Before being a theater, the Liceu was a music school – hence its name – founded in 1837 as an “academy of declamation and singing.” An educational spirit that has been maintained and adapted over time to bring opera closer to new generations, an endeavor that the LiceuAprèn program seeks to expand both geographically, educationally and generationally, following in the wake of El Petit Liceu, which next year will be 25 years old. To this end, it proposes a range of training proposals that last 2023 brought opera to 60,000 children and young people with the focus on training. “We want to give students more tools to build their future,” said Valentí Oviedo, general director of the Liceu, this Wednesday.
“LiceuAprèn is not a show, it is an educational opportunity,” highlighted Antoni Pallès, director of the musical and educational department at the Liceu. “What we did until now is not enough, in 1999 we had the wisdom to do children’s programming, but 25 years have passed and society demands other things.” This approach involves actions such as the one celebrated this Wednesday with the visit of 1,300 students from all the primary schools in the Ripollès region to attend the show La cuina de Rossini.
Throughout the course these young people have worked around the show they have attended as the highlight of the experience, after which they have participated in various workshops. “The impact we have on a child if we only share the show falls short,” said Jordina Oriols, head of LiceuAprèn. “Today there was a lot of silence in the room, and that is due to a motivation and preparation that predisposed them to what they see entering them in a different way.” This prior work includes both the delivery of information and visits to the centers to train the teachers and prepare the show with them to include it in the center’s own teaching project.
“This is LiceuAprèn” highlighted Antoni Pallès to refer to a collaboration that “puts the artistic and educational project on the same level”, and that has been previously carried out in the Ebro and Les Garrigues regions. “As a country facility we have an obligation to the regions,” added Oviedo about the initiative, in which 8,000 students have participated with the collaboration of former students of the Conservatori del Liceu.
The magnitude of the project is better understood when taking into account that LiceuAprèn programs attract 20% of the total attendees of the Rambla theater with the aim of attracting 65,000 people in the 2024/25 edition. And they do so with new approaches that transcend theatrical representation to bring opera physically closer to schools, such as Del laberint als somnis, which works in 24 secondary schools to, over two years, perform a participatory opera in which they will be involved. 900 students who will receive artistic training with the involvement of the centers’ teachers. A project linked to El monstre al laberint, which involves the participants in the creation of an opera advised by a professional artistic team.
Another project is the one that seeks to unite different generations with a special Cenerentola function that will be held on May 30, designed for grandchildren and grandparents or uncles and nephews to attend, who on that day will enjoy special prices at the entrance, in addition to providing them with documentation. through videos and podcasts with which to prepare the representation. “Opera cannot be restricted to a few, we have the obligation to expand it to the greatest possible number of people, otherwise we could become a dispensable institution,” Oviedo pointed out.
The objective of all these shows is to transmit values, as they do in La cuina de Rossini, a show that is accompanied by workshops where eating habits are discussed. It is one of the seven productions presented during the last four years designed and adapted for children and young people. That’s why La Barcarole is performed in the Foyer, so that children of 2 or 3 years old can experience the show up close, or puppets are used in El trencanous-jazz, based on Duke Ellington’s version. In La torre dels somnis, poetry, circus and Puccini’s music intermingle, while in La nit de Sant Joan they pursue, through the composer Robert Gerhard, the recovery of popular culture through contemporary dance.
