LE FIGARO.
- What does this edition represent for the Academy?
Jérôme BRUNETIÈRE.
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This is a very important year because many events could not take place in 2020, such as the symphonic session of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra.
More than ever, this 2021 edition must contribute to enriching the world of opera by making the Academy a place offered to the new generation, to flourish, but also to surprise us.
Read also:
The Festival d'Aix pulls out all the stops
An astonishment that goes through the "astonishing" diversity of the residences offered this year ...
Indeed. The Academy began with the singing residency. This always attracts top-flight candidates, to accompany them in the beginnings of their careers with renowned vocalists and to offer them experience with a prestigious orchestra. But it has grown to cover all the trades of opera. With the conviction that this total art is not the culmination of ready-made paths, but can attract young people who do not have a very precise idea. This is what we are doing with the interdisciplinary and creative residency, which brings together seven international artists from different practices, and which we have exceptionally merged with the Opéra workshop in creation. Or with the new Cultural Journalism workshop, which aims to pose opera as a subject.
A subject that can have strong resonances with the news ...
This is the other ambition of the Academy, which aims to be a territory of experimentation and open reflection.
Embracing the questions of the genre itself, on its form, as in the Opéra de-là residence which was held at a distance (22 artists from 3 continents), and whose protagonists have met in recent days in Aix.
But also the major questions of our society, echoed by the Young Opera Creators residency or the mentoring of female conductors.
To read also:
Festival of lyric art of Aix: as if nothing had happened ... or almost
What place does Mediterranean programming occupy in this system?
Its values of openness are very close to those of the Academy.
A political and cultural project to link the two shores of the Mediterranean through music, a search for harmony in areas troubled by conflicts.
Its origins date back to 1984, with the creation of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, which merged with the festival twenty years later to give birth to a structured educational network.
It revolves around two sessions: intercultural, called Medinea and hosted by Fabrizio Cassols, and symphonic, conducted by Duncan Ward.
This will welcome candidates from last year, and should in the fall receive residents from outside the Schengen area.
www.festival-aix.com