"I would feel under pressure if I was thirty"

Catalan director Lluís Pasqual (Reus, 1951) has an important appointment tonight in Milan. He will become the first Spaniard to conduct the long-awaited Prima, the opening of La Scala’s lyrical season, one of the most outstanding evenings for opera lovers in the world, which takes place every night of Sant Ambrose . It will be with a Don Carlo, Verdi’s monumental piece that he composed based on Schiller’s tragedy about the fictitious battle between the Spanish king Felipe II and his son, the infant Charles, for the love of Isabel de valois

What does it mean to you to be the first Spaniard to open La Scala?

It is an honor, but not for being the first Spaniard, it is the fact that you are entrusted with the opening of La Scala. The same would happen to a Frenchman, an Englishman or a German. I get asked a lot if I feel under pressure, I would feel under pressure if I was 30 years old. I have already directed two operas at La Scala. It impressed me the first time almost 30 years ago, it impresses less now, mainly because my responsibility is to the audience and to Verdi, regardless of whether there are more important VIPs or less.

La Scala is said to be the most demanding audience in the world.

It’s almost an urban legend, because there are many different audiences at La Scala. It is true that there is what is called the Loggione, that is to say, the upper part, who are people who have opera in their veins, they have it in their blood, they have it in their genes. No wonder they invented it. They have brought down many great artists and created a lot of fuss with indisputables like Callas, like Pavarotti, like Caballé. But all this I think comes from the fact that opera is an irrational world. His hobby is irrational, as football can be or bulls can be. People get to fight, they get to kill each other over a goal or a penalty. Just as it is irrational, it is also tolerant or intolerant.

Is this expectation a challenge for you?

When I do opera, I feel like the composer’s assistant. It is as if he were feeding the boiler of a train with coal that is driven by a driver, who is the orchestra conductor. The real responsibility is to fight with Verdi, with Mozart, with Puccini or with Shakespeare.

What does Don Carlo represent?

It must be clarified that it is not a historical opera, as people think, almost nothing is true. Neither Philip II was old nor Isabel de Valois fourteen years old. The Escorial was not built. Prince Don Carlos was a madman and yet he falls short of being a romantic hero, but almost. The Spanish court of the Austrians did not wear black because they were obscurantist or sad, but because black velvet, black silk, was the most expensive product, a sign of wealth. You have to forget the story and follow Verdi’s libretto in which there are all the themes that develop in many of his operas, the conflict between a father and a son, love or friendship. There is always an oppressed people, freedom and especially in this case, where I feel closer to Verdi, is that it is an absolutely anti-clerical opera. It is not for nothing that the crux of the opera is the confrontation between Felipe II and the Grand Inquisitor. It is a struggle between earthly power and spiritual power. And then there is a Shakespearean part, because Verdi was a great admirer of Shakespeare. It shows us what lies behind power, loneliness and also individual personal dramas.

Do you agree that it leaves the Spain of the time in a bad place?

In the 19th century Spain seemed to them a distant and exotic place, full of contradictions, and above all an obscurantist country where situations could occur that could not occur in other countries. That’s why I think that many settings take place in Spain. I remember almost being shocked to see a Barber of Seville in London many years ago in which the women wore veils as if it were the Iran of the Ayatollahs. Just as Europeans traveled to Italy to find light, they went to Spain to find the exotic. But there is a trend that comes precisely from this legend, which only happens in Spain. The English were the first to invent that Napoleon was a dwarf. It is difficult to erase a collective imagination. Clichés come from ignorance and can only be cured by reading and travelling.

What has it been like directing singers like Anna Netrebko?

They look like co-workers to me. At the age of 24, I did my first opera and it was my turn to do it with Plácido Domingo. I’m not a mythomaniac, firstly, and secondly, if I could have any fear it happened to me at that moment, at 24 with Plácido and at 25 with Núria Espert. Divisiveness is something that fortunately happened many years ago. God or whoever has given them a gift which is a voice, but behind that there are many hours of dedication. I was lucky enough to be friends with Montserrat Caballé and she made me understand the greatness of this work.

Is there an opera you would like to direct at the Liceu?

I never have a project in the drawer. I don’t care about everything, but I am in retirement. Right now I’m doing Don Carlo, I’ve directed many things that I admire because I’ve been a fan of opera since I was twelve, and I was lucky enough to have a theater in the city where I lived, which is the Liceu de Barcelona, ??with great singers.