The Théâtre Antique d'Orange is the best-preserved Roman theatre in the western empire, and the only one in France that still has its stage wall — a hundred-metre frons scaenae that Louis XIV reportedly called the finest wall in his kingdom. It gives the venue acoustics no modern opera house attempts, and the Chorégies, running since 1869, are the oldest festival in France.
The programme is small: two or three large-scale operas and a handful of concerts, each playing only two or three nights, with an audience of around 8,000 per performance.
No recent audited attendance figure is published, so we record none.
The variable is the mistral. Performances are open-air and the wind down the Rhône corridor can be violent; the festival has its own policy on interruptions, which is worth reading before buying non-refundable travel.
PlanningA short window of a few large productions in July; each opera plays only two or three nights.