He didn’t become the Big Chief of the Salzburger Festspiele earlier this year (that position went to Alexander Pereira), but 2009 turns out to be a fine year after all for Pierre Audi, the artistic director of the Nederlandse Opera and the Holland Festival. The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has awarded him the brand spanking new Johannes Vermeer prize for his merits as a director and an innovator of opera and music theatre. This prize has been installed to honour and stimulate ‘exceptional artistic talent’ and the accolade comes with a tidy sum of 100,000 euros to be bestowed on a special project.
Not bad for a man who was labelled a 'toothless aesthete' by the international press on the occasion of his nomination for the Festspiele. Truth is, however, that Audi is foremost steady as a rock and solidly dependable, and that counts for something in these fickle times. Born in Beirut, young Pierre spent his youth in Lebanon and France. He studied history at Oxford University and founded the Almeida Theatre, a centre for music, theatre and dance in London. He has been ruling the roost at the Nederlandse Opera since 1998, where he became all the rage with his Monteverdi and Wagner productions. Add to that his position as the artistic director of the Holland Festival (since 2005), and frequent stints as a visiting director with several Dutch, French, English and German companies, and you know that the man is no flash in the pan, but rather a Tool You Can Trust.
In his article ‘Pierre Audi, More than a Director’ in the yearbook The Low Countries, Ernst Vermeulen describes Audi’s level-headed and steadfast search for the essence in art: ‘Audi’s aim is to transport the viewer back to the essence of theatre. Theatre becomes a mystery play into which we are ineluctably drawn’. And thus the man who wants to be thrown back upon that essence of the theatre - namely the telling of stories, the director who desires to return to the source, will see his quest rewarded with this Johannes Vermeer Prize, which he will receive from the hands of Minister Ronald Plasterk in Vermeer’s hometown Delft on October 30.
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