REQUIEM - REVIEW OF 2026 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

The production of Mozart’s Requiem at the Aix-en-Provence Festival beside The Magic Flute and Die Frau Ohne Schatten may appear odd but it was produced there in 2019 so there is that precedent at least. I associate a requiem done by an orchestra with a chorus and soloists, but this production is a fully staged work. A glance at the program reveals that the following people are involved: a director, a dramaturge, a choreographer as well as a set, lighting and costume designer. The last three are handled by Director Romeo Castellucci.

I saw the 2019 production and admittedly forgot it and was curious about my reaction to a fully staged offering.  Mozart’s Requiem lasts less than an hour and is at times recorded in beautiful cathedrals. By definition, a requiem is a mass for the dead, a solemn chant for their souls and a prayer for our eternal souls.

Mozart’s Requiem falls squarely in that description. It was left unfinished at his death, and several composers had a hand in finishing it and experts are not sure who contributed what but that is not our concern.

The Festival’s production goes beyond the Requiem that we have inherited incorporating other Mozart compositions and using some Gregorian chants. The program does not give us details of these, but what can be played in less than an hour is stretched to about 100 minutes. It goes from the solemnity and vigorous parts of the Requiem to dance routines and some boisterous celebratory segments.

First let us praise the Pygmalion Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Raphael Pinchon. The soloists are Melissa Petit, soprano, Beth Taylor (alto), Duke Kim (Tenor) and Alex Rosen (bass).  The interplay among soloists, the chorus and the orchestra reach heights of supreme splendor. They go from the simple four-word chant Kyrie eleison to the bleak Dies irae, the Day of Wrath, the day that will dissolve the earth in ashes.

The Requiem implores the Lord for eternal rest and perpetual light for the souls of the departed, prays for mercy on us, warns about the day of judgment that awaits all of us, and glorifies the Lord and expresses our gratitude for his mercy. That is a spectrum that covers the breadth of Christian life and faith.

Scene from Requiem. Aix-en-Provence Festival 2026 © Monika Rittershaus

But Castelucci, Dramaturge Piersandra Di Matteo, and Choreographer Evelin Facchini have a lot more in mind. As Costume designer, Castellucci adds costume changes including a scene with traditional red and white dresses, with flowers at the back of the stage, has colourful hats on the dancers who perform some dance-around-the-rosy and a number with plenty of colourful streamers around a Maypole. The stage décor changes and at one point the rear wall of the stage is sprayed and painted in green and red.

The back of the stage has titles preceded by the word Extinction and it calls for the disappearance of just about everything from music to literature to a couple of dozen things that may be considered as civilization and some others less crucial items that I cannot remember. They appeared on the dimly lit rear panel, and I stopped paying attention to them.

Near the end of the performance, the entire floor of the stage was raised from the back up so that it ended up standing almost vertically. Water ran down cleaning the dirt or whatever was supposed to be on the boards. I assume it was rather crude cleansing of our sins but after everything had become extinct, I am not sure.

The following two verses embrace the Catholic faith on which the Requiem is based. They encompass the extremes of heaven and hell and affirm the love and generosity of God and Jesus. I am not sure that the additional forty minutes inserted by Romeo Castellucci and his artistic so-workers added much to the Requiem.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,

deliver the souls of all the faithful

departed from the pains of hell and from the bottomless pit.

King of awful majesty,

Who freely savest the redeemed,

Save me, O fount of goodness.

The end of the performance was greeted by a few loud boos followed by bravos from some members of the audience. The orchestra, the chorus, the soloists and the dancers received only positive responses. The artistic backstage people were booed again when they appeared for a bow.
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Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opened on July 4th and will be performed a total of five times until July 12, 2026, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France.  http://festival-aix.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto