Annually, in the month of August, since 1950, Menton has hosted the French Chamber Opera Festival in the baroque square of the ’Parvis de la Basilique Saint-Michel Archange’.
The Basilique is ideally located in the heart of the old city, overlooking the port with the Mediterranean below and the Italian Riviera only a stones throw away.
Some of the best orchestral formations and the most famous and beautiful voices of our times have performed here such as: Arthur Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, Jean Pierre Rampal, Barbara Hendricks, Yehudi Menuhin, Vadim Repin amongst many others.
This incredible setting, that seems to have been created solely for music facinated the founder of the festival. "I fell in love immediatly on arrival at this piazzetta that is suspended between earth and sky, nothing has changed within in it since 1950, bar the music festival that has been created within the parameters. Music feels good here, all is harmony, joy; the pitch is perfect."
The Parvis Saint-Michel Basilique Saint-Michel Archange This is the symbolic and historic setting of the Menton Music Festival. Bordered by the Basilique Saint-Michel Archange and the "Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs", the Parvis Saint-Michel provides an unrivalled and exceptional visual and accoustic setting, in the heart of the historical centre of Menton. This scene, leaning up against the Basilique porch, together forms an bewitching architectural combination, as if dedicating itself to music and music lovers world wide.
see the official website of Music Festival
63ème Festival de Musique de Menton Côte d’Azur - 20th july 2012 to 5 th August 2012
