Ted Huffman, an American-born opera director and librettist, has been a regular at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France for more than a decade, presenting groundbreaking new works and fresh takes on classics at one of the most prestigious summer gatherings for opera.
Now, Huffman will become the general director of the festival, replacing Pierre Audi, who died in May at 67. He begins in January.
Huffman’s credentials as a creator of opera are well known. But he is less established as an administrator, he noted in an interview from London on Thursday. The last festival he ran was the Greenwich Music Festival in Connecticut, from 2004-12. (He served as co-director with Robert Ainsley, who now leads the Glimmerglass Festival.)
“I haven’t had any experience doing administration because I’ve been working just as a director and a writer,” said Huffman, 48. “I think it’s going to be a big adjustment. I know it’s going to be challenging.”
He has some time. Before his death, Audi had programmed nearly all of the next two years of Aix, so Huffman won’t fully leave his imprint on the festival until 2028. (Next summer’s edition will be unveiled in December.)
Paul Hermelin, the chairman of the festival’s board, said that Huffman first began coming to Aix in 2012 and has returned every year since; five times as a director, and the other times as a member of the public. “With his international experience and his keen understanding of the cultural and artistic dynamics of our region, I am confident that he has all the qualities needed to further enhance the reach and influence of our cherished festival,” Hermelin said in a statement.
At Aix, Huffman’s productions have included a staging of Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea,” a reimagining of Britten’s “Billy Budd” with the composer Oliver Leith and “The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions,” a new work with text by him and music by Philip Venables, based on Larry Mitchell’s book. (That show will be presented at the Park Avenue Armory, which Audi also ran, in December.)
Huffman said he would continue to direct, both at Aix and elsewhere. “They were really clear when they hired me that I am a working artist,” he said. “They were interested in having an artist at the head of the company.”
The festival, which began in 1948, usually takes place in July and offers a slate of premieres and older operas, as well as symphonic and chamber music. Huffman said he would continue the tradition of Aix of promoting new works, rarities and modern interpretations.
“We are heading into a very exciting period where new opera is being commissioned by a lot of companies,” he said. “That’s a real change from 30 years ago. The definition of opera is no longer just repertoire of the past.”
Adam Nagourney is a Times reporter covering cultural, government and political stories in New York and California.
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