A brilliantly cruel Cosi and punkish Petrushka but the Brits disappoint: Festival d’Aix-en-Provence reviewed

Aix is an odd place. It should be charming, with its dishevelled squares, Busby Berkeley-esque fountains, pretty ochres and pinks. Yet none of it feels quite real. It’s as if an AI bot had been asked to design a Provençale city. Everything is suspiciously perfect. And then you notice all the Irish pubs and American student clones. It’s the prettiness of a Wes Anderson set – with the charm of an airport. In this uncanny valley, however, lies what continues to be one of the world’s classiest opera festivals.

The major new commissions this year were two British chamber operas. George Benjamin and Martin Crimp were returning with Picture A Day Like This, their third collaboration for Aix. It’s another medievalish fable, a quest: a mother has lost her son and must find someone truly happy in order to revive him. She hunts down one charmed archetype after another – lovers, artisan, art collector, gardener, composer – and in each case discovers that life’s not so rosy.