COSÌ - COSÌ FAN TUTTE, FESTIVAL D’AIX 1948-2023: 75 YEARS OF COSÌ FAN TUTTE AT THE FESTIVAL D’AIX

For the 75th anniversary of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Musée des Tapisseries (“Museum of Tapestries”), in collaboration with the Festival d’Aix, presents the exhibition Così - Così fan tutte, Festival d’Aix 1948–2023, centred around Così fan tutte, the first opera performed at the creation of the Festival in 1948.
From 13 May to 24 September 2023, you can (re)discover Mozart’s most controversial work through a selection of sets, costumes, models and stage photos provided by the Fonds du Festival International d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence.

In 1948, Gabriel Dussurget and his friend Henri Lambert responded to Countess Lily Pastré invitation, who wished to organize a music festival in Marseille. They eventually chose the courtyard of the former Archbishop’s Palace in Aix-en-Provence. The first edition of the “Mozart Festival” – which was to become the international Festival of Lyric Art – opened the same year with Mozart’s Così fan tutte, on a makeshift stage. The Archbishop’s Theatre was inaugurated the following year, and since then, ten productions have been staged there, some of which have been revived many times over the years.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the event, sets, costumes, models, and stage photographs from the Collection of the Aix-en-Provence International Festival of Lyric Art have been gathered to put the spotlight on these productions and on the great artists – creators, performers, and stage directors – who have distinguished themselves in them.

In the background of the history of these performances, a selection of texts from prestigious musicologists and music critics written for previous season programmes also reveals a history of how we have considered this long-unpopular work whose multiple interpretations do not exhaust the mystery.