OPÉRA DE-CI DE-LÀ: PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF THE OPERA GENRE

As a prelude to the Festival d’Aix, Opéra de-ci de-là is returning to Aix-en-Provence during Aix en Juin. Ten artists will invite us to put our imaginations in motion and to confront art in our daily lives, as part of a professional project for musical and theatrical creation in harmony with nature.

Under the artistic direction of Anthony Heidweiller, the Opéra de-ci de-là project is centred around collaboration and international exchange among ten opera makers and performers. The diversity of expressive techniques — singing, instrumentation, composition, improvisation, and the development of spatial perspective — takes the artists on a journey that pushes the traditional boundaries of the opera genre.

These artists from various backgrounds have been working in a professional setting offered by this Académie du Festival residency, which promotes experimental dialogue and the breaking down of creative barriers. Hence, the prosody of (authors) Penda Diouf and Claire Tipy blends with the sounds of Lili Gomond, Seydou Diarra, Eira Huse and Julie Hega (euphonium, flute, balafon, voice and cello) via compositions by Amy Crankshaw and Nuno Lobo and a mise en espace by Bahzad Sulaiman and Stephen Liebman.

The relationship between nature and humanity takes centre stage, with a view to developing a certain intimacy between artist and society, and to playing with personal fragments to foster reflection. Opéra de-ci de-là represents a no-obligation high point in our exchanges with the world.

COME SEE OPÉRA DE-CI DE-LÀ AT THE CLOÎTRE DES OBLATS ON 18 JUNE (5:30–7 P.M.)!