Mirna Lacambra’s (Sabadell, 1933) is one of those professional lives that give a lot of themselves and that encompass different careers in one: that of international singer; that of promoting an opera season in her hometown; that of democratizing lyric that has managed to take the genre throughout the Catalan territory; that of singing teacher and talent discoverer; that of the indefatigable artistic director… And all of this at barely 90 years old, who turned on June 7th.
Taking this event into account, the Cercle del Liceu wanted to recognize the career of the founder of Amics de l’Òpera de Sabadell and artistic director of the Fundació Òpera a Catalunya (FOC), making her worthy of the Gold Medal of the entity. Her president, Francisco Gaudier, presented it to her this Wednesday, during a lunch / tribute that brought together more than fifty people and in which various enthusiastic parliaments of the figure of Mirna were heard. To which she responded with a sort of operatic aria…
“Everything I have done has been only for love. Love in capital letters is the most important thing about the human being. At this moment, to all of you who are at this lunch, I love you all and I know that love unites us, because after love and music there is nothing more important in this world. I remember that when I left the Conservatory it was all so difficult, that when I started the Escola d’Òpera it was because I really helped the students. I have done everything just thinking about love for everyone. Love, love, love… and music.”
At the long table in the club’s dining room, local singers gathered to whom Mirna gave the opportunity to become professional, such as the soprano Laura Vila; opera critics such as Jordi Maddaleno and Toni Colomer; agents such as Miquel Lerín, president of the Viñas Competition; directors such as María Serrat (Liceu Conservatory) or Josep Caminal and Valentí Oviedo (the past and present of the Liceu general directorate), or artistic directors, such as Víctor García de Gomar (Liceu) and Oriol Aguilà (Peralada).
But also representatives of the public administrations: the minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, the mayor of Sabadell, Marta Farrés, or the director general of Inaem, Joan Francesc Marco, took part in the tribute, even delivering small speeches.
“Mirna Lacambra opted for a very popular opera season model in Sabadell, very close to the people, and from there it has spread throughout the country. Her energy, commitment, enthusiasm and stubbornness to overcome all obstacles have allowed Òpera to Catalonia is an essential initiative”, affirmed the minister.
The mayoress of Sabadell, Marta Farrés, also thanked him for “the gift he has been giving to the city”. “Mirna is also a great reference for me, as a pioneering woman in a sector as complicated as culture and music in particular. It has been an honor to have met you,” she said.
The cultural consultant and member of the Board of the Círculo, Llucià Homs, officiated as master of ceremonies, attesting to the broad consensus that the proposition of this tribute to Mirna Lacambra had generated among the professional world. “Many of the singers in Catalonia explain and agree that Lacambra has been a key figure in its beginnings. An institution that gives them opportunities and confidence to start as peers and end up being protagonists of operas”, he pointed out.
The historic Sabadell native studied at the Liceu Conservatory and obtained the qualifications of singing and piano teacher with the highest marks. As a singer, she participated in recitals throughout Spain, also performing at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. At the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, she starred with great success in La vida breve. And she continued her career in theaters throughout Europe, both on one side of the Iron Curtain and on the other side, debuting with Aida, Madama Butterfly or Tosca in the United States.
But apart from her career as a soprano, she founded the Associació Amics de l’Òpera de Sabadell in 1982 and faced with the need to have an orchestra for the operas they performed, she created the Simfònica del Vallès which, decades later and now independent, has came to the rescue of the operatic institution to guarantee its economic viability and, therefore, the stability of the Òpera a Catalunya season, which since 1991 has made it possible for productions from Sabadell to tour different cities in the territory. She also launched the Engenio Marco contest for young singers, which she later refounded at the Escola d’Òpera in Sabadell, in order to give professionalization opportunities to the voice quarry.
The manager and musical promoter Ramon Gené, and perhaps the first student of that school, recognized her as his second operatic mother after Victoria de los Ángeles who told him: “Ramon, this is the teu món.” La Mirna made that very thing possible . And on behalf of all the singers who run through Catalonia, Spain and the world and who came out of her mastership, thank you very much “.
For Oriol Aguilà, former president of Òpera XXI, Mirna is the best example of a country’s civility. “The work that he has done from Sabadell is a public function work without which the country would be orphaned. And the discovery of voices that he has given us with his selfless perseverance is a patrimony of the country that we owe him,” he said. To conclude by pointing out that “his vision of opera in the cities has made us Central European”.
Joan Planas, president of the FOC, described her as a visionary. “That you created the Simfònica del Vallès has helped us to take over and create the FOC, which can have an impressive future -he stated-. Because we are closer in the territory, we have the ability to communicate at a level that is not our own of the large institutions. And right now we should concentrate on consolidating the FOC but also on getting the new auditorium up and running. If we dedicate the time and know how to do it, we can achieve what you have wanted so much, which is to have a theater of opera in Sabadell”, he concluded, raising the applause of the audience.
Luís López de Lamadrid, from the Círculo board, took over and recalled that this medal comes after having been awarded to Queen Sofía and four great Spanish singers -Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, Jaume Aragall and Josep Carreras-, in addition to institutions related to music, such as the Peralada Festival, the Viñas Competition and the Liceu, and people from civil society, such as Javier Godó, Count of Godó, the Puig family, the Uriach family, Leopoldo Rodés and Joaquim Verdaguer.
“Since Miguel Muñiz, Josep Caminal and myself founded the Ópera XXI association in 2005, the presence of Òpera de Sabadell in the innumerable assemblies has been constant. Five or six people came from Sabadell, which shows that, apart from everything they have done for music and for associations in Spain, above all they have cultivated friendship. Tens of thousands of people are friends of Òpera de Sabadell and above all of Mirna Lacambra,” said Lamadrid.
Valentí Oviedo valued the capillarity that Amics de l’Òpera de Sabadell make of the passion for opera throughout Catalonia. “It is evident that it is a perfect complement to the big house, the Liceu. They are perfectly complementary. And they feed off each other. Which makes Catalonia so powerfully strong in the field of opera, because there are tremendous fans from the most popular to the most more exalted. And for all that, Mirna is so fundamental”.
Francisco Gaudier asked him “the secret of your youth, because it cannot be that you are 90 years old with how proactive you are.” And he joked bringing up Artificial Intelligence. “I have doubts, but if it helped us to clone Mirna Lacambra it would be a great thing. Because I wish there were more Mirna in Spain to carry out things like the ones she has done. Because it is not only about the fans of the public that has encouraged, but has given the possibility of making his studies his profession”.
