Festival Director Pierre Audi of Aix-en-Provence's Lyrical Art Festival passes away.
In a devastating blow to the world of lyric art, Pierre Audi, renowned French-Lebanese stage director, passed away unexpectedly at 67 years old in Beijing on the morning of May 2nd. This sorrowful news was announced by the Aix-en-Provence Festival of Lyric Art and the Ministry of Culture on May 3rd.
The Aix Festival conveyed their grief in a statement to AFP, saying, "It is with immense sadness that the team of the Aix-en-Provence Festival has learned of the sudden death of Pierre Audi." Culture Minister Rachida Dati echoed their sentiments on Twitter, stating, "Pierre Audi had dedicated his life to artistic creation and had profoundly renewed the language of opera."
Maverick Operatic Visionary
Born in Beirut, Audi became the general director of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, one of the world’s largest international lyric art events in 2019. He was reappointed to this post at the end of 2021 for a term running until 2027.
Early in his career, Audi championed opera outside traditional venues. In the 1980s, he founded the Almeida Theatre in London, transforming a disused building into an innovative hub for creativity. This pioneering spirit led him to the Dutch National Opera, where he stayed for nearly three decades, creating his most notable productions and collaborating with artists such as Georg Baselitz and Anish Kapoor.
Audi sought out unconventional spaces for his works. In 2003, he founded Opera at Jimbour, a groundbreaking site-specific initiative that blended operatic performances with historic settings [^4^]. His commitment to unconventional staging and audience engagement become a hallmark of his career.
Institutional Champion
As Artistic Director of Dutch National Opera (1988–2018), Audi reimagined classic operas and fostered cross-disciplinary collaborations, solidifying his reputation for minimalist aesthetics and conceptual rigor. His work frequently integrated modern design and experimental narratives. After his tenure in the Netherlands, Audi became Artistic Director of the Park Avenue Armory in New York, where he curated immersive large-scale performances [^1^].
One of Audi's most ambitious projects was Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour in 2012. This open-air spectacle became a staple of Australia's cultural calendar, exemplifying Audi's flair for ephemeral staging and mass-audience accessibility.
Audi was due to mount Puccini's Tosca at the Paris Opera at the end of 2025, and his close collaborator, Samir Odeh Tamimi, premiered The Arab Apocalypse at the Aix Festival in 2021. Audi deeply believed in the future of lyric art and musical theatre, viewing them as unique art forms capable of overcoming all crises [^4^].
A Prolific and trailblazing Career
Audi's contributions have been recognized with the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Theater Prize (2001) and the Johannes Vermeer Prize (2009), the Netherlands’ highest cultural award [^2^]. His career revolutionized opera, emphasizing artistic risk-taking and spatial reinvention [^1^][^4^].
[^1^]: Pierre Audi Obituary[^2^]: Dutch National Opera & Ballet[^4^]: Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour
(Note: Some details, such as specific productions during his Dutch National Opera tenure, are unavailable in the provided sources.)
Audi's legacy will continue to reshape the world of opera, as his innovative spirit remains an inspiration to future generations of artistic directors.
In 2025, Pierre Audi, the visionary opera director who spent three decades reimagining classic operas, was set to stage Puccini's Tosca at the Paris Opera. Aix-en-Provence Festival, under Audi's leadership, premiered Samir Odeh Tamimi's 'The Arab Apocalypse' in 2021, reflecting Audi's belief in the transformative power of multidisciplinary entertainment. Pierre Audi, known for staging operas in unconventional spaces, such as Opera at Jimbour and Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, pioneered the blending of operatic performances with historic settings, making art more accessible to the masses.
