FLOATING WORLDS: Monteverdi gets the Adrian Noble treatment at Aix in 2000
UNITED KINGDOM SUMMER PEARLS: London's architectural gems along the banks of the Thames
MUSIC: Europe's best pop and rock gatherings
BAGPIPES: The plaintive sounds of Scotland
SUBMARIUM: Journey to the bottom of the sea FESTIVALS: Fun in the sun in West Belfast
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FRANCE and SWITZERLAND VULCANIA: Blow your top at France's volcano park
ART: Berthe Morisot, the unknown Impressionist
FESTIVALS: Aix-en-Provence has it all
ART: The Barbizon School painters come to life
ART: Take a stroll through medieval gardens of delight
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SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ITALY and GREECE SALAMANCA: The city splashes out on culture
MUSIC: God's rock stars: the singing Greek monks
FOOD: Italy's unusual culinary delights
FILM: Great outdoor viewing in Rome
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GERMANY and BENELUX HORTICULTURE: The world blossoms at Floriade
BRUGGE: Belgium's second city shines
ART: Berlin's homage to multiculturalism ART: The best of the world's artists on show at Documenta 11 DANCE: Czech twin ballerinos steal the show in Hamburg MORE ..
CENTRAL and EASTERN EUROPE ART: Yugoslavia's modern art museum is back
ART: A retrospective of Samizdat art and writing from the Communist bloc
GRAZ: Austria's little-known city of culture
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THE NORDIC REGION DESIGN: Denmark celebrates Arne Jacobsen
MUSEUM: Get a blast from the past at Stalin World
STOCKHOLM: Welcome to the Venice of the North
MUSIC: Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes on tour MORE ..
PLUS LISTINGS: Other things to see and do in each region
For classical excellence, Provence is the hot ticket
One of the oldest and most prestigious music festivals in Europe, the International Festival of Lyric Art in Aix-en-Provence is also one of the most purely pleasurable. The city is a beauty, with a medieval core of crooked streets surrounded by 17th and 18th century mansions of amazing grace. Add to that dozens of delightful public fountains, a history that dates to the Romans, a handful of top-notch museums and Provençal food al fresco twice a day, and the sum is a pretty fine setting for a little summer-night music.
Most of the festival's operas are held outdoors in the courtyard of the 17th century episcopal palace, with a few smaller events scattered among several other indoor and outdoor venues around town. Aix has always specialized in Mozart, Baroque opera and 20th century works, and in introducing new young singers on their way up. This year's 54th installment is no exception, although there's also a notable English bent this time around, with Adrian Noble, Peter Brook, his daughter Irina Brook and Shakespeare all on the agenda.
This season's hottest ticket is a repeat of Adrian Noble's production of Monteverdi's 1641 opera Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, with William Christie directing his Arts Florissants orchestra. Created here in 2000, it's about as perfect a small production as has ever been mounted anywhere, and it introduced two new young stars who are once again playing the lead roles: Croatian tenor Kresimir Spicer as Ulysses and Serbian mezzo-soprano Marijana Mijanovic — tall, willowy, dark-voiced and fiercely regal — as Penelope.
Opening the festival will be the world premiere of Le Balcon by Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös, an opera based on the French play by Jean Genet, with Eötvös himself conducting. A second world premiere follows with A Summer Night's Dream, a lyrical concoction with words by Shakespeare and music by Mozart, conceived, directed, decorated, lighted and accompanied on piano by German pianist and director Franz Wittenbrink. There will also be new productions of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen, directed by French actress-director Julie Brochen. Peter Brook will do double duty, directing Mozart's Don Giovanni and his own radically pared-down version of Hamlet. Rounding out the festival will be Haydn's Four Seasons oratorio performed by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, and recitals by pianists Alfred Brendel and Alain Planès.
Anyone lucky enough to be in Aix for the festival should also take in the Cathedral of St.-Sauveur, an architectural compendium of the 5th through the 17th centuries, with fabulous carved doors hidden behind fake outer panels and the 15th century triptych of The Burning Bush by Nicolas Froment.
Festival International D'art Lyrique D'aix-En-Provence •
Dates: July 5-27 •
Phone:+33 (0)442 17
34 34 fax:+33 (0)442 63 13 74 • Website:
www.festival-aix.com
