To celebrate the Festival’s seventy-fifth anniversary, it was hoped that Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra would create a new work, commissioned for the occasion. The name of the French-American composer Betsy Jolas was immediately obvious.
I accepted, of course, saying to myself that in 2023, at the age of ninety-seven, this would really be my very last work: a collection, no doubt, of beautiful musical memories from a lifetime." – which she therefore titled Ces belles années…
The links between the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Betsy Jolas are long-standing and steady. She attended the first edition in 1948 in the audience. Thereafter, her work has been regularly programmed. In 2012, she supervised the Académie’s workshop ‘Opéra en Création’, which then focused on young audiences, and the same year, the Chamber Music Residency presented a wide range of her works. This summer, the same residency will present her wind quintet O Wall (1976), inspired by a passage from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra will perform A Little Summer Suite (2016), a seven-movement musical stroll dedicated to its creators: the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and... Sir Simon Rattle.
Related content
You will also like
[ 75 YEARS IN PICTURES ] BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE FESTIVAL
A festival has an entire life outside the public eye, before the theatre opens its doors and the last call rings out to announce the rise of the...
[ EXPERIMENTATION RESIDENCY ] DISCOVER THE THREE PROJECTS FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY CREATION!
For its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Académie du Festival d’Aix is reaffirming its commitment to creation in opera by implementing the...
[ PORTRAIT ] GEORGE BENJAMIN
In 2012, George Benjamin and Martin Crimp hit the headlines at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence with Written on Skin, a poisonous tale of love and death...
[ PICTURES ] AU GRAND AIR 2023
Here’s a quick look back at Au Grand Air, an open-air musical walking path created as part of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra’s 2023 Au Grand Air...
[ 75 YEARS IN PICTURES ] A FESTIVAL OF PAINTER-DECORATORS
‘The true reason behind the significance and success of Aix was the fusion of opera and painting.’ — Gabriel Dussurget, First General Director of the...
THE FESTIVAL WILL SOON BE HERE: HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT A TRIP TO PROVENCE AND A NIGHT AT THE OPERA?
The Festival will be opening its doors in less than two months. Don’t forget to book your tickets and organise your stay in Aix-en-Provence!
[ PICTURE A DAY LIKE THIS ] INTERVIEW WITH THE COMPOSER AND CONDUCTOR SIR GEORGE BENJAMIN
Interview with the composer and conductor Sir George Benjamin around Picture a day like this, a world premiere to be discovered from 5 to 23 July 2023...
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...
[ BALLETS RUSSES ] INTERVIEW WITH THE CONDUCTOR KLAUS MÄKELÄ
Interview with the conductor Klaus Mäkelä around Ballets russes by Stravinsky, new production of the Festival d'Aix which will be performed from 8 to...