandal Wind Quintet op. 34
Henri Tomasi Five Profane and Sacred Dances
Carl Nielsen Wind Quintet op.43

In partnership with the Vanderbilt Music Academy

Recitals

Monday 18 July 2011 at 8pm at the Grand Théâtre de Provence
Andreas Staier, harpsichord - Alexandre Melnikov, piano

Johann Sebastian Bach Preludes and Fugues extracts from The Well-Tempered Clavier
Dimitri Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues op. 87

Wednesday 20 July 2011 at 8pm at the Grand Théâtre de Provence
Les Talens Lyriques
Musical Director Christophe Rousset
Soprano Véronique Gens

«Romantic Heroins» Arias and extracts from French operas, from Gluck to Berlioz

Friday 22 July 2011 at 8:30pm at the Eglise Saint-Jean de Malte
Lorenzo Ghielmi, organ

Johann Sebastian Bach
Prelude, Largo BWV 59 and fugue BWV 545 in C major
Aria variata alla maniera italiana BWV 989
«Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele» with two keyboards and pedals BWV 654
Trio super «Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend» with two keyboards and pedals BWV 655
Concerto for organ in D minor BWV 596 after Vivaldi
Canzona for organ in D minor BWV 588
Fugue in B minor on a theme by Corelli BWV 579
Toccata, Adagio and fugue in C major BWV 564

World of Music
FROM THE POETRY SLAM TO THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS
Rhythmic speech cycle in four concerts

At the Hôtel Maynier d'Oppède

Monday 11 July 2011 at 9:30pm
The Groove Spirit
Andy Emler, composer, improviser, pianist, Claude Tchamitchian, double bass, and Eric Echampard, drums

Tuesday 12 July 2011 at 9:30pm
Poetry Slam or the Word as a Rocket
Dgiz, slam - Junkaz Lou, DJ - Pierre Lambla, saxophone and Florent Mathon, violin

Wednesday 13 July 2011 at 9:30pm
The Atlas and Amazigh ritornello
Raissa Fatima Tabaamrant, Berber singing from the Atlas - Mohamed Abouzzya, rebab, Lahcen Akharraz, tam-tam - Bouslam Ouqia and Omar Bajddy, lute guitar, and Mohamed Anjar, naqus

At the Grand Saint-Jean

Friday 15 July 2011 at 9:30pm
The call of the Atlas / From the poetry slam to the Atlas mountains
Andy Emler, composition / improvisation, piano and musical direction, Guillaume Orti, saxophone - Laurent Blondiau, trumpet, Claude Tchamitchian, double bass, and Eric Echampard, drums, Dgiz, slam poet /performer, texts (French), Raissa Fatima Tabaamrant, Berber singing from the Atlas, texts (Amazigh language), Khalid Moukdar, slam, rap, texts (in Darija and classic Arabic), Mehdi Nassouli, guembri and electric guembri, ghaita, vocals, Khalid El Berkaoui, Moroccan percussions - Mohamed Abouzzya, rebab, Mohamed Labied, oud, Taoufiq Izeddiou, choreography

In partnership with the Royaumont Foundation / Oral and Improvised Music

Exceptional Concert

Thursday 21 July 2011 at 8:30pm at the Abbaye de Silvacane
Musicatreize
Musical Director Roland Hayrabedian
Zad Moultaka The Other Shore for 12 voices, cimbalom, guitar and percussions

EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

The creation of an educational service within the Festival in January 2007 allowed the institution to reach out to all school levels, from primary to university, throughout programs such as:

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS: Artistic Practice and Creativity, Vocal and Choral Practice, Choreographic Practice, Sound Explorers - Musical Introduction for 5-7 year olds, Lyric Impromptu: to one of Handel's tunes.

SOCIO-ARTISTIC ACTION: The "passerelles" program, Artistic practice workshops, musical encounters, activities developing awareness of opera and its related professions, are some of the countless opportunities for discovery and learning and cultural exchange sparked by the socio-artistic program called «passerelles».

CREATIVE RESIDENCY (Community Opera): Every year, these residencies invite amateurs of all backgrounds and generations to work with professionals on a multidisciplinary creation. In 2011, the education team of the LSO will lead several groups in the production of a «Community Opera».

INFORMATION / TICKETS / RESERVATIONS

Internet: www.festival-aix.com

Telephone: 0820 922 923 (0,12 €/min)
from abroad: 0033 (4) 34 08 02 17

Business Hours
by phone or at the Festival's shop
Palais de l'Ancien Archevêché - 13100 Aix-en-Provence
Until 24th June 2011: Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 1pm and from 2pm to 6pm / on Saturday from 10am to 1pm
From 25th June to 25th July 2011: everyday from 10am to 7pm

 

Need more Off-Off-Broadway Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Fall season, discounts & more...