Death of Pierre Audi, director of the Aix festival

It's the most sinister of twists, and unfortunately, it's not theater: Pierre Audi died last night, at the age of 67, in Beijing where he was reviving one of his productions. He leaves behind two young teenagers and a significant body of work. As a director, he is responsible for many productions. For the Paris Opera, he notably directed La Juive and Tosca, which will be revived next season, as well as Kurtag's Fin de Partie . Since 2018, he has directed the Aix-en-Provence Festival d'Art Lyrique.

Pierre Audi had a vision. He intended for a festival to amaze, and he had succeeded, despite the financial difficulties revealed last year, in making his mark on Aix-en-Provence. Judge for yourself: we know that in Aix-en-Provence, originally created around the work of Mozart, it is appropriate to program an opera by this composer every year. Audi had created a surprise by presenting the Requiem for his first season, in a production by Castelluci. Resurrection in a new venue in Vitrolles had echoed this. Another bold move: he had brought in Puccini, until then shunned by the festival, and Monteverdi. And for this summer, he had planned Louise by Charpentier, Don Giovanni , La Calisto , The Story of Billy Budd , The Pearl Fishers , The Force of Destiny ... " Metamorphosis of Calisto, reincarnation of Buddha, transformation of Louise, protean Don Giovanni... " There is nothing stable in the universe; everything passes, all forms are made only to come and go " advances Ovid in his Metamorphoses , depicting through La Calisto by Cavalli a fascinating continuum between nature, men and gods" , he stated in his last editorial.

As he completed his first term at the helm of the festival, he affirmed how crucial it was for the event to also champion contemporary creation. He also insisted that each edition follow one another and not be alike, to preserve the surprise of each edition. People liked it, they didn't, but you couldn't say anything until you saw it.

Audi shone, Audi charmed. In the industry, he had a reputation for attracting the very best opera singers, directors, and conductors to Aix—and the 2025 edition proves it again. It was hard to resist him. Born in Beirut in 1957 into a family of bankers, he developed a passion for theater early on. At the French high school, he created a film club where he invited Pasolini and Jacques Tati to present their films. His parents moved to France, where he completed his studies at Stanislas, then went to London: he studied history at Oxford, and there, too, forged his path in theater. He directed Shakespeare and, at the age of 22, created the Almeida Theatre, known for its experimental research. Opera caught his attention: all kinds of staging experiments could be carried out there, and with greater resources. In addition, experimental music quickly became part of his work at the Almeida. In 1988, he took over as director of the Dutch National Opera. He stayed there for 30 years, giving the house the stature of the greatest: he performed the Ring there for the first time, but also commissioned works from Schnittke, as well as Peter Greenaway and Louis Andriessen for Writing to Vermeer.

Audi is a worker as tireless as his curiosity is insatiable. Beneath his calm demeanor, he demands more because he never runs out of ideas. In 2008, he combined the Holland Festival with the festival, and in 2015 with the Park Avenue Armory in New York, where he remained director during his tenure in Aix. This son of a banker, who had led the Netherlands Opera with the rigorous honesty of the country's Protestants, was deeply hurt by the financial hole in the Aix festival's budget last year. Driven by his enthusiasm and ambition, he had hoped for more patrons than he received. Unlike some captains who leave the ship when it sinks, he wanted to stay on board to right the company. To which he had, discreetly, without wanting to make it public, donated money from his own pocket. The opera world has lost a nobleman.