Avignon Festival 2025: An edition marked by emotion and fragility
These emotions experienced under the Avignon stars in southern France emerged from a festival that, overall, leaves a slight feeling of disappointment, especially regarding the dance program, which accounted for around a third of this year's schedule, and the shows presented in the context of the festival's featured language, Arabic. That did not stop the 2025 edition from breaking attendance records, with an unprecedented fill rate exceeding 98%.
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LeMonde
2 days ago
- LeMonde
Avignon Festival 2025: An edition marked by emotion and fragility
The image was sublime: a red satin high heel rising into the night, disappearing into skies as vast as those in Le Soulier de satin ("The Satin Slipper"), by Paul Claudel. There were many similarly powerful emotions during the 2025 edition of the Avignon Festival, the 79 th, which closes on Saturday, July 26. A biblical downpour on the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais des Papes. A Brazilian song that wrung the heart, "Sonhos" by Caetano Veloso, to express a father's love for his daughter. The words of Mahmoud Darwish or those of Gisèle Pelicot, both delivered with the same dignity, ringing out in the night, speaking to the endless disasters of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the culture of sexual violence. These emotions experienced under the Avignon stars in southern France emerged from a festival that, overall, leaves a slight feeling of disappointment, especially regarding the dance program, which accounted for around a third of this year's schedule, and the shows presented in the context of the festival's featured language, Arabic. That did not stop the 2025 edition from breaking attendance records, with an unprecedented fill rate exceeding 98%.
Euronews
6 days ago
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Brazilian singer and feminist activist Preta Gil dies aged 50
Renowned Brazilian singer and presenter Preta Gil has died of cancer at the age of 50. Daughter of singer and former Brazilian culture minister Gilberto Gil and actress Sandra Gadelha, she had been fighting colorectal cancer since the beginning of 2023. Equally celebrated for her musical talents and campaigning for women's rights and the LGBTQ+ communities, she died in New York on Sunday, according to her spokeswoman, where she was undergoing treatment. A post shared by Preta Gil (@pretagil) Art and activism She released her first album in 2003, 'Prêt-à-porter', when her father was culture minister during Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's first presidency. "This disc shows my roots, both the tropicalist side of MPB and my open, democratic and connected side," she wrote in her autobiography "Preta Gil: Os primeiros 50" (Preta Gil: The First 50), published in 2024. She also produced three more albums, 'Preta', from 2005, 'Sou Como Sou', from 2012, and 'Todas as Cores', from 2017, with collaborations with Gal Costa, Pabllo Vittar and Marília Mendonça. She released two live albums based on the shows 'Noite Preta', in 2010, and 'Bloco da Preta', in 2014. As an actress, she appeared in soap operas and various Globo projects and created a talk show in 2004. From the 2000s onwards, despite facing criticism for posing naked on the cover of her first album and for being open about her bisexuality, she championed feminist and anti-racist positions. She is survived by a 28-year-old son, Francisco, a member of the Gilsons, and a seven-year-old granddaughter.
LeMonde
7 days ago
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The challenge of surtitling at the Avignon Festival
The Avignon Festival has consistently demonstrated its commitment to linguistic diversity, annually featuring a guest language and welcoming many international artists to the stages of the Cité des Papes. Surtitling performances – providing live translations projected above the stage – ensures that all audiences can enjoy the shows, a cornerstone of its cultural policy. First appearing in the 1980s, surtitles were initially used in opera. Introduced in Avignon under the creative direction of Olivier Py (2013-2022), surtitling became standard practice with the arrival of his successor, Tiago Rodrigues, who has championed ever-greater linguistic diversity. With a multilingual program, performances in foreign languages – and in French – are surtitled. In 2023, the festival created a dedicated position to "oversee the surtitling process from start to finish," explained Clara Moulin-Tyrode, deputy production director of the festival. While companies presenting work at the festival are asked to provide their own surtitling solutions, the festival itself allocates "€60,000 to €70,000" to supplement these efforts. The process is coordinated with other venues on tour. France's national performing arts agency (ONDA) and France's international cultural agency offer their support, while partnerships are formed with specialized organizations such as Panthéa, a leading European surtitling company for live performance.
