Since its creation in 1948, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence has strived to present a program of great diversity: opera productions, early works and famous Mozart operas, contemporary creations, rediscoveries of Baroque masterpieces, chamber operas, not forgetting exceptional concert programs. By encouraging the emergence of young talent, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence has resolutely opened up new horizons in the fields of artistic creation. Its aim is to bring opera to life in the contemporary world, and to take it to the most prestigious national and international stages. The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence stages its shows in the city’s most emblematic venues: Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Grand Théâtre de Provence, Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède and Conservatoire Darius Milhaud.

In the magical setting of Aix-en-Provence and the surrounding region, the Festival presents the public with proposals that renew approaches and repertoires, broaden the contours of opera, engage in dialogue with the other arts and modify the relationship between works, audiences and venues – setting new directions for creation.

Pierre Audi, the Festival’s director, affirms that contemporary music occupies a special place in this event. In the practice of excellence, opera at the Festival holds up a mirror to the world, expressing it in artistic parables from which beauty, emotion and vivid thought spring – even from the darkest material.