Tourisme Culture Aix-en-Provence Aix en Provence

A Festival in four stages: 1948, 1974, 1985, 1998.
Summer 1947: Gabriel Dussurget goes to Paris with the will to create in Provence a music festival. He is immediately seduced by "la cour d'honneur" of the old archbishopric.

With the complicity of the painter Wakhévitch, the architect-painter Cassandre, the conductor Hans Rosbaud and the casino of Aix-en-Provence, he created, in 1948, the first Don Giovanni of the Festival history, which will run for more twenty years. Straight away, the Aix-en-Provence Lyric Art Festival knew an international success, thanks to the big voices who came like: Luigi Alva, Gabriel Bacquier, Régine Crespin, Teresa Stich-Randall, Teresa Berganza, Gundula Janovitz and a lot more that the music lovers will enjoy. Settings and costumes are made by the biggest artists: Balthus intervenes for "Cosi Fan Tutte", Malclès for "les Noces de Figaro", Derain for "l'Enlèvement au Sérail" and the "Barbier de Séville".

In 1974, with Bernard Lefort, the Festival opened to Bel Canto. The Italian repertory of the XIXth century (Verdi, Donizetti) is performed by divas: Sylvia Sass, Marylin Horne, Monserrat Caballé.
With Louis Erlo, the baroque repertory found again the yard of the Archbishopric. Lully, Campra, Rameau, Purcell and Gluck are competing with Mozart. Nevertheless, the big composers of the XXth century, Prokofiev or Britten are not forgotten.
In 1998, Stéphane Lissner resumed the management of the Festival and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary, he took up again with the Mozart tradition of Aix. Half a century after the first Don Giovanni, "la cour d'honneur", rediscovers with emotion Leporello, Zerline, Masetto, Donna Elvira, Donna Anna, Le Commandeur and Don Giovanni in a production of Peter Brook.

Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence
Palais de l'Ancien Archevêché, 13100 Aix-en-Provence
 

Concerts in Aix

Every year from October to June, the "Concerts in Aix" association presents a musical season that is varied, original and of a high standard, as a continuation of the International Festival of Lyric Art.
Wonderful concerts with world-famous players, "Music on Saturday" events for children, and operettas programmed for
senior audiences are held in the Jeu de Paume Theatre, the Musée des Tapisseries and the Town Hall courtyard in Aix en Provence.

 

The "Côté Cour" Festival In July, discover young talent, lyric voices,world song and Jazz in brand new works, presented at various venues in the city centre.   Summer night in Aix en Provence Evening concerts and song in June and July, held in selected venues of Aix's rich heritage.   Aix en Musique : The Town of all Festival Here, music-lovers and amateurs can fulfil their passions all year round.Aix en Musique is one of the protagonists of musical life and organises professional events open to classical music, jazz, rock, new music and international folklore. The big meetings, organised with Darius Milhaud Conservatory, Cité du Livre and local associations, welcome all. Entertainment, master class, conferences and recitals enrich this program all year round. Not to be missed and open to everyone, organised with the Darius Milhaud Conservatoire. Aix en Musique and Music in the Street fill the heart of the city. In June: Music in the Street. Les Festes d'Orphée Holy Week in April, Aix en Baroque in July, concerts at Christmas. These concerts are a chance to discover Baroque music all year round. International Piano Festival “NUITS PIANISTIQUES” in october.   International René Bartoli guitar Contesti In july.

Places

Conservatoire de Musique Darius Milhaud

Teaching and diffusion of music and dance are the main goals of the Conservatory.
Their apprenticeship finds followers from 7 to 77 years old who will become enlighted amateurs or confirmed professionals.  

But who was Darius Milhaud ?

Born in Marseille in 1892, died in Geneva in 1974, the musician Darius Milhaud was part of the "groupe des six" and collaborated with Paul Claudel and Francis Jammes.
He taught music in the United States.
The house of his childhood is 2 Place b. Niollon in Aix-en-Provence.
"From my bedroom's window, I could see from cours Sextius to the thermal establishment, which was most entertaining, mainly on markets' days! We could see light carts, mules, all sorts of goods and, like in Cezanne's paintings, farmers dressed in blue, staying late, drinking and playing cards in cafés".
He is buried in the Saint-Pierre cemetary in Aix-en-Provence.


The European Academy of Music

Created in 1998, the European Academy of Music has for its main goal to train musicians who will take part in the Festival, to produce spectacles programmed during the Festival, and to prepare a spectacle bound to be shown in the next years' Festival.
The European Academy of Music is then soul and conscience - breath and goad - of the Aix-en-Provence European Academy of Music.

Académie Européenne de Musique
Palais de l'Ancien Archevêché
13100 Aix-en-Provence

International Lyric Art Video library
 

Comfortably installed in a room with headphones, you will be able to see operas and concerts shown in Aix-en-Provence between 1950 and 1996, as if you were there.