The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.

Establishment[link]

The first festival took place in July 1948. It was made up of three or four concerts in the cour de l'Archevêché, a concert in the Saint-Sauveur cathedral, and six further concerts and recitals in various locations throughout the town. An opera was added to these concerts, Mozart's Così fan tutte, a work practically unknown by the French public at the time. However, it was not until 1949 that the festival became a success with its production of Don Giovanni.

From inception until 1974, the festival was directed by Gabriel Dussorget who devoted much attention to the artistic and detailed aspects of the productions, which in turn attracted much attention to the festival.

Under the direction of Bernard Lefort from 1974 to 1982, the Festival became devoted to bel canto opera and, in general, a celebration of the voice. Performances of 19th century operas by Verdi and Donizetti were given by the reigning stars of bel canto such as Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Marilyn Horne, and Katia Ricciarelli, and the Festival spread throughout the town.

From 1982, a broadening of the repertoire to include baroque to modern operas (Britten and Prokofiev, in particular) characterized the era of director Louis Erlo, who gave preference to Mozart by staging new productions of his most famous works, but also the early operas written in the composer's youth.

In 1998 Stéphane Lissner took over the Festival, accomplishing a complete renovation of the Théâtre de l'Archevêché and thus making it the heart of the Festival. New operas were commissioned, most recently the 2005 production of Julie by the Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans, based on Strindberg's Miss Julie.

In 2006, it featured concerts and operas as well as master classes. These included Wagner's Das Rheingold conducted by Sir Simon Rattle with Sir Willard White as Wotan; Mozart's The Magic Flute, conducted by Daniel Harding; Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers; the Berlin Philharmonic playing Mahler's 5th Symphony; and Pierre Boulez, conducting and on the piano and works by Henry Purcell.

Performances are given in a variety of locations, including:

• the Théâtre de l'Archevêché, in the courtyard of the former archibshop's palace;
• the Grand Théâtre de Provence, opened in 2007;
• the Jeu de Paumes, a restored 18th century theatre;
• the courtyard of the Hôtel Maynier d'Oppède;
• the Théâtre du Grand Saint-Jean, in the grounds of a chateau near Aix.

See also[link]

• List of opera festivals

External links[link]

• Festival d'Aix-en-Provence official website

Andreas Wolf

Andreas Wolf 2009
Personal information
Date of birth	(1982-06-12) 12 June 1982 (age 30)
Place of birth	Leninabad, Soviet Union
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Centre back / Right back
Club information
Current club	Monaco
Number	31
Youth career
	SV Pfeil Burk
0000–1992	ESV Ansbach-Eyb
1993–1996	SpVgg Ansbach
1996–2002	1. FC Nuremberg
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2002–2011	1. FC Nuremberg	213	(7)
2011–2012	Werder Bremen	15	(0)
2012–	Monaco	2	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:50, 2 April 2012 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals).

Andreas Wolf (Russian: Андрей Андреевич Вольф; born 12 June 1982 in Leninabad, Soviet Union) is a German footballer who plays as a defender for AS Monaco.^[1] He had previously played at 1. FC Nuremberg since 2002 and was the team captain, before leaving in the summer of 2011.

Career[link]

After coming to Germany with his parents in 1990 he started playing football for several teams in the Ansbach area before joining Nuremberg in 1997. There he played for several junior teams, before breaking into first team football in 2002 when he debuted in the Bundesliga against Hertha BSC. Before the team's relegation in 2003 Wolf played in 18 games for the "Club". He became a regular during Nuremberg's successful promotion campaign in the 2003–04 season, playing in 31 of 34 games.

He could not reprise his role as first-team regular during the following two seasons, when he was plagued by injuries. With the start of the 2006–07 season, however, Wolf was back in the starting line-up alongside fellow centre-back Gláuber. After nine seasons for "the club", Wolf left Nuremberg in July 2011 for Werder Bremen. In January 2012, Wolf signed a contract with AS Monaco in the French Ligue 2.

Career statistics[link]

Club performance[link]

As of 23 January 2012 (2012 -01-23)^[update]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andreas Wolf

• Andreas Wolf at official FCN website (German)
• Andreas Wolf at official Werder Bremen website

Tatiana Troyanos (Greek: Τατιάνα Τρωϊάνου, Tatiána Trōïánou, pronounced [tatˈjana troˈjanu], September 12, 1938 – August 21, 1993) was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent.

Early life[link]

Born in New York City, Troyanos grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, where she attended Forest Hills High School.^[1] In high school, her nickname was "Totsie." [1]

Before making her operatic debut, Troyanos appeared as a chorus member in the original production of The Sound of Music.

Professional career[link]

In 1963, Troyanos made her professional operatic debut at the New York City Opera as Hippolyta in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The next year, she sang the role of Marina Mnishek in that company's first production of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, as well as a variety of other roles over the next several seasons. She left for Europe to make the Hamburg State Opera her home base for the next decade, returning for her Metropolitan Opera debut as Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in 1976. [2]

A mainstay and "one of the most beloved artists at the Metropolitan Opera" [3] from 1976 to her death in 1993, she was internationally revered for her uniquely sensual, burnished sound, her versatility and beauty, as well as the thrilling intensity of all her performances. In the early 1980s, Troyanos appeared in several opening-night performances at that house including Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma (opposite Renata Scotto), Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, and Didon in Berlioz's Les Troyens.

The many and varied roles she portrayed on stage also included Monteverdi's Poppea (in Il coronazione di Poppea); Cavalli's Diana (in La Calisto); Handel's Ariodante and Giulio Cesare (in the operas of the same names); Purcell's Dido (in Dido and Aeneas); Mozart's Cherubino (in Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (in Don Giovanni), Dorabella (in Così fan tutte), and Sesto (in La Clemenza di Tito); Bellini's Romeo (in I Capuleti e i Montecchi); Donizetti's Giovanna Seymour (in Anna Bolena) and Maffio Orsini (in Lucrezia Borgia); Verdi's Amneris (in Aida) and Eboli (in Don Carlo); Wagner's Brangäne (in Tristan und Isolde), Fricka (in Das Rheingold), Waltraute (in Götterdämmerung), and Kundry (in Parsifal); Humperdinck's Hansel (in Hansel and Gretel); Richard Strauss's Composer (in Ariadne auf Naxos) and Clairon (in Capriccio); Johann Strauss's Prince Orlofsky (in Die Fledermaus); Saint-Saëns' Dalila (in Samson et Dalila), Massenet's Charlotte (in Werther); Offenbach's Giulietta (in Les contes d'Hoffmann); Mascagni's Santuzza (in Cavalleria Rusticana); Berg's Countess Geschwitz (in Lulu); Bartok's Judith (in Bluebeard's Castle); Stravinsky's Jocasta (in Oedipus Rex) and Baba the Turk (in The Rake's Progress); Penderecki's Jeanne (in The Devils of Loudun); and Glass's Isabella (in The Voyage).

In 1984 she sang with the Boston Symphony in the world premiere of Act I of Rachmaninoff's opera Monna Vanna, which had been left in piano score by the composer and orchestrated by Igor Buketoff.

She may be most famous for her Met renditions of Venus in Wagner's Tannhäuser in the 1980's (and especially the 1984 "Live from the Met" video recording with Richard Cassilly), a part she sang 21 times at the Met from 1978 thru 1992.

Discography[link]

Troyanos also enjoyed an equally versatile career as a recording artist, appearing in the title role of Sir Georg Solti's acclaimed recording of Bizet's Carmen, Cherubino in Karl Böhm's 1968 recording of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and as Anita in Leonard Bernstein's high-profile operatic recording of West Side Story, among others.

Illness[link]

Troyanos died August 21st, 1993 at the age of 54 in New York City from breast cancer, which had metastasized to her liver. She had successfully concealed her illness from the vast majority of her colleagues, having sung her last Met performance May 1st of that year as Waltraute to Gwyneth Jones' Brünnhilde in Wagner's epic Götterdämmerung. She is buried in Pinelawn Cemetery on Long Island. In 1994, the Metropolitan Opera performed a concert in memory of Troyanos; in his tribute, Music Director James Levine wrote, "The idea that we are gathered here ... to pay memorial tribute to Tatiana Troyanos is incomprehensible. What it means, of course, is that our Metropolitan Opera family has lost one of the most important, beloved artists and friends in its entire history."

Troyanos was one of three female opera stars of international stature who succumbed to cancer in 1993 in or near their 54th year. The other were sopranos Lucia Popp and Arleen Auger.

Voice and Artistry[link]

"During the 1979-80 season at the Met," Robert Wilder Blue has written, "Troyanos sang Hansel and Kundry (both in house role debuts) and Eboli. There have certainly been other singers who have sung these three roles. But, it is hard to imagine another singer having the ability to sing them all as well as she did and in one season. . . . The voice was even throughout and seamless between registers; the breath control never failed. There was an intensity in the voice that was like that of Callas. The colors ranged from husky to steely with an extraordinary number of hues in between. It was powerful and beautiful -- at home in Handel and Mozart as well as Wagner, Strauss and Berg. Throughout her career she had thrilling, secure high notes. Her characters lived: they existed in the imaginary circumstances with the broadest emotional range and the most specific attention to the moment. In this regard she was like the greatest singing actors of recent time. . . . She was a combination of contradictions: goddess-like power and human frailty, a glamorous woman and an impulsive young man. . . . Looking at photographs of Troyanos in her various roles one can see the amazing gallery of characters. As Didon she stands with regal bearing, but the expression on her face is one of vulnerability, almost pain. As Geschwitz she looks strong and proud but guarded. Her Hansel is bursting with impishness; her Giulietta is glamorous and seductive. As Jocasta she has a white streak in her hair that makes her look 20 years older, an indomitable matriarch. As the Composer her energy and idealism burst from the page." [4]

On a Metropolitan Opera broadcast tribute, Cori Ellison said: "In a way, everything we need to know about Tatiana Troyanos is right there in that astonishing, instantly recognizable voice - generous, driven, dark, sumptuous, noble, vulnerable, haunted, ardent, earthy, otherworldly, eccentric, supple, brilliant, and most of all, beautiful. . . . if you love it, you can’t get enough of it, and you love it as much for the feelings it evokes as for its sheer sound. . . . Here’s the artist as shaman, a sort of androgynous everywoman who seems to have experienced every peak and valley we have, and is able to give voice to it on our behalf." [5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Tatiana Troyanos Archives
• Tatiana Troyanos bulletin board

Michel Dens (22 June 1911, Roubaix - 19 December 2000, Paris) was a French baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory, both opera and operetta.

Born Maurice Marcel, the son of a journalist, he studied at the Academy of Music in Roubaix. He made his debut at the Opéra de Lille, as Wagner in Gounod's Faust, in 1934, and remained there as a member until 1936. Thereafter he sang at the Opera Houses of Bordeaux, Grenoble, Toulouse and Marseille. In 1943, he was heard at the Monte Carlo Opera as Escamillo, Valentin and the Count in Le nozze di Figaro.

After the Second World War, he began a very successful career at the Opéra-Comique and the Palais Garnier in Paris. His roles at the Opéra-Comique included; Figaro, Lescaut, Zurga, Frédéric, Ourrias, Dapertutto, Alfio, Marcello, Scarpia, et al., he took part there in the creation of Emmanuel Bondeville's Madame Bovary, on June 1, 1951. His debut role at the Opéra in 1947 was in the title role of Rigoletto, he also sang there as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Hérode in Hérodiade, Athanaël in Thais, et al. He appeared with success at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and at most of the great Opera Houses of France. He also appeared in Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, North Africa.

He enjoyed a remarkably long and successful career, singing in opera as late as 1979, and also scoring magnificent success in French and Viennese operettas, notably in Lehár's The Land of Smiles and The Merry Widow. He also sang in works by Louis Varney, Robert Planquette, Charles Lecocq, André Messager, et al. As late as 1992, he gave concerts in Paris and Marseille. He was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.

With his well trained and expressive baritone voice, Dens was a tireless and amazingly consistent performer (singing Sou-Chong in Land of Smiles 250 consecutive nights during the 1951-52 season). He sang an estimated 10,000 performances during his long career.

Sources[link]

• Operissimo.com

Natalie Dessay, 2008

Natalie Dessay (French pronunciation: [na.ta.li də.sɛ]) (born Nathalie Dessaix, 19 April 1965, in Lyon) is a French coloratura soprano. She dropped the silent "h" in her first name in honor of Natalie Wood when she was in grade school and subsequently simplified the spelling of her surname outside France. Famous in her earlier career for a very high upper extension, limpid intonation and superb coloratura, Dessay became more recognized in recent years for her dramatic and comedic flair as a singing actress.

In her youth, Dessay had intended to be a ballet dancer, and then an actress.^[1] She discovered her talent for singing while taking acting classes, and shifted her artistic focus to music.^[2] Dessay was encouraged to study voice at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and gained experience as a chorister in Toulouse. At the competition Les Voix Nouvelles, run by France Télécom, she was awarded First Prize (Premier Prix de Concours) followed by a year's study at Paris Opera's Ecole d'Art Lyrique, where she sang "Elisa" in Mozart's Il re pastore. Also, she entered the International Mozart Competition at the Vienna State Opera, winning First Prize.

She was quickly approached by a number of theatres, and subsequently sang "Blondchen", "Madame Herz" (in Der Schauspieldirektor), "Zerbinetta" and "Zaïde" at the Opéra National de Lyon and the Opéra Bastille, as well as "Adele" in Die Fledermaus in Geneva.

Career[link]

In April and May 1992 at the Opéra Bastille, she sang the role of "Olympia" in The Tales of Hoffmann with José van Dam. The Roman Polanski production was not well received, but it began the road to stardom for Dessay. Although she was soon featured in another production of Hoffmann, it would be over ten years before her return to Paris Opera in the same role. Soon after her Hoffmann run, Dessay joined the Vienna State Opera as Blondchen in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In December 1993, she was then asked to replace Cheryl Studer in one of the three female roles in a production of Hoffmann at the Vienna Opera. Her "Olympia" received acclaim from the Viennese audiences and praise from Plácido Domingo.^{[citation needed]}

She attended a performance where Barbara Bonney had sung Sophie in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier under Carlos Kleiber. Dessay was cast in the same role with another conductor. Her hope was to work with Kleiber, but he died before any project came to fruition.^{[citation needed]} Blondchen in Die Entführung and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos became her best-known and most often played roles.

In October 1994, Dessay made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in the role of Fiakermilli in Strauss's Arabella, and returned there in September 1997 as Zerbinetta and in February 1998 as Olympia.

The Staatsoper approached Dessay with two operas: Richard Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau, and Alban Berg's unfinished Lulu. Dessay declined the latter, saying the score was too difficult for her^{[citation needed]}. She admitted that Die schweigsame Frau was already painful to learn.

At the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Dessay first performed the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Although she was hesitant to perform the role, saying that she didn't want to play any evil characters, director Robert Carsen convinced her that this Queen would be different, almost a sister to Pamina. Dessay agreed to do the role, claiming it would be a one-time series of performances. There followed a year-long series of final performances of the Queen of the Night.^{[citation needed]}

During the 2001–2002 season in Vienna, she began to experience vocal difficulties and had to be replaced in almost all of the performances of La sonnambula. Subsequently, she was forced to cancel several other performances, including a French version of Lucia di Lammermoor in Lyon and a Zerbinetta at the Royal Opera House in London. She withdrew from the stage and underwent surgery on one of her vocal cords in July 2002.^[3] In February 2003, she returned to live performances in a Paris concert. Later, she cancelled and had further surgery, but by mid-2005 she was back on stage.

In the summer of 2003, Dessay gave her first US recital in Santa Fe. She was so attracted to New Mexico in general, and to Santa Fe in particular, that Santa Fe Opera (SFO) quickly rearranged its schedule to feature her in SFO's 2004 production of La sonnambula.^[4][5] She returned in the 2006 SFO season as Pamina (The Magic Flute). She gave her first performances in the role of Violetta in La traviata^[1] at SFO on 3 July 2009 in a production staged by Laurent Pelly. Her husband, Laurent Naouri appeared as Germont.^[6]

The 2006/2007 season schedule included Lucia di Lammermoor and La sonnambula in Paris, La fille du régiment directed by Laurent Pelly in London and Vienna, and a Manon in Barcelona. She opened the 2007–08 season at the Met as Lucia and also repeated her role in La fille du régiment.^[7] In January 2009 she sang the part of Melisande in a much acclaimed stagione production of Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy at the Theater an der Wien, the second opera house in Vienna, alongside Laurent Naouri. On 2 March 2009, Dessay sang the title role in La Sonnambula at the New York Metropolitan Opera. It was the first new production of the opera at the Met since Joan Sutherland sang the title role in the 1960s.^[8]

In February 2012, Dessay said in an interview with Le Figaro that she would take a sabbatical from opera performance in 2015.^[9]

Personal life[link]

Dessay is married to the bass-baritone Laurent Naouri, and she converted to his Jewish faith.^[10] The couple has two children.^[1]

Recordings[link]

Dessay provided the singing voice for the character of Anna Sørensen (played by Diane Kruger) in the 2005 movie Joyeux Noël.

DVDs[link]

• The Miracle of the Voice – Greatest Moments on Stage
• Le rossignol (Stravinsky)
• La fille du régiment (Donizetti) – Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Bruno Campanella, BBC 2007
• Hamlet (Thomas)
• Manon (Massenet)
• Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
• Orphée aux enfers (Offenbach)
• Arabella (R. Strauss)
• La sonnambula (Bellini)
• Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy)
• Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss)

CDs[link]

• La sonnambula (Bellini)
• Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)
• Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti)
• Orphée aux enfers (Offenbach)
• Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
• Mass in C Minor (Mozart)^{[clarification needed Great Mass in C minor, K. 427, or Waisenhaus, K. 139 ?]}
• Lakmé (Delibes)
• Mitridate (Mozart)
• Alcina (Handel)
• L'Orfeo (Monteverdi)
• "Vocalise" (Rachmaninov)
• Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno (Handel)
• Magnificat (J. S. Bach) and Dixit Dominus (Handel)
• The Miracle of the Voice
• Delirio – Cantatas (Handel)
• Joyeux Noël (singing voice for the character Anna Sørensen)
• Mozart Heroines
• French Opera Arias
• Amor: Scenes and Lieder (R. Strauss)
• Bach: Cantatas (J. S. Bach)
• Italian Opera Arias (Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi)
• Mad Scenes (Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Bellini, and Leonard Bernstein)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Natalie Dessay

• Dessay's Official Web Site
• Natalie Dessay, unofficial Web site
• Natalie Dessay recordings on EMI & Virgin Classics
• Virgin Classics short biography and discography
• Natalie Dessay at the Internet Movie Database