By Francis Carlin [Financial Times, 8 July 2011]
The Aix-en-Provence Festival, far from falling off a cliff after the Berlin Philharmonic wound up its Ring cycle there in 2009, is still successfully playing the prestige card. The London Symphony Orchestra is now in residence, accompanying two operas this year and also giving concerts in the controversial indoor theatre that opened in 2007. That should make the building look less of a white elephant, though it is clear that the festival’s director, Bernard Foccroulle, considers the courtyard of the Archbishop’s Palace, where swallows squeal at the beginning of evening performances, as the emotional heart of the event.