Gustavo Dudamel will illuminate the events of the America’s Cup cultural regatta this summer, leading the Liceu Simfònica on the occasion of the concert that this orchestral group offers every year on the beach of his city. Barcelona City Council has wanted to shine a light on this phenomenon that is the Clàssica a la Platja and, in some way improving the conventional proposal, turn it, according to council sources, into an international speaker for the glittering sailing competition that will take place from August the Catalan capital. In the style of the Olympic spirit that so marked the future of the city.
In this way, the massive and free event that citizens have in July facing the sea to enjoy symphonic music on two consecutive evenings – one with the OBC and the other with the musicians of the Gran Teatre – will this time have a glittering name whose cache assumes the City Council itself and whose presence will undoubtedly transcend this celebration beyond the in-person public and geographical borders.
This number one in the orchestral direction, head of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and next leader of the New York Philharmonic, has found no obstacles in his agenda to assume the commitment of a popular as well as media nature that will take place on the 12th.
The Venezuelan conductor, who in May will conduct her Californian ensemble at Fidelio, at the Liceu, as well as a concert with the violinist Maria Dueñas at the Palau de la Música Catalana, has ended this Easter a semi-quiet one-month stay in Barcelona which would have been impossible if he had not resigned from the musical direction of the Paris Opera in May of last year.
It is not yet clear where the July event with Dudamel will be located on the Barcelona coast. It could occupy, like last year, the Bogatell beach, or have to emigrate due to the effects of another possible storm on the sand, or perhaps the use that the America’s Cup itself makes of that part of the coast.
The day before, on July 11, it will be the OBC that will be exposed to the sea breeze directed by its own owner, Ludovic Morlot, the Lyon native with an American career – he is emeritus of the Seattle Symphony – who curiously has, like Dudamel, residence in Los Angeles.
Morlot will not, like Josep Pons, give up his orchestra’s podium to a superstar. In its place, the Barcelona and National Symphony of Catalonia has planned to recover the Olympic spirit of ’92 by performing the song Barcelona that Freddie Mercury composed for Montserrat Caballé and whose video recording with both figures coincided in time with the Barcelona cultural Olympiad. It remains to be seen, however, which singers will be chosen to reconstruct that magical and unrepeatable milestone in the history of opera in communion with pop…
Dudamel’s iconic presence in Barcelona for the unusual enjoyment of the masses will materialize with a probably festive musical program, in line with the summer climate and the outdoor sports celebrations that he is responsible for announcing.
It is still unknown – until the City Council gives more details next week – whether the event will be broadcast or recorded, although the latter would come up against the lack of agreement between the Liceu and its artistic bodies regarding audiovisual rights. It would be a shame if the media spotlight could not be placed on a performance like this, an international reflection of the cultural life of the city, on par with the classic open-air concert held by the Vienna Philharmonic in front of Schönbrunn Palace and which, Part of being followed by thousands of visitors, it is broadcast on television around the world. Or like the famous appointment with the Berlin Philharmonic that thousands of people have in the Waldbühne, west of the German capital, a large space built for the 1936 Olympic Games.
