Based successively in London, the Netherlands and France, Pierre Audi, who has died suddenly aged 67, was over a period of 45 years the indefatigable procreator of a sizeable body of innovative work, largely centred around the operatic stage.
As founder of the Almeida theatre in Islington, London, artistic director of the Dutch National Opera (formerly Netherlands Opera) and latterly of the Aix-en-Provence festival, he relished the charting of unknown territory, passionately believing that art forms, not least that of opera, need to be constantly renovated and challenged.
