We had a chat to Rachel Healy, co-Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival about the French links in the program, the partnership with Aix-en-Provence, programming in a pandemic, and much more ahead of Adelaide Festival 2022 opening this Friday. Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield AO are Adelaide Festival 2022 Artistic Directors and 2022 marks their last year of their already once extended tenure.
Rachel Healy, you’re co-Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival 2022. If we could perhaps start with a little bit about the partnership with Aix-en-Provence.
That started quite serendipitously in 2018, I met with Christelle, who’s the Director of International Development, quite by chance, she just reached out to us. We had signed a memorandum of understanding with Edinburgh Festival. We’re very similar organisations. And it meant that we made special efforts to collaborate and we would co-commission similar things. There was a kind of hands across the water relationship. We imagined that we would have a similar partnership arrangement with the festival in Avignon but they are a pretty self-contained unit and it was very clear quite early, that it wasn’t really going to be a path that made sense for either us or for Avignon.
But around that time, quite by chance, Christelle wrote to us. We had from the very beginning, placed opera and new opera at the centre of our programming. We launched our tenure as Artistic Directors with Saul in 2017 and then we had Hamlet from Glyndebourne in 2018. The festival in Aix-en-Provence is principally a festival that commissions and produces new opera, by the world’s most interesting directors and creative teams. They gather partners, co-commissioners really, from all over the globe to support that endeavour. Certainly, in terms of the kinds of directors and creative artists that they were planning to work with over the next decade, it is exactly the same list that we were really interested in working with, as we went to source opera productions that we thought would be really thrilling for Australian audiences.
And nobody else in Australia was doing international opera at the scale we were working at. And so, we’d immediately attracted a really decent interstate following. Ensuring that we had an ongoing pipeline of really exciting new works seemed like a pretty essential thing that we had to do. So, this idea that maybe we might partner with Aix-en-Provence, given that things haven’t really progressed with Avignon, but also sort of almost in its own right, because having Avignon is a theatre festival whereas Aix is an Opera Festival really.
I was in France at that time and had lunch with Christelle to get to know each other and she was the most wonderful, informed, intelligent, sensitive, just brilliant colleague. When she brought out the kinds of artists that they were planning to work with over the next few years, and we could immediately see a synchronicity in our thinking, we thought it seemed like a really exciting idea to take a few steps further. And it became apparent really clearly beyond my meeting with her, but between our management and artistic directors, and so on, that this really made sense.
We made a commitment for a three-year co-producing partnership. And the first work that we went in on together was Castelluci’s Requiem, which was in the 2020 festival. The second was meant to be for ‘21, which was The Golden Cockerel. But of course, COVID got in the way and so we’re now doing The Golden Cockerel as the second of our projects. It’s a little bit uncertain about whether there will be three, but it may well be that there is a third that we originally intended, but it’s likely that it will be after the end of our tenure. It might be a work that comes into the program in two or three years’ time.
Thank you for explaining all of that to me. What is the extent of the partnership? is it essentially that you’ve got common ideas? And that I mean, how does it actually work in practice with the collaboration and the partnership?
Producing new opera is a really expensive business, because one has to contract all the artists, all of whom are crazily busy, and have a million other commitments and so on and essentially producing your show, which means gathering, a creative team, a director, a designer, a lighting designer, costume designer, a conductor, building an idea for a new production of The Golden Cockerel, or new production of Marriage of Figaro, or new production of whatever. And then rehearsing it, gathering a cast of incredible world-renowned singers together, all of whom are prepared to be in Aix-en-Provence on the same dates, and rehearse.
And then there’s usually a really massive production vision for the show. For example, 5,000 fish that have to fall out of the ceiling, or the entire thing has to be done in stencil with different paints… There are a million creative ideas going into the planning for a big show. There’s a whole production team, set designers, construction, engineers, scenic artists, lighting designers, projection designers… It’s a huge undertaking to produce any opera of an international standard and they do maybe eight every year in the festival in Aix! It’s absolutely phenomenal.
Even a single opera is such a costly affair, well beyond the income that you could have ever earn from it. They would have six performances of a new opera. So, if we think about the income from six performances, compared to the amount that you’ve just spent, rehearsing, building and engaging all of these high-profile artists. The deficit is eye watering. So, part of their business model is that they gather together the big international opera houses and some festivals to jointly produce work. And so it might be that a particular work has been is also commissioned by the Opera House in Moscow as well as Covent Garden, as well as the Met, as well as Chicago, as well as Dutch National Opera…
And so, all of the companies or festivals in our case around the world that are interested in a new production of X will contribute a sum of money and for that money, you have the right to present it in your season. Of course, you also have to pay the cost of gathering together your own performers, sometimes the same ones, but sometimes they’re not available. Then you have to rehearse it for your city, but you get the physical production delivered to you, and all the staging – stage hands and things you come with it – you have the right to presented in your own territory if you are a co-commissioner. If you are not, and you see an incredible show, but you were not part of the original commissioning team, it’s still possible to get access to that work. But only after all the commissioners have had an opportunity. So, you might see something in Aix-en-Provence next year, next July, that you weren’t commissioning, and you say “Well, look, we love the show, we really want it for our city and our audiences.” And they’ll say, “Well, yes, that’s fine. But we’ll be finished delivering to the commissioners in about 8 years. So, you can have it in about 2033” or something like that.
Has there been any impact on the relationship because of the whole French Australia? spat at the moment? For want of a better word?
I don’t think so. I mean, like anything, we have individual personal relationships with people in Aix now. And those friendships haven’t suffered but it’s obviously extremely awkward for everybody, I think, who has business dealings with France to just make sure that you reassure your comrades across the seas that, that you are still as committed to working together as, as ever before.
The ABC made a documentary about the making of the Festival in 2019, which was, of course, the 2020 festival before we’d even heard of COVID. And that showed the stresses of pulling a festival together. Obviously, last year, you just weren’t able to travel at all to source shows. But was this year, apart from masks and checking in those kinds of things, pretty similar to the 2019 trips?
Going to Aix and Avignon was similar in terms of the quality of the work and the internationalism of the work. It was quite unusual to be in a country, which had remained so true to its purpose and intentions in terms of its international ambition, because it felt like the whole world was going local. But it remained really true to that which was not just hugely appreciated that meant ticket sales went nuts so there were waiting lists for everything.
Everywhere we went, it felt the most like the world was in 2019, except for the fact that it was well masks, yes, but also the emphasis on double vaccination evidence, or evidence of negative COVID tests. It was run so seamlessly in France – it was mandated by the government so everyone was working to the same rules. It really seemed to create a confidence in going out and seeing shows spending money because you could look around, absolutely packed you know, 2000 seat theatre and know that everyone around you is has done everything they can to make you as safe as you can be. Everyone knows you can still catch COVID if you’re double vaxxed, but you were in the best position you possibly could be.
I thought that was it was a really great lesson actually to come back to Australia with that the French model with the right health settings in place saw a really joyous return to live performance, small venues, large venues, every art form theatre, opera, music, dance. It was all happening. And everybody was on board with those health settings so acutely observed.
Whereas I think you were saying at the launch that UK was quite a different feel.
They allowed the venues to make their own decision, which created mass confusion. As a consequence of that confusion, a high level of hesitation in going out and participating in cultural life of London. Whereas in France, we saw the polar opposite, there a very clear and very uniform system applied to everyone. We saw audiences come back in absolute droves, and, as I say, while still being as safe as you possibly can be in a pandemic. We couldn’t lie about what we witnessed. We came back saying we really think that audiences, artists and venue operators are all best served by a mandated model.
If I could ask you about one of the shows specifically “Prayer for the Living”, which features works by Lili Boulanger and Poulenc. Could you tell us a little bit about the significance of those works?
I’d never heard of Lili Boulanger. Here in the office, we all were so intrigued. Having presented the Clarice Beckett exhibition in the festival last year, who was, in many ways for many people, an unknown artist who died prematurely, but whose contribution is now recognized for the genius that it is, there was a similar story, perhaps even more tragic in Lili Boulanger who was a child prodigy who died incredibly young: she was 22. She was recognized as a musical genius, at an extremely young age, and her father won the Prix de Rome, which is the most prestigious honour for artists. She then won it becoming the first woman to win it, when she was 19.
She’s famous for her use of harmony, her instrumentation, her text setting, she’s often not performed, because she does require really extensive orchestral forces. She’s not been performed because for many years, the size of her output, and possibly because she was female, allowed her to be kind of lost in the mists of time and, and musicians who were influenced by her became more known and more prominent.
I think we are getting we are entering a wonderful era where so many of those lost voices are coming to the fore and we are able to rediscover this extraordinary musicianship from another era. Certainly, festivals are exactly the right place to present those works. In the case of this concert, we wanted to conclude the ‘22 Festival, as we had last year, with choral music in the Festival Theatre. It was such a beautiful end to the ‘21 event. The idea that we could do that with a mixed program, but that featured Lili Boulanger felt really an exciting thing to do. Of course, Poulenc’s Gloria is so wonderful. The singers always love to sing it. So, that was also a kind of obvious way of bringing some joy into the program.
What do you look for in a show for the festival? And also, do you find now that you’re a festival Artistic Director that you watch shows differently, even if you’re not going to see them with the intention of potentially programming them?
I guess I do. It’s sort of a two-phase process. I think that there’s a gut response; I think you kind of feel it in your gut before you think about it really extraordinary work. Work that’s not great or pretty good is quite easy to recognise and interpret pretty fast. But work that is really extraordinary, and a true contender for an international festival, is something that’s almost like falling in love. You kind of feel it in the pit of your stomach. I think about the occasion where I’ve really felt absolutely astonished, and it’s not a box ticking exercise. Maybe it is for other Festival Directors, but for me, it’s absolutely not. It almost feels like you’re falling in love with something or someone. And because it just up ends everything you think. It’s so original, and it’s so unexpected. Great work isn’t cliched, and it feels like there’s a really vivid artistic voice. It’s like you’re suddenly seeing new colours for the first time. And it’s a really, genuinely thrilling prospect.
And it happens, very rarely – work of that calibre, but when it does, it’s extremely easy for me to sell because I just talk about it because I feel so energized and excited and I just want everyone to have the same experience that I’ve had. It’s not to say that you don’t have an obligation to explain the work and particularly to unpack why you responded that way. We do that in all kinds of ways in festival forums, and our teachers launches where we make curriculum links. So, it’s not as if there isn’t an academic process by which you are looking at your program and you’re assessing whose voices are being centred? And what is the gender balance? And what is the balance of artists across the globe?
There is still that part of your job as Festival Director. But when you are sitting in a seat in a theatre, and watching what an artist has created, as it unfolds before you it’s a very sensory experience rather than immediately an intellectual one.
Have you found that you dissect shows differently though? Do you find that you can watch them for pleasure without going to that next level of would this be something we could or should program?
You always categorize it always think, – great show, not for a festival, or, you see where it sits in the pantheon of cultural or live performance events. Some things are great, that they won’t translate, they won’t make sense if you can pick them up and put them in a different country in a different context.
Somethings are not about the most original imagination in the world right now. They’re about participation and community relevance and creativity. It doesn’t matter if it’s copied, it doesn’t matter if it’s pastiche, it’s just creativity, particular community context. There’s all kinds of ways that human creative expression occurs in live performance, and you understand that context going in.
And so, you’re not going into every context going, is this a possible festival prospect, because sometimes it’s obvious that it’s not, but you still go and enjoy it. And you think that was a brilliant show in its context. When it comes to actually programming, you are always conscious, I suppose that your job is to find work that is going to be able to travel across the country, or travel across the world and sit in Adelaide, where the surrounding context is “this is an international festival; this is the place where the greatest artists of our generation are working”.
And the broader context is the second largest Fringe in the world where there’s lots of great stuff, but probably not that much that’s going to be that’s going to be one of the most extraordinary acts of human imagination that you’ve seen in your lifetime.
You are conscious that there is a particular context that we create, because of what the festival is here to do, why it exists for 17 days a year. You are very mindful that you don’t select something that is just not going to quite meet audience and stakeholder expectations about what Adelaide Festival’s job is in Australia. Every now and then we do make a mistake that I don’t think we make the mistake very often. But we often describe things as being just falling on the other side of the line. And the line being “what is Adelaide Festival context that audiences have come to expect?” And there’s has been one or two occasions where we’ve programmed things, because we love them, and because they were great when we saw them and we realized as soon as they’ve been here in Adelaide, that they really were probably on the wrong side of the line. It’s a subtle thing. But you know when you’ve got it right, you know when you’ve got it wrong.
We thank Rachel Healy for this interview and look forward to Adelaide Festival 2022 starting this weekend! Take a look at our article about French and francophone links in the Adelaide Festival 2022 program.
KEY INFO FOR ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2022
WHAT: Adelaide Festival 2022
WHEN: 4-20 March
WHERE: Various locations across and around Adelaide
HOW: Purchase tickets via the festival website: https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/
HOW MUCH: Free and paid ticketed events
You may also like to read our interviews about other Adelaide Festival 2022 shows:
Oboist Armand Djikoloum comes to Adelaide with Chineke! Chamber Ensemble this March
What would Juliet and Romeo’s lives be like if they hadn’t died?
Franck Evin, lighting designer, chats to us about The Golden Cockerel
The Golden Cockerel is coming to Adelaide Festival this March
Also read our article about shows with French and francophone links at Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield AO’s last Adelaide Festival for 2022