Festival D'Aix-en-Provence Announces 70th Anniversary Season Highlights

The 70th anniversary season of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence will present six full-scale opera productions and an international roster of exceptional artistry from July 4 through 24, 2018. The anniversary season also marks a milestone, as it celebrates the conclusion of Bernard Foccroulle's eleven-year tenure as general manager of the Festival. His legacy will be demonstrated in the coming season with commissions, new productions, major participatory events, and significant outreach to Arab, Mediterranean, and local audiences. Foccroulle will be succeeded by Park Avenue Armory artistic director and Dutch National Opera director Pierre Audi in September, 2018.

Of special note in 2018 is the world premiere of new wave Czech composer Ond?ej Adámek'sa capella opera Seven Stones - the composer's first opera and a Festival commission; and the world premiere production of Orfeo & Majnun, an opera sung in English, French, and Arabic by four young soloists with an orchestral and choral ensemble of 150 amateurs, performed outdoors on the Cours Mirabeau. The work will be preceded by a city-wide parade (a new co-commissioned Festival production) that features fantastical creatures and performances created by non-professional artists during the year and presented along the parade route throughout the day.

Other new productions this year are Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, directed by the British Festival favorite Katie Mitchell with Dutch National Opera chief conductor Marc Albrecht leading the Orchestre de Paris; Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, directed by Polish National Opera artistic director Mariusz Treli?ski with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra music director Kazushi Ono conducting the Orchestra de Paris; and Purcell's Baroque tour de force Dido andÆneas, conducted by Václav Luks with the Ensemble Pygmalion Chorus and Orchestra and directed by Vincent Huguet. An additional highlight is the revival of director Simon McBurney's celebrated staging of Mozart's The Magic Flute, which played to sold-out houses at Festival 2014. The opera will be conducted by Raphaël Pichon with his Ensemble and Choir Pygmalion.

Also in the spotlight this season, The Académie du Festival d'Aix commemorates its 20thanniversary as an extension of the Festival that serves as a center for training, teaching and professional experience. The founding of the Opera in Creation workshop (2007) and the arrival of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra (2010) has transformed the Académie into a nexus of innovative training for a global collection of young artists. And the addition of the enoa and Medinea networks - to enable emerging European and Mediterranean artists to develop their careers - has further elevated the Académie to its current distinguished position on today's international scene. Highlights of the Académie's 20th anniversary schedule include residencies on Mozart and the Art of the Recital; performances by such former Académie artists as Sabine Devieilhe and Stéphane Degout; workshops on Orfeo & Majnun and Opera in Creation; and sessions for symphonic musicians and intercultural creation.

Complete details of the Festival's 2018 presentations, including concerts of symphonic works, chamber music, recitals, and programs by the Académie du Festival d'Aix will be announced in early 2018.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos (New Festival Production) July 4 - 16

Strauss' one act version of Ariadne auf Naxos with librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal combines the world of opera with the characters of commedia dell'arte. The plot tells of a young composer, charged by a rich patron to deliver a private performance of his operatic tragedy, Ariadne. Just before the curtain rises, he discovers that not only will he be sharing the limelight with a troupe of Italian actors hired to perform the play The Unfaithful Zerbinetta, but that the two productions will be presented simultaneously. Onstage, the lamento of Princess Ariadne, awaiting death after her abandonment by Theseus, is entwined with the flippant comedy of Zerbinetta, her suitors, and the god Bacchus.

Featured roles include sopranos Lise Davidsen (Norway) as Ariadne and Sabine Devieilhe (France) as Zerbinetta, both former artists of Académie du Festival d'Aix; and American tenor Eric Cutler as Bacchus.

This new Festival production of Ariadne auf Naxos features the return of British director Katie Mitchell; Marc Albrecht, chief conductor of the Dutch National Opera, will lead the Orchestre de Paris. A co-production of Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Les théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, the work will have six performances at Théâtre de l'Archevêché.

Sergei Prokofiev: The Fiery Angel (New Festival Production) July 5 - 15

Written by Prokofiev between 1919 and 1928 as a five-act opera, The Fiery Angel is adapted from a violent novel by Russian poet Brioussov. In the streets of 16th century Cologna, disturbing stories are circulating about the beautiful Renata. She has been abandoned by Count Heinrich, a man she believed was the reincarnation of the angel Madiel who visited her as a child. Subject to hallucinations and delirium, is Renata possessed or a tormented saint? To find Madiel's heavenly love in Heinrich's arms, she drags the knight Ruprecht into her obsessive quest.

Lithuanian soprano Ausrine Stundyte will sing the role of the tormented Renata; American baritone Scott Hendricks sings the knight Ruprecht.

Polish National Opera artistic director Mariusz Treli?ski makes his Festival debut as director of The Fiery Angel. Kazushi Ono - music director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra - conducts the National Opera Orchestre de Paris and the Polish National Opera Chorus. Co-produced by Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and the Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera, the opera will have four performances at the Grand Théâtre de Provence.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Magic Flute (Revival) July 6 - 24

Following his wildly acclaimed production of last season's The Rakes Progress, Simon McBurney - award-winning writer, founder, and artistic director of England's Complicité - returns to the Festival with the revival of his spectacular staging of The Magic Flute, which ran to rave reviews at Festival 2014. Known for his uniquely theatrical productions, McBurney's highly original work The Encounter had an extended run on Broadway in 2016.

Mozart's last opera, The Magic Flute was conducted by the composer at its Viennese premiere approximately three months before his death. The work is actually a singspiel - an opera in which spoken dialogue replaces recitatives. It is also one of Mozart's most unusual works, combining different styles and full of Freemasonry references that examine man's search for enlightenment. The plot follows Prince Tamino, his magic flute, and the bird-catcher Papageno, his companion on a whimsical adventure full of magical creatures and unexpected challenges to rescue Princess Pamino from the realm of the sorcerer Sarastro.

The vocal roster includes Russian bass/baritone Dimitry Ivashchenko as Sarastro; tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac, who recreates his highly praised 2014 Festival performance of Tamino; and Metropolitan Opera coloratura soprano Kathryn Lewek as Queen of the Night; with Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen as Pamina and Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans as Papageno, both former Académie artists.

French conductor and counter-tenor Raphaël Pichon will lead the Ensemble Pygmalion Chorus and Orchestra of young professionals, which he founded in 2005. A co-production of Dutch National Opera and English National Opera, the work will have eight performances at the Grand Théâtre de Provence.

Henry Purcell: Dido and Æneas (New Festival Production) July 7 - 23

The Baroque masterpiece Dido and Æneas is a five-act opera and prologue composed in 1689, inspired by an episode of Virgil's Æneid. Exiled from Tyre, Queen Dido is the founder of the city of Carthage on the northern shore of Africa. Rescued from the fall of Troy, Prince Æneas has been ordered by the gods to go to Italy and establish the foundations of Rome. These two fall for each other when they meet, but their union is doomed to fail. Torn between duty and love and manipulated by spiteful spirits, the only choice is to accept their destiny. Æneas continues his journey, leaving Dido to her fatal end.

The opera features the rising young South African soprano Kelebogile Pearl Besong as Dido and baritone Tobias Greenhalgh, first place winner of the 2016 Riccardo Zandonai Competition, as Æneas.

The presentation of Dido and Æneas, directed by Vincent Huguet - who also worked on Aix's celebrated presentation of Elektra with Patrice Chéreau, is a new production of Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Académie du Festival d'Aix. Conductor Václav Luks, founder of the Prague Baroque orchestra Collegium 1704, will lead the Ensemble Pygmalion Chorus and Orchestra in eight performances at Théâtre de l'Archevêché.

Ond?ej Adámek: Seven Stones (World Premiere) July 7 - 17

The world premiere Festival commission of new wave Czech composer Ond?ej Adámek's Seven Stones is an a cappella opera for four solo vocalists and a twelve-member choir. It marks Adámek's first opera, and features a libretto in English by the surrealist Icelandic poet Sjón. The plot follows a collector of stones so consumed by his passion that he devotes his entire life to the pursuit. He cuts himself off from the real world to escape his emotions and responsibilities, and instead looks backward at moments of his life. His memories mingle with the stories attached to each of the stones in his collection, taking him on a transformative journey from Biblical to modern times, and revealing a long-buried crime of passion at the end.

French baritone Nicolas Simeha performs the role of the stone collector with the accentor/axe 21 chorus, dedicated to the performance of new music.

The world premiere of Seven Stones was commissioned by Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and the Académie du Festival. Directed by Éric Oberdorff, director and choreographer of the Compagnie Humaine, the opera will be given six performances at the historic and intimate Théâtre du Jeu de Paume.

Moneim Adwan, Howard Mooy, and Dick van der Harst: Orfeo & Majnun (World Premiere) June 24 and July 8

The Festival production of Orfeo & Majnun comprises two events exploring the similarity of love, death, and mourning as expressed by eastern and western civilizations. Part I, The Urban Journey, will offer a city-wide, multi-genre participatory parade through the city of Aix. Along the course of the procession, amateurs will present fantastical creatures and original performances created during the year in the artists' discipline of choice, all of which evoke the fates of Orpheus, Eurydice, Layla and Majnun (June 24).

Part II, the open-air opera Orfeo & Majnun, will be performed on the Cours Mirabeau on July 8. Composers Dick van der Harst, Howard Moody, and Moneim Adwan have created a work of mixed cultural influence, performed in English, French, and Arabic by four soloists and an orchestra of amateur and professional musicians. The choir consists of 150 singer-songwriters and amateurs who participated in the parade.

This new opera interweaves the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice with the Persian legend of Layla and Majnun. When Eurydice dies after her marriage to Orpheus, the gods, entranced by his music, allow him to enter the kingdom of the dead to bring her back. Unable to heed the rule prohibiting him from turning around to watch his beloved on the way, Orpheus loses her a second time, retires to the mountains with his music, and is killed by a group of Dionysian worshippers. In the tale of childhood sweethearts Layla & Majnun, Layla's family commands her to marry another man, but she refuses. Majnun leaves for a deserted land, becomes a crazed poet of passionate love songs, and dies soon after Layla.

Orpheus & Majnun share a common destiny. Separated forever from their loved ones, they both retired from the world to soothe their pain and voice their passion through art. At the core of these two myths, the power of music and poetry transcends absence and death.

Orfeo and Eurydice will be sung by two French vocalists, baritone Yoann Dubruque and soprano Judith Fa. Majnun and Layla will be performed by Middle Eastern artists Jean Chahid and Nai Barghouti, both known for performances blending the traditions of east and west.

Orfeo & Majnun is co-produced and commissioned by La Monnaie/De Munt (Belgium), Valletta 2018 Foundation (Malta), Konzerthaus (Austria), Rotterdam Opera Days (Netherlands), Krakow International Festival (Poland), Santa Maria de Feira (Portugal). The work is directed by Airan Berg and Martina Winkel, co-founders of Theater ohne Grenzen (ToG) - a visual theater company specializing in cross-media productions - and Die Macht des Staunens, an international puppet theater festival for grown-ups. Lebanese/Polish conductor Bassem Akiki will lead the Musicians of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra. Part I, The Urban Journey, will march throughout the city of Aix as a participatory public event on June 24. Part II, the open-air opera of Orfeo & Majnun, will be performed on one of Europe's greatest strolling boulevards, the Cours Mirabeau, on July 8. Orfeo & Majnun is supported by Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, The Eloise Susanna Gale Foundation and Chœur à l'ouvrage.

Subscriptions, Tickets, and Information

Subscriptions will be available on January 23 at www.festival-aix.com; by phone at +33(4) 34 08 02 17; and at the Festival's box office from January 24 to 28. Single tickets will be available online and by phone starting on January 30; and on the stage of Théâtre de l'Archevêché on February 4. The box office will then open on a weekly basis starting on February 7.

Festival d'Aix-en-Provence's opera performances will take place at Théâtre de l'Archevêché, Grand Théâtre de Provence, and the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume. Ticket prices for operas range from 9€ to 270€.

The box office can be reached by phone at +33(0)4 34 08 02 17 and by fax at + 33(0)4 42 63 13 74.

More information can be found at www.festival-aix.com.

About Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

Founded in 1948, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence is considered one of the most prestigious opera festivals in Europe. Its ability to bring together the world's best vocal talent and renowned international orchestras, and its commitment to the creation of interdisciplinary works, places the Festival among the most innovative and influential opera platforms internationally. The Festival d'Aix presents new opera productions with celebrated artists and such eminent international orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. In addition to its dedication to artistic quality, the Festival's essential missions include supporting the creation of new works and bringing opera to new audiences. Each year, the Festival commissions a contemporary work from a composer and thanks to many co-productions with opera companies around the world, the Festival's productions are seen internationally on major stages in such cultural centers as New York, Vienna, Amsterdam and Milan, contributing to the Festival's influence worldwide. In 2017, 84,526 festival-goers took part in the 69th season of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, which presented five major opera productions, including a world premiere, and 14 concerts.

L'Académie du Festival d'Aix was established in 1998 as an extension of the Festival and contributes to the policy of expanding audiences for the many public events the Festival offers beyond its role in professional development for young artists from around the world. As a center for training, teaching, and professional experience, the European Academy hosts hundreds of young instrumentalists, singers, stage directors, conductors and composers each year. For two months, they receive the best tools for improving technique and launching their careers through participation in the Festival's productions and attendance at numerous concerts, conferences, and master classes. In 2017, the Academy presented 57 events, including 8 world premieres and 260 young artists from 44 different countries.

Bernard Foccroulle assumed directorship of Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in 2007 after 15 years as head of the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. He is particularly drawn to both Baroque repertoire and contemporary works, and has been dedicated to pursuing the interdisciplinary nature of opera by making it a lively meeting place for all. Under his leadership, the Festival has become a platform for exchange and reflection, where multiple art forms interact and audiences of all ages from a variety of backgrounds come together. Ever expanding his horizons, Foccroulle made his New York City debut as organist in a performance titled Darkness and Light, as part of Lincoln Center's 2017 White Light Festival. He plans to devote more time to composing and writing in the future. Following his remarkable tenure, he will be succeeded by Park Avenue Armory artistic director and Dutch National Opera director Pierre Audi as general director of Festival d'Aix-en in September, 2018.