MOZART, OFFENBACH, WAGNER
- One of Europe’s finest summer music festivals
- Combining big names with adventurous programming
- Sir Simon Rattle & the Berlin Philharmonic
- Picasso and Cézanne exhibition at the Musée Granet
The summer festival in Aix-en-Provence is one of the most prestigious and enjoyable in Europe. The handsome old capital of Provence, graced with a profusion of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mansions, quiet squares, fountains, arcaded streets and lively café life, provides a superb setting for a feast of first-rate opera performances.
Now in its sixty-first year, the Festival International d’Art Lyrique is rated by critics as the best in France, and by some as the best in Europe. Again and again it comes up with irresistible programmes and artistic standards of the highest order.
The programme for 2009 has a richly varied line-up, including a classical ‘opera seria’ - Mozart’s incomparable Idomeneo, with Marc Minkowski at the helm of the Musiciens du Louvre; Offenbach’s cheeky and satirical Orphée aux Enfers; and, on our final evening, that great culmination of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Götterdämmerung, with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.
The venues are the Théâtre de l’Archevêché in the former garden of the archbishop’s palace and the newly built Grand Théâtre de Provence.
The festival coincides with an enticing Cézanne and Picasso exhibition at the Musée Granet, including a number of rarely shown works by both painters. The focus is the influence of Aix-born Cézanne’s art on that of the Spanish artist.
This tour is led by a cultural historian who specialises in music and opera. The main emphasis is on the musical events and there will be morning talks on each of the operas. Also, a programme of optional walks and excursions gentle enough to avoid taxing participants’ energies at the expense of the music.
Read the itinerary