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      This Year’s Aix-en-Provence Festival Is Pierre Audi’s Last Act

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      This year’s edition of the Aix-en-Provence Festival was planned by Audi but opened without him, following his death in May.As a small, invited audience trickled into the Grand Théâtre de Provence on Sunday morning, they were greeted with a large portrait of Pierre Audi projected above the stage. It was a solemn photograph, black and white, with Audi staring directly into the camera. But on closer inspection, it was surprisingly casual: His collar was imperfect, as was the lapel of his jacket, and a slight smile hinted at a deeper warmth.The crowd, made up of his friends, colleagues and family, had gathered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France to memorialize Audi, a mighty force in the performing arts, who died in May at 67. As the festival’s general director, he had already finished plans for this year’s edition, which began last week. But Audi was never really done with a show until opening night. He was known to visit the rehearsals for each Aix production, gently offering what help he could.“When I think of Pierre,” the opera director Claus Guth said in a speech at the memorial, “I always have immediately one image of him in front of me: Pierre sitting in the audience like a rock, listening.”Guth paused, then added that “pierre” is French for “rock,” and that “audi” suggests listening. “He was watching the actors, he was listening, but there was something parallel, as if he would look through what was happening onstage,” he said. “He would look into the soul of a composer, the soul of the artist performing, of the person inventing. He had deep knowledge and intuition, and could look beyond.”What did Audi see in those moments? Having spent his career as an impresario and director restlessly seeking new ways to present the performing arts, he might have been seeing possibility. He looked at a building in London that had fallen on hard times and pictured the groundbreaking Almeida Theater; he looked at an abandoned, graffiti-covered stadium off a Provençal highway and saw a cavernous new stage for Aix. In his last decade, he programmed the Park Avenue Armory, whose enormous drill hall he filled with the kind of shows found almost nowhere else in New York.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Justin Bieber’s Surprise Album ‘Swag,’ and 10 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Tyla, Kassa Overall, Syd, Jay Som and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Justin Bieber, ‘Daisies’Justin Bieber has surprise-released a 21-song album, “Swag,” full of lo-fi experiments and unexpected collaborators. The singer has always been a savvy talent scout, and he concocted “Daisies” with the quick-fingered guitarist Mk.gee and the producer Dijon. “Daisies” is a bare-bones track: a lone electric guitar, drums and Bieber’s vocals, mostly using a vintage doo-wop chord progression (I-VI-IV-V) and juxtaposing vulnerability and strength. Bieber sounds needy but sure of his legitimacy: “Whatever it is,” he sings, “You know I can take it.”Syd, ‘Die for This’Syd (formerly Syd tha Kid from the band the Internet) ardently embraces the pleasures of the moment in “Die for This.” A drum machine and plush vocal harmonies buoy her through sentiments like “We can have forever tonight” and “It feels like heaven with you tonight.” She’s absolutely all in; has she convinced her partner?Tyla, ‘Is It’“Am I coming on a little strong?” Tyla teases in “Is It,” a dance-floor flirtation that’s both a come-on and an assertion of power. “Is it the idea that I like, or do I really wanna make you mine?” Tyla asks herself, then advances further. The beat is spartan — often just percussion and a few distorted bass notes — but a chorus of male voices joins her as she takes charge.Flo and Kaytranada, ‘The Mood’The British R&B trio Flo juggles a tricky situation in “The Mood”: saying no for one night, promising future sensual kicks and soothing a partner’s perhaps fragile ego. With a purring bass line and a subdued four-on-the-floor beat provided by Kaytranada’s production, they apologize, “It’s just that I ain’t in the mood tonight.” But they hasten to add, “I swear you’re the only one who does it right.” They also slyly pay homage to their R&B role models by slipping some old song titles into the lyrics.Danny L Harle featuring PinkPantheress, ‘Starlight’The hyperpop producer Danny L Harle has kept busy as a collaborator, but “Starlight” is his first song since 2021 to claim top billing, and it’s just swarming with ideas. With her piping voice run through all sorts of gizmos, PinkPantheress sings about misplaced longings: “I’ve met someone like you / They don’t love me back.” Around her, Harle’s production accelerates from wistful electronic lament to manic, pounding electro-pop, strewing countermelodies all over the place.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      “The Nine Jewelled Deer,” a New Opera, Has Nothing to Do With Antlers

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      A bejeweled doe hides in the forest to protect itself. One day, the doe sees a drowning man who calls out for help. At great risk, the doe saves him. He promises not to reveal the animal’s whereabouts but — enticed by a bounty from the king — he betrays the doe, and a brutal fate is suggested.The story of “The Nine Jewelled Deer,” a new opera that premiered last Sunday at the cultural center Luma Arles, in a co-production with the Aix-en-Provence Festival, is inspired by an ancient Jataka tale of India, exploring the Buddha’s incarnations in both human and animal forms.It has had a decidedly modern rebirth. That story piqued the interest of half a dozen luminaries in the literary, visual and performing arts, including the author Lauren Groff, the painter Julie Mehretu and the director Peter Sellars, galvanizing them to join forces to produce a nonlinear, highly metaphorical adaptation. Their version explores acts of betrayal and exploitation — of the earth, and especially of women. In some cases, its creators said in interviews, it is based on their own experiences and the experiences of women they know.Sellars, known for his avant-garde and socially engaged opera and theater productions, is the sole man among the core creative team. At the heart of the production is Ganavya Doraiswamy, a New York-born musician and performer who blends improvisational jazz with Indian storytelling traditions. Sivan Eldar composed the score and serves as musical director.During the performance of “The Nine Jewelled Deer,” the singer, Ganavya Doraiswamy, onstage with bowls as part of a “kitchen orchestra,” like the one that her grandmother hosted.Theo Giacometti for The New York TimesThe sound engineering by Augustin Muller happens onstage, alongside musicians and vocalists.Theo Giacometti for The New York TimesGroff, the three-time National Book Award finalist and best-selling author, wrote the libretto with Doraiswamy and served as a kind of amanuensis, not just to the writing but to the people involved. Co-starring onstage with Doraiswamy is Aruna Sairam, a renowned ambassador of Indian vocal tradition, particularly South Indian Carnatic music, known for its devotional qualities. Mehretu, who had worked with Sellars on several operas as well — also based on ancient Buddhist stories, she said — contributed her characteristically abstract paintings that form the foundation of the production design.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dave ‘Baby’ Cortez, Hitmaker Who Seemed to Vanish, Is Dead at 83

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      His “The Happy Organ” reached No. 1 in 1959, but his pop stardom was short-lived, and his death in 2022, with an anonymous burial, remains a source of mystery.It’s not that Dave “Baby” Cortez was forgotten. A keyboardist, singer and songwriter, he emerged from the thriving Detroit doo-wop scene of the 1950s to score two Top 10 hits, one of which, “The Happy Organ,” an aural Tilt-a-Whirl of an instrumental, soared to No. 1 in March 1959 and sold more than a million copies.But he rarely granted interviews, particularly after largely abandoning the business, with a trace of bitterness, in the early 1970s. The few available online biographies provide almost no details of his life beyond his recording history and chart success.Taryn Sheffield, his daughter, said in an interview that she had not heard from him since 2009. “He’s been a recluse for many, many years,” she said.At times, he appeared to serve as a church organist in Cincinnati, said Miriam Linna, a founder of Norton Records, an independent New York label that in 2011 persuaded Mr. Cortez to record his first album since 1972. At other times, he appeared to be living in the Bronx, doing who knows what.It was only in recent weeks that Ms. Linna learned that he had been dead for three years.According to city records, Mr. Cortez — whose real name was David Cortez Clowney — died on May 31, 2022, at his home on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx. He was 83. His body lies in Plot 434 on Hart Island, the potter’s field off the coast of the Bronx, where some one million bodies are buried in unmarked graves.It was an ignominious end for an artist whose career was curious enough to begin with.Mr. Cortez was born on Aug. 13, 1938, in Detroit, one of two sons of David and Lillian Mae Clowney. His father played piano and encouraged David to follow suit.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Does Lorde Still Want to Be a Star?

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeLorde’s fourth album, “Virgin,” recently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart, a reflection of the fan enthusiasm she’s held tight to for the decade-plus since she shook up pop’s insider-outsider balance with her breakthrough single, “Royals.”But on this album — and really, each album since her debut — she’s implicitly pondered whether being famous is all it’s cracked up to be, in terms of what the musical and personal expectations are. “Virgin” is maybe the most musically scattered of her albums, but in moments, she accesses an emotional directness that manages to turn this sometimes confused music into something direct and appealing.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about how “Virgin” figures into the Lorde lore; whether making hits is a worthwhile endeavor; and whether knowing the circumstances of an album’s creation can enhance someone’s listening experience of it.Guests:Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times’s pop music reporterHazel Cills, an editor at NPR MusicConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

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      In Des Moines, Big Operas and Big Ambitions Fill a Tiny Theater

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      Richard Wagner may be the opera composer most associated with epic grandeur: huge orchestras, huger sets. I never imagined I’d hear a full performance of one of his works while sitting just a few feet from the singers.But Des Moines Metro Opera, a four-week summer festival founded in 1973 and running this year through July 20, has made a specialty of squeezing pieces usually done in front of thousands into a startlingly intimate space. The company’s 476-seat theater wraps the stage around the pit and juts deep into the audience, drawing even the last row into the action.At the opening of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” in the last week of June, the bass-baritone Ryan McKinny could brood in a murmur as the endlessly wandering captain of the title, while the choruses of raucous sailors were ear-shakingly visceral. It registered when the subtlest Mona Lisa smile crossed the face of Julie Adams as Senta, whose romantic obsession leads her to sacrifice everything for the Dutchman. Try that at the Met.Miye Bishop as the Dragonfly in “The Cunning Little Vixen,” with high-definition LED video by the designer and filmmaker Oyoram.Kathryn Gamble for The New York Times“When you first get here, it’s a little intimidating,” said the mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce, a Des Moines regular in recent years. “There’s no hiding, or even trying to. Everything is in hyper detail. Everything is in close-up.”The effect would be striking enough in Mozart or chamber opera. But the company has made a habit of putting on big, challenging works of a sort rarely if ever done in theaters so small: “Salome,” “Elektra,” “Pelléas et Mélisande,” “Billy Budd,” “Peter Grimes” and “Wozzeck,” with modest adjustments to some orchestrations, given a pit that fits about 65 musicians.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Henry Mount Charles, Whose Castle Was a Mecca for Rock, Dies at 74

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      To preserve his Irish manor, he staged concerts on its grounds, drawing the likes of U2, Bob Dylan, Madonna and the Rolling Stones as well as tens of thousands of fans.In 1976, Henry Mount Charles was 25 and living happily in London when his father summoned him home to Ireland to save the family castle from bankruptcy.Taking over the property, Slane Castle, with its vast expenses and minimal income, Lord Mount Charles first opened a restaurant there, the ancestral home of his aristocratic family. Then he contemplated the possibilities of the front lawn: a natural amphitheater sloping down to the Boyne River.He hit on the idea of open-air rock concerts. The first, in 1981, featured a young Irish band named U2. The next year, the Rolling Stones played for 70,000 ecstatic fans, and Mick Jagger stayed for dinner.Slane Castle in County Meath, north of Dublin.Julien Behal/PA Images, via Getty ImagesSlane Castle went through a decade-long restoration after a devastating fire in 1991.Nomos Productions, via Failte IrelandSlane Castle, some 35 miles north of Dublin, in County Meath, became internationally known as a rock destination. Bruce Springsteen, Guns N’ Roses, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Queen, Madonna, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bryan Adams, Eminem, 50 Cent, R.E.M. and Oasis all performed there, while V.I.P. concertgoers wandered in an out of the owner’s 18th-century hilltop Georgian pile, resembling Downton Abbey.Lord Mount Charles, an Anglo-Irish peer turned rock ’n’ roll promoter, died on June 18 in a hospital in Dublin at 74. His family said the cause was cancer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Gilberto Gil Steps Away From the Stage, Vowing ‘My Music Will Continue’

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      At 83, the lauded Brazilian singer and songwriter whose career in music and politics has encompassed six decades is on a farewell tour.Gilberto Gil had been living in exile for a month when he first saw Bob Dylan take the stage.That was in August 1969, when Gil, who is now a revered international figure with a 60-year career behind him, had just turned 27. The military dictatorship in Brazil had “invited” him to leave the country after an arrest on charges of “inciting youth to rebel” during a show in Rio de Janeiro, among other accusations. Forced to flee, Gil chose London — a meeting point for musician and artist expats, with its vibrant cultural scene and artistic freedom — as his new home.He arrived just in time for the Isle of Wight Festival and knew he couldn’t miss his chance to see Dylan play his first show since a motorcycle accident had nearly taken his life.“It’s that passivity, almost,” Gil said in a recent interview. “That calmness he has onstage, without many exuberant gestures. That’s what I wanted to soak up and apply to my own performance.”And through the years, whether his image was as an inciter of youth or an insightful philosopher, he did. Even as Gil stood onstage in São Paulo this April on his farewell tour, it was the eloquence of his words and the memories his music evoked that captivated 40,000 fans.A chorus of voices accompanied Gil as he guided concertgoers through the many genres of his career — samba, baião, jazz, reggae, rock and international pop, among them. An innovator with a knack for preserving his country’s classic styles while building on them, Gil has used both his music and his voice to help fellow Brazilians feel pride in where they come from and hope in where they’re going. In addition to releasing dozens of albums, he has worked in politics since 1987 and served as Brazil’s Minister of Culture from 2003 to 2008.Gil, now 83, admits that it’s time to slow down. He doesn’t shy away from talk about aging: It’s just another change in a life of metamorphosis. And the name he gave his final stadium tour — Tempo Rei (which translates to Time Is King), borrowed from his 1984 song about the passage of time, the brevity of life and the necessity of transformation — alludes to just that.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More