The Liceu behaves like a bride walking down the aisle: she wears something new (Antony
Under the curious general heading of “Irreversible Cracks” (previous seasons were dedicated to obsession and paradise), the artistic director of the Rambla Coliseum invites Joan Fontcuberta, the Barcelona photographer, visual artist and essayist, to illustrate the book seasonal with its characteristic cracked mosaics, veiled or eaten away by bacteria, but also to stage a Winterreise, that Schubertian winter journey that each season questions a different visual artist at the Liceu’s proposal. And not in the Saló dels Miralls or La Modelo, but directly in the big room, with the help of Anna Ponces directing the actors and two monsters of lied: the pianist Helmut Deutsche and the baritone Michael Volle.
But getting to the point of the operatic season, the theater recovers Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, musically directed by Josep Pons and staged by Christof Loy. This co-production with the Oslo Opera and the Royal Theater fell due to the pandemic and will now open the course on September 27, with the same cast as planned.
It will not be the only title of the great repertoire revisited by a great of the reggia: Verdi’s Ballo in maschera that premiered in Palermo Sir Graham Vick, the experimental British theater director who died of covid in 2021, will go on stage posthumously with Riccardo Frizza on the podium and a cast chocolate: the tenor of the moment, Freddie De Tommaso -he made his debut this Easter in Peralada-, together with Artur RuciÅ„ski, Anna Pirozzi (Saioa Hernández in the second cast), Daniela Barcellona and Sara Blanch.
And it will not be the only opera sung by De Tommaso, who will also have the honor of sharing the stage with the coveted Lise Davidsen and rivaling her in vocal power in a recital with Wagnerian, Verdian and Verista arias and duets. The Norwegian soprano also plans to offer the first act of The Valkyrie in concert. After his well-known intervention in Puccini’s Il trittico and waiting for him to interpret a staged Wagner, this tasting will be the first opportunity for the Liceu audience to hear this overwhelming voice in the German repertoire, the one that has made Davidsen so famous despite of his youth. And also together with the tenor Clay Hilley, who according to critics is the Siegmund, the Parsifal, the Lohengrin of the future.
This Adriana Lecouvreur will bring more front-row voices, co-produced by the Liceu, along with London, Paris, San Francisco and Vienna, with editing by David McVicar. Two pokers of aces will defend this opera by Ciléa: the tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Maurizzio (De Tommaso in the second cast) and Ambrogio Maestri and Luis Cansino as Michonnet. While Sonya Yoncheva and Eleonora Buratto (Adriana) will alternate in the female roles, and Anita Rachvelishvili and Daniela Barcellona (Princess de Bouillon). American maestro Patrick Summers will command from the pit.
Javier Camarena, for his part, could be saying goodbye to the role of Ramiro in La Cenerentola -a production of the Rome Opera-, as his voice is probably getting bigger and he will have to give up roles that require vocal agility. At the baton, Giacomo Sagripanti. And to the reggia, the Italian actress, stage director, filmmaker and playwright Emma Dante, who had not yet had the opportunity to set foot on the Rambla theater.
And, finally, returning to the back of the Liceu wardrobe, Carmen de Bieito -the most represented production urbi et orbe- returns with its unmistakable sixties car presiding over the scene and with the mezzos Clémentine Margaine and Varduhi Abrahamyan in the leading role. Charles Castronovo is Don José and Escamillo is played by Simón Orfila. As for the galactic Turandot – that of the Martians in hyperspace – that Núria Espert assembled for the reopening of the Liceu in 1999, her granddaughter Bárbara Lluch will be in charge of replacing it. And it will feature Alondra de la Parra on the podium and the voices of Elena Pankratova, Michael Fabiano and Nadine Sierra (Liù).
But beyond the voices, the Liceu season exudes contemporaneity and unique proposals. To begin with, he will display two of his own new opera commissions: this Antony
The title had its world premiere last year at the San Francisco Opera on the occasion of its centenary, and now it comes to the Liceu with its original cast, with the Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley and the American soprano Julia Bullock, who at the world premiere had to be replaced because of her pregnancy by Amina Edris (current Manon del Liceu).
Curiously, the Teatro Real has just premiered in Spain Nixon in China (1984), the first opera by John Adams, with which the main arenas in Spain complement each other by offering the Alpha and Omega of this reference composer, who will also come personally to direct the European premiere of his new title from the pit of the Liceu.
The second commission of the season is presented by Hèctor Parra, the most daring/obsessive of national composers, in tandem with Calixto Bieito, with whom he already embarked on the enormous adventure of bringing Jonathan Littell’s Benévolas to opera. This time it is Orgia, by Passolini -in co-production with the Peralada Festival and the Arriaga Theater in Bilbao-, as La Vanguardia announced in July.
Bieito makes here an abbreviated proposal of the eponymous theatrical text by Pier Paolo Pasolini, in which a self-destructive couple relationship is addressed. The suicide of the husband dressed as a woman would here be an act of accusation against hypocritical, disrespectful and intolerant societies. Musically directed by the head of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Bleuse, with one of the greats in the leading role, the Lithuanian soprano Aušrinė Stundytė.
The beautician Bob Wilson returns to the Liceu de les Arts with an oratorio that in his hands becomes a spiritual ceremony of contained emotions: Händel’s Messiah but revisited by Mozart, who reorchestrates it, exchanges voices, uses German… The The proposal was premiered by Wilson in Salzburg just before the outbreak of the pandemic. And here it will be directed musically by Pons, with a whole Julia Lezhneva on stage.
On the other hand, and without abandoning the baroque, the Liceu will host an opera by Charpentier for the first time in its history, this Médée in concert whose production leaves Berlin only to visit Barcelona. The Freiburger Barockorchester conducted by Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kožená in the title role, along with Carolyn Sampson, among others. René Jacobs will conclude, also with the Freiburger, that triptych of Orpheus that the theater has commissioned from him: that of Telemann, that of Gluck and, finally, that of Monteverdi.
Another singular opera in concert will be Haydn’s Orlando Paladino, the title with which he had the greatest success in life, although his repertoire of 12 operas has not been reprogrammed. The Liceu claims it by the hand of Giovanni Antonini’s Giardino Armonico, with Emoke Baráth, Josh Lovell and Núria Rial… who hopefully will sing this time at the Liceu. In addition, Jordi Savall will address Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Le Concert des Nations.
And if Pons conducts the Liceu Symphony in El castillo de Barbazul, Gustavo Dudamel brings in the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a peculiar Fidelio that, although on the one hand it vindicates idealism and freedom -perhaps also against Venezuela-, on the other another echoes Beethoven’s deafness and talks about accessibility through sign language. It is used by the Manos Blancas Choir together with the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música and the Liceu Choir itself. A semi-stage proposal by Dudamel’s good friend, Alberto Arvelo, through the use of shadows. He looked at Andrew Staples’ Florestan, the Peter Grimes who triumphed last season at the Teatro Real.
In addition to a lyrical gala, with Ermonela Jaho, Lisette Oropesa, Camarena and Carlos Ãlvarez, and a recital by Sondra Radvanovsky, the Liceu provides tributes to Victoria de los Ãngeles and Alicia de Larrocha, on their centenary. Maria Agresta, Louise Alder, Sarah Connolly, Joyce DiDonato, Juliana Grigoryan, Sabina Puértolas, Fatma Said, Anne Schwanewilms, Nadine Sierra, Iréne Theorin and Marina Viotti joined the first, with a semistage by Vincent Huguet. And Josep Pons will conduct the Liceu orchestra in the second, with Javier Perianes on piano.
Last but not least, the Liceu is committed to contemporary signature dance. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, who has directed the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève since last July -a company always ready to rewrite the most revolutionary ballets in the repertoire-, has two dozen dancers to perform his Faun, a revision of Nijinsky’s classic that created in 2009 for Sadler’s Wells, adding music by Nitin Sawhney to that of Debussy. And also Noetic.
The great heir to choreographic art that is the Swedish Alexander Ekman brings with the Dortmund Ballet his Shakespearean Dream, a piece he created after his successful revision of Swan Lake -by Den Norske Ballett-, and in which he explores energy and mysteries conjured by the summer solstice in the Scandinavian tradition.
And Sasha Waltz recovers her fierce, carnal, vigorous, chaotic and magnetic Sacre, her version of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with 28 dancers of all ages on stage. The great news is that the Liceu Orchestra will play the music live, with Josep Pons in charge, in an evening that has a serene second part, with Faune and another of loving peace with Scène d’amour from Hector’s Roméo et Juliette Berlioz.
