Paris (AFP)

The Festival of Lyric Art in Aix-en-Provence (south of France), one of the most prestigious in the world, welcomes in 2020 a slew of star directors and conductors, from Simon Stone to Simon Rattle, and entrusts to the great composer Kaija Saariaho the world creation of an opera.

In tandem with her compatriots, the Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki and the novelist Sofi Oksanen who wrote the booklet, she created "Innocence", an "opera-thriller" on ghosts from the past who haunt a wedding banquet. It is the first time that a composer has created an opera for the festival.

"Kaija Saariaho dreamed of writing this opera", which is his fifth, told AFP Pierre Audi, the festival director who signs his second program (June 30-July 18).

"Kaija and Susanna have been working together for a long time, before we even questioned the presence of women at festivals," he said. Saariaho notably composed "Only the Sounds remains" (2016) and "L'Amour de loin", hailed by the New York Times as best new work in 2000.

The Festival hopes to repeat the worldwide success - a rare thing for a contemporary opera - of "Written on Skin" (2012) by Briton George Benjamin.

This co-production with five international opera houses will be edited by Simon Stone, the Australian prodigy very present in France in recent years, with recently a very millennial "Traviata" at the Paris Opera.

Mr. Audi advocates the introduction of composers and a repertoire that have never been heard in Aix, such as Puccini's "Tosca", edited by Christophe Honoré last year and praised for its originality.

- "An art that speaks of today" -

Among the other four operas on display is "Wozzeck" by the Austrian Alan Berg (1885-1935).

"It is the largest opera house of the 20th century," said Audi, the 30-year director of the Amsterdam Opera House and endowed with an impressive address book, told AFP.

A "Wozzeck" under the baton of Briton Simon Rattle, one of the greatest conductors in the world who comes with his prestigious London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and a staging by Simon McBurney, best known for his work at cinema and theater but which delighted with its version of "The Magic Flute" by Mozart in Aix (2014).

As for the title role of soldier Wozzeck who sinks into madness, it is entrusted to the very popular baritone Christian Gerhaher. "He is the biggest + Wozzeck + alive, he is an extraordinary artist, we find five in 100 years like him," said Mr. Audi.

Another novelty, the Russian opera "Le Coq d'or" by Rimski-Korsakov, staged by Barrie Kosky who often revisits classics in a crazy way and which is omnipresent in France in 2019-2020.

"I am accused of a lot of modernity (...) but for me opera is an art that speaks to us today," said Mr. Audi Tuesday during the presentation of the 2020 edition in Paris. .

According to tradition, the festival gives an opera by Mozart: it will be "Cosi fan Tutte" ;, a crossover in love whose staging is entrusted to the Russian multiprime Dmitri Tcherniakov, with the conductor Thomas Hengelbrock.

Baroque also with "Le coronnement de Popée" by Monteverdi, directed by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon and directed by Ted Huffman and "L'Orfeo" by the same composer in concert version.

"This program is balanced (...) in 72 years, the festival has evolved, there have been bel canto periods, others more baroque, it's a rich history, it must be maintained," said M Audi.

The concert and recital programming in Aix also contains its share of stars: Simon Rattle is organizing a musical parade with the LSO on the Cours Mirabeau, Gerhaher and the highly requested French soprano Sabine Devieilhe will each give a recital, as will the famous counter tenor and breakdancer Jakub Jozef Orlinski.

© 2020 AFP