The 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 notable evenings for opera lovers in the world, which takes place every night of Saint Ambrose. He does it with a Don Carlo, Verdi’s monumental piece that he composed based on Schiller’s tragedy about the fictitious battle between the Spanish king Philip II and his son, the infant Don Carlos, for the love of Isabella of Valois. .
What does it mean to you to be the first Spaniard to open La Scala?
It is an honor, but not because you are the first Spaniard, it is the fact that you are commissioned to open La Scala. He would be the same as a Frenchman, an Englishman or a German. I get asked a lot if I feel under pressure, I would feel under pressure if I were 30 years old. I have already directed two operas at La Scala. It impressed me the first time almost 30 years ago, now it impresses less, especially because my responsibility is to the public and to Verdi, regardless of whether there are more or less important VIPs.
It is said that La Scala is the most demanding audience in the world.
It’s almost an urban legend because there are many different audiences at La Scala. Yes, it is true that there is what is called the loggione, that is, the upper part, who are people who have opera in their veins, they have it in their blood, they have it in their genes. Not in vain did they invent it. They have brought down many great artists and have started many troubles with indisputables like Callas, like Pavarotti, like Caballé. But I think all of this comes from the fact that opera is an irrational world. His hobby is irrational like football or bullfighting. People get into fights, they get to kill each other over a goal or a penalty. Since it is that irrational, it is also that 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 coal were being fed into the boiler of a train carried by an engineer, who is the conductor of the orchestra. The true 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 was fourteen years old. El Escorial was not built. Prince Don Carlos was a madman and yet he does not become a romantic hero, but almost. The Spanish court of the Austrians did not wear black because they were obscurantists 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, where 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 above all in this case, where I feel closest to Verdi, it is an absolutely anticlerical opera. Not in vain is the crux of the opera the confrontation between Philip 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. He makes us see what is behind power, loneliness and individual personal dramas.
Do you agree that it leaves Spain at the time in a bad light?
In the 19th century, Spain seemed like 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 many settings occur in Spain. I remember seeing, almost scandalized, a Barber of Seville in London many years ago where the women were veiled as if it were the Iran of the ayatollahs. Just as Europeans traveled to Italy to find the light, they went to Spain to find the exotic. But there is a trend that comes precisely from that legend, which does not occur only with Spain. The English were the first to invent that Napoleon was a dwarf. It is difficult to erase a collective imagination. Platitudes come from ignorance and can only be cured by reading and traveling.
What has it been like directing singers like Anna Netrebko?
They look like co-workers to me. At 24 years old I did my first opera and I had to do it with Plácido Domingo. I am not a mythomaniac, first of all, and, secondly, if I could have had any fear, it passed away at that moment, at 24 with Plácido and at 25 with Núria Espert. Divinity is something that fortunately happened many years ago. God or whoever has given them a gift that is a voice, but behind that there are many hours of dedication. I was lucky to be friends with Montserrat Caballé and she made me understand the greatness of this work.
Is there an opera that you would like to direct at the Liceu?
I never have any projects in the drawer. I’m not back, but I’m on the way out. Right now I’m doing Don Carlo, I’ve directed many things that I admire because I’ve been an opera fan since I was twelve, and I was lucky enough to have a theater in the city where I lived, which is the Liceu in Barcelona, ??with great singers. .
