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With the approval of Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, of Sophie Joissains, Mayor of the City of Aix-en-Provence, of Martine Vassal, President of the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence and of the Conseil départemental des Bouches-du-Rhône and of Renaud Muselier, President of the Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and upon the recommendation of its Chairman Paul Hermelin, the Board of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence has unanimously appointed today Ted Huffman as General Director of the Festival for a five-year term, effective January 1, 2026.

On Tuesday, October 21, the Festival d’Aix was honored to officially receive the Birgit Nilsson Prize, the world’s most prestigious award in classical music, during an exceptional musical evening in Stockholm. The event was attended by renowned international guests and artists. At the official ceremony, His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf presented the Prize to Sophie Joissains, Mayor of Aix-en-Provence, and Paul Hermelin, Chairman of the Board of the Festival.

Tuesday, October 21 at 6 pm., don’t miss the live broadcast from Sweden for the official presentation of the Birgit Nilsson Prize at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence — the most prestigious award in the world of classical music!  

Applications are now open for the 2026 Académie Voice Residency!

French mezzo-soprano Marine Chagnon and American baritone John Brancy, both of whom recently made their Aix debuts, travelled to Sweden to perform a special recital with pianist Qiaochu Li, preceded by a moderated talk with Thimothée Picard, Dramaturge and Artistic Advisor to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. On the same evening the 2025 Birgit Nilsson Stipendium recipient, soprano Karolina Bengtson also performed in recital - shortly after her return from Aix where she made her debut in this year’s new production of Charpentier’s Louise.

From a sacred forest to a storm-tossed ship, the works presented at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence conjure up the deepest of emotions and reveal the power of art as a refuge. They affirm opera’s ability to serve as a compass in an unstable and ever-questioning world. — Le Soir This 77th edition of the Festival was dedicated to the memory of Pierre Audi, and we were committed to carrying it out just as he had envisioned it.

The 2025 Festival d’Aix lasts all summer long thanks to #THEDIGITALSTAGE! Operas, interviews and panel discussions are available on our entirely free digital platform.

Head over to #THEDIGITALSTAGE of the Festival d’Aix to see all the content already online or soon to be made available, included recorded broadcast of Charpentier’s Louise, panel discussions with artists, podcasts of opera ‘preludes’, interviews with creators and performers, and much more. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the Festival d'Aix from the comfort of your living room or to revisit the highlights of this edition.

In 2025, ARTE, media partner of the Festival, will be broadcasting Louise by Charpentier. Saturday 12 July at 10:45 pm, tune in to ARTE and ARTE.TV.

From 12 to 23 July, France Musique, media partner of the Festival, will once again set up its microphones in Aix-en-Provence. Morning interviews and lyrical evenings are on the programme for this special week broadcast live from the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

To honour the memory of Pierre Audi, inspired artist and visionary leader — whose legacy has left an indelible mark on the future of the Festival and, more broadly, on the world of opera and artistic creation — we invite you to join us on Sunday 6 July from 11am to 12:30pm, at the Grand Théâtre de Provence.

While outside, the scorching heat makes the city’s air quiver, the cool and welcoming penumbra of the Grand Théâtre de Provence causes eyes to blink upon entering the elegant amphitheatre. The stage and the auditorium produce the gentle buzz of a working beehive, each group attending to a specific task in preparation for the upcoming performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Sir Simon Rattle, the production’s music director, is speaking in the orchestra pit with his assistant Luca Guglielmi. At the same time, the videographer adjusts the projection to fit the contours of the set, while the sound designer tests the sound effects placed at key moments in the drama, to underline the intention behind the staging. The stage director, Robert Icke, is not yet present; he is rehearsing in the studio with Madison Nonoa and Paweł Horodyski, who play Zerlina and Masetto respectively. Robert Icke bases his stage direction on creative processes drawn from theatre rather than from the operatic world: the sessions on stage or in the studio aim, through dialogue with the singers, to understand their characters and define stage movement in harmony with their psychology, through gestures, movement, and the story the director wants to tell. [...]