Aix en Provence Festival, 12-19 July 2025

12 July:

Our Hayllar Music Tours tour to the Aix en Provence Festival is underway. It's hot and very busy but the old town is as beautiful and beguiling as I remember from our visit last year.

Saturday was our first full day; Friday was "limited" to a welcome drinks reception and dinner.

On Saturday morning we had a guided walking tour of the old town with Adrien, who was our wonderful guide last year. Being summer tourist season, and market day, the town was buzzing and exciting.

In the early evening I gave the first of seven talks for our tour group, after which we walked to the beautiful modern Grand Théâtre de Provence for the first of five operas we'll see.

Don Giovanni was presented in the 1788 Vienna version (not my personal preference; I'm more a 1787 Prague man myself) and it was, musically, absolutely in line with my views on Mozart performance. Simon Rattle conducted, with his "new" band, the Bavarian Radio SO, in the pit. The cast was wonderful.

Robert Icke's production didn't offend so much as intrigue; it often obfuscated rather than illuminated. Much of it left me confused and seemed to make little sense, in the second act particularly. For a work I know intimately and have conducted many times, there were so many unanswered questions. There were some clever touches but ultimately the production left me unimpressed.

Thankfully it was - to my taste - stunning on a musical level. The spine chills in both finales were still there. Rattle gets this music.

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13 July:

Sunday in Aix en Provence started with a short walk to the Museé Granet, where we had a guided tour of its current Cézanne exhibition. Cézanne is intimately connected with Aix and our excellent guide took us on a chronological tour of the artist's life and work.

Then, in the early evening, I gave my talk to our group in preparation for our second opera performance. The venue was the Théâtre de l'Archevêché, an open-air opera theatre (complete with proscenium stage and pit) built into the courtyard of the old Archbishop's palace.

Because it's high summer here, the performances in this open-air space start at 9.30 pm.

It seats about a thousand people and is a magical space to experience opera. The opera on this occasion was Gustave Charpentier's Louise (premiered in 1900), a work rarely performed outside France and which is usually known only for a single aria, Depuis le jour. The production was from Lyon Opera.

It's a beautiful piece, about young love and breaking free of convention. At least it is on paper. Christof Loy's production took an entirely different spin on the plot, but unlike the previous night's Don Giovanni, I think we cracked the code on this one and worked out what was going on.

Don't get me wrong; I hate Regietheater, where we have to try to untangle the director's ideas from the [often] square pegs in operatic round holes presented on stage. But it's just that this time a number of us think we actually worked it out.

Musically it was a tremendous success. Annick Massis jumped in to sing the hugely demanding title role, and British tenor Adam Smith (whom we heard in the same theatre last year as Pinkerton) was Julien. The role of Louise's father is pivotal to the work and even more so in Loy's reading of the piece. It was brilliantly realised by Nicolas Courjal.

I was very impressed with Giacomo Sagripanti's sensitive and supportive conducting. In all we had much to talk about as we walked back to our hotel approaching 1.00 am.

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14 July:

Monday was La Fête Nationale here in France (referred to as Bastille Day in English-speaking contexts). We spent the morning and early afternoon in Arles, with our guide Adrien taking us on an excellent walking tour.

The old town of Arles is very beautiful, and it wears its van Gogh associations proudly. I remembered it well from our tour last year, but was very glad to visit again. The Roman amphitheatre is particularly impressive.

Back in Aix my talk for our guests in the early evening preceded our attendance at our third performance of the tour. This was part of the premiere season of The Nine-Jewelled Deer, a music theatre work by Ganavya Doraiswamy, Lauren Groff and Sivan Eldar. Stage direction was by Peter Sellars.

This piece wasn't my thing at all but I acknowledge it was created and performed with integrity and commitment. Beyond that I can't comment.

The walk back to our hotel was quite the mission as the town was packed and jumping with people awaiting the 10.30pm fireworks. Quite the festive atmosphere.

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15 July:

Our Hayllar Music Tours Tuesday in Aix en Provence began with a visit to the Caumont Centre d'Art. This is housed in a beautiful 18th century mansion in the city centre and currently features an exhibition devoted to the life and work of Niki de Saint Phalle.

This extraordinary woman's life and work was unknown to me so it was a joy to learn about her and see some of her unique art.

My talk to our group took place in the early evening before we walked to the Théâtre de l'Archevêché for our fourth performance, our second in this glorious open-air venue.

The opera we saw was Cavalli's La Calisto, performed by Ensemble Correspondances, conducted by Sébastien Daucé. Premiering in Venice in 1651, this is one of Cavalli's most glorious achievements and it was given spectacular life in this utterly brilliant production.

There wasn't a weak link anywhere; cast, sumptuous orchestra, design, production (updated to the 18th century) were all magnificent. (And the plot twist in the final moments had everyone holding their breath!)

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16 July:

Wednesday morning in Aix en Provence saw our Hayllar Music Tours group board our coach and head into the beautiful Provençal countryside. We visited Château La Coste, part vineyard and winery, part sculpture park, part art museum. It's an absolutely beautiful place - I remembered it with great fondness from our visit last year - with enormous sculptures on a walking trail, part of which we explored with our guide.

I posted a lot of photos from here on Facebook last year but if you wanted to find out more, check out their website.

I did take photos, though, of a small exhibition of exquisite works by a Korean artist, Ha Chong-Hyun.

After this we had a beautiful lunch at La Bastide de Venelles, a restaurant nestled into the countryside just outside Aix. The constant buzz of cicadas made me feel very much at home.

In the early evening back at our hotel I gave my talk to our group in preparation for attending our evening performance. This was an orchestral concert featuring the Bavarian Radio SO, conducted by Simon Rattle. It was one of the finest performances I've ever been privileged to witness.

The program was Ligeti's Atmosphères, the prelude to Wagner's Lohengrin, and Bruckner 9. Apart from the sheer brilliance of the performance, the program was given without interval (all done in 90 minutes) and in particular (as I suspected he might) Rattle performed the Ligeti and Wagner without a break. The latter grew - beautifully and logically - out of the silences at the end of the former. And Bruckner's final, unfinished, symphony seemed perfectly placed to follow.

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17 July:

A very big day out of town was had for our Thursday here in Aix en Provence. Our first stop was in the heart of Provence with a visit to the Luberon Plateau and the beautiful town of Rousillon.

Then we moved onto the town of Gordes, with its immaculate stone buildings and stunning views.

Then in the early afternoon we marvelled at the skill of our coach driver getting us safely to the bottom of the valley to visit the Cistercian Abbey of Sémanque. Founded in the 12th century and surrounded by fields of lavender, we had an excellent guide for a private tour of this beautiful place.

After the coach drive back to our hotel in Aix I gave my talk to our tour group in preparation for tonight's concert. All our walking today - and there was a lot of walking - aggravated some fasciitis that I've been dealing with in one of my feet for a few months, so I opted out of attending the concert in order to rest my foot and give it some treatment recommended by my physiotherapist.

The concert featured lieder by Mahler and R. Strauss performed by Diana Damrau (soprano), Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), and Helmut Deutsch (piano). I was sorry to miss it.

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18 July:

Friday on our Hayllar Music Tours visit to Provence saw us head to the beautiful town of Cassis on the Mediterranean coast. I have such fond memories of this excursion last year and the return visit this year was just as lovely.

We undertook a private ninety-minute cruise, exploring the deep coves along the coast with their massive cliffs of "Cassis stone". The weather was perfect. After the cruise we had lunch at a restaurant on the waterfront, and then had time for a little exploration, before heading back to Aix.

Tonight is a free evening.

In the following pictures is one of your correspondent with the wonderful Vennisa Santoro, our tour manager. Vennisa and I have done many tours together and she's a marvel.

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19 July:

Saturday was the final day lof this amazing Hayllar Music Tours tour to the Aix en Provence festival. After a free morning and afternoon I gave my seventh and final talk to our intrepid group of music lovers before we headed off to a secluded restaurant for our farewell dinner.

After this we headed to the Grand Théâtre de Provence for the last time to hear a concert performance of Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearlfishers).

This was something special. A piece I know well, having conducted seasons of it in Brisbane and Adelaide, Pearlfishers on this occasion had a beautiful outing. The orchestra was Les Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski, with the chorus of Avignon Opera.

The four soloists were stunning: Elsa Benoît (Leïla), Pene Pati (Nadir), Florian Sempey (Zurga) and Edwin Crossley-Mercer (Nourabad). Did I say stunning? Stunning.

This was a simply lovely way to end this amazing tour. And tomorrow, back to Adelaide.

First posted on Facebook