Even before the start of its 2023 edition, the Berlioz Festival, from August 20 to September 3, is certain to become a legend. Big names and big events will animate the Côte-Saint-André, in Isère, which will even have the privilege of seeing the great British chef John Eliot Gardiner celebrate his 80th birthday on stage to the sound of the opera “Les Troyens”.
“Do you realize: we are going to give ‘Les Troyens’ directed by the greatest conductor in the world, here in Berlioz’s native village… Whereas he himself never had the pleasure of hearing it in Paris , in his lifetime”rejoices, not a little proud, Bruno Messina, great organizer of the Berlioz festival organized every summer at the Côte Saint André, in Isère.
Great British chef John Eliot Gardiner will come in the native land of Hector Berlioz for this 2023 edition, which will take place from August 20 to September 3. He will be at the baton of his revolutionary and romantic orchestra to conduct the monumental opera “Les Troyens” (about 4 hours), during two evenings at the Château Louis XI. He will also celebrate his 80th birthday there.
His visit to Isère on August 22 and 23 is the prelude to a tour that will then pass through Salzburg, Versailles and Berlin. Not less !
Other big names, there will be, of course. No sooner will the British “maestro” leave the stage at the Château Louis XI than the Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit will give his version of the “Damnation of Faust”, at the head of the orchestra of French-speaking Switzerland associated with the choir of Radio France.
Another Swiss formation, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, will put on the programme, not the music of the child of the country, but a musician most appreciated by Berlioz himself: Ludwig Van Beethoven. With at its head, a conductor that this orchestra knows better in the role of solo violin: the French Renaud Capuçon. At the baton on August 20 at 9 p.m., he will return the next day on stage to accompany his young violin talents for a Liszt and Mendelssohn program.
Names, big concerts and the popular festival: it has become a constant during this festival. Even if its main evening will not take place at Côte-Saint-André this year. On Saturday August 26, from 5 p.m., it is in the setting of the Carmelite convent of Beauvoir-en-Royans that the great popular festival of the 2023 edition will take place.
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Certainly a great moment. The hundreds of spectators will be amazed, first of all, with a world creation named: Sisyphe, and a video installation, electroacoustic music and soloists by Zad Moultaka.
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As soon as the rays of the day have disappeared, the famous “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff will rise in the night interpreted by the choir and the orchestra of the Teatro Regio, the Turin opera house.
Berlioz is the era of the modern myth: that of the hero who is constructed like a rock star!
Bruno Messina, director of the Berlioz festival
But let’s get back to the theme of this edition: “Mythical!”, as the poster for the 2023 edition already trumpets.Berlioz, you know, it’s the era of the modern myth“, enthuses Bruno Messina. “In other words, the era of the hero as we build a rock star today. During this festival, there will therefore be room for the myths that inspired him such as the Trojan horse or “Faust” , but also, the way in which we have elevated to the rank of myths, characters like Liszt, Chopin, Georges Sand, or Victor Hugo.”
And Berlioz, then: was he not a myth himself? “There will be in this festival all that will allow to tell again in a new way his extraordinary life“, turnover by Bruno Messina “.The Berlioz myth, for its part, is doing better and better, because it is finally reaching its time. He always said that it would certainly take time for us to understand his music… I think the time for this meeting has arrived”.
