El Cimarrón Tickets

Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Aix-en-Provence, France

All photos (1)

1 / 1

Available Dates: 17 - 20 Jul, 2026 (3 events)

Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Aix-en-Provence, France

Duration: 1h 15min

Sung in: English

Titles in: French,English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

Creators

Composer: Conrado del Campo

Director: Elayce Ismail

Librettist: Tomás Borrás

Overview

The maroon: a term which was originally used to describe domestic animals that had returned to the wild after escaping, and which later came to designate runaway slaves who took refuge in inaccessible places.

In 1968 in Cuba, Hans Werner Henze happened upon the rare and vivid testimony of a former cimarrón, by then a centenarian, who had subsequently become a participant in the war of independence and then the revolution. Working in collaboration with Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Henze turned that testimony into a veritable musical phenomenon: an experimental recital of unparalleled dramatic intensity, poetic suggestiveness, vocal rigor, and instrumental inventiveness, which awakens in the very soul of the spectators a day-to-day existence of violence and suffering followed by an uncertain escape into a forest teeming with fantastical beings, and finally the intuition of a liberating revolutionary brotherhood, like the sudden appearance of the sky. Relying on a very physical stage direction, Elayce Ismail gives this moving story its universal mythical value and brings out its exceptional cathartic potential.

NEW PRODUCTION OF THE FESTIVAL D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE

WITH THE SUPPORT OF KAROLINA BLABERG STIFTUNG, AMMODO ART, JEAN-FRANÇOIS DUBOS, CERCLE INCISES, FONDS AXA POUR LE PROGRÈS HUMAIN

Venue Info

Théâtre du Jeu de Paume - Aix-en-Provence
21 Rue de l'Opéra

Louis XIV practiced the palm there in 1660. Transformed into a theater in the following century, it is today one of the last examples, with the Queen's Theater in Versailles, of an Italian-style hall dating from the 18th century. A red and felted setting, it is an ideal place for intimate operas, contemporary creations, recitals or chamber music concerts.

It was on the site of a "Royal" Jeu de Paume (Louis XIV, it is said, "played tennis there"), that the Théâtre d'Aix en Provence was started in 1756 and inaugurated in 1787. The city became its owner in 1829 and called on Dominique Bluzet, in October 1996, to manage it. In 1998, the municipality undertook total renovation work, leading to its closure for two seasons and the relocation of performances to the Salle du Bois de l'Aune. The new Theater was inaugurated in May 2000 as well as the stage curtain made by the painter Gérard Traquandi. The Jeu de Paume room has been listed in the supplementary inventory of Historic Monuments since 1981.