At 5pm, Théâtre du Jeu de Paume:

SONGS AND FRAGMENTS, by P. Maxwell Davies & G. Kurtág

New production by the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

Barrie Kosky Director

Eight songs for a mad king

Ensemble Intercontemporain Orchestra

Pierre Bleuse : Music director

Johannes Martin Kränzle:  Baritone

Kafka-Fragmente

Anna Prohaska: Soprano

Patricia Kopatchinskaja: Violin

Barrie Kosky is never where you expect him to be! Not content with triumphing with his inventive shows all over the world, the Australian director likes to offer rare works and unexpected pairings. The duo he proposes in Aix is an obvious choice: on the one hand, Peter Maxwell Davies’ spectacular Eight Songs for a Mad King, a delirious portrait of King George III, and the intense Kafka-Fragmente by Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag. Two radically different musical experiences, but linked by themes of solitude, wandering and virtuosity. To interpret these two gems of 20th-century music, the evening features the fabulous Ensemble intercontemporain, led by its new musical director Pierre Bleuse, singers Johannes Martin Kränzle and Anna Prohaska, and the fabulous violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, an instrumental phenomenon like few others on the current scene.

At 9:30pm, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché :

MADAME BUTTERFLY, by G. Puccini

New Festival d’Aix-en-Provence production

In coproduction with Opéra national de Lyon,

Komische Oper Berlin

Opéra de Lyon Chorus and Orchestra

Daniele Rustioni: Musical Direction

Andrea Breth: Stage Director

Ermonela Jaho: Cio-Cio-San

Adam Smith: Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton

Mihoko Fujimura: Suzuki

Lionel Lhote: Sharpless

Carlo Bosi: Goro

Inho Jeong: Uncle Bonze

Kristofer Lundin: Prince Yamadori

Albane Carrère: Kate Pinkerton

Kristján Jóhannesson: The Commissioner

2024, the year of Puccini! One hundred years ago, the Italian composer died before completing his last opera, Turandot. But it’s another jewel of the Tuscan genius that the Aix Festival is offering, after the highly acclaimed Tosca in the 2019 edition. Performed by the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon under the baton of conductor Daniele Rustioni, Madame Butterfly is directed by German Andrea Breth, one of the foremost artists in German-language theater (she has also directed Berlin’s Schaubühne). In the title role, Ermonela Jaho is one of the finest interpreters of the famous Japanese heroine.