Aix en Provence, 19 July 2025

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