If the 2006 World Cup Finals is not your cup of culture and you'd like to get away from all the patriotic flag-waving, these are some cultural festivals happening this summer.

Zürcher Festspiele:
16th June to 9th July.

The Little Big City celebrates 10 years of artistic performances at various locations around the Limmat.

L'84° Festival lirico:
24th June to 25th August.

Verona is a great city to visit at almost any time of the year but the Roman ampitheatre comes to live when the city stages a two-month long festival of opera.

Savonlinna Opera Festival:
30th June to 29th July.

Although Finnish opera is the highlight in the castle setting, 17 foreign opera houses have visited Savonlinna since 1987. This year, arriving from Bologna will be a band of some 200 artists with two productions: Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco and Gaetano Donizetti’s La fille du régiment.

Festival d'Aix-en-Provence:
2nd-22nd July.

The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence is, together with those of Bayreuth, Salzburg and Glyndebourne, one of the most prestigious opera festivals in Europe.

Choregies d'Orange 2006:
8th July to 4th August.

Enjoy the acoustics of the 9,000 spectator Roman Theatre. This year's programme includes Verdi's Aida, Mozart's Requiem, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and a Lyric Concert on the final night.

On Monday, 10th July Cyrano de Bergerac will be projected on a giant screen.

Cézanne 2006:
If opera is not your canvas either, I would thoroughly recommend visiting Aix-en-Provence, 100 years after the death of Paul Cézanne.

His native town will be paying homage to the great artist with an exhibition of more than 110 paintings and works on paper inspired by the family house and other Provençal landscapes.

A whole room is devoted to the Sainte-Victoire.

Technorati: Festivals, Europe