Viva Verdi with the Vallés Symphony Orchestra and the ARA

BarcelonaThe ARA had only been walking for a few months when, on March 12, 2011, the Italian director Riccardo Muti staged an act of cultural resistance at the Rome Opera House during a performance of the opera Nabuccoby Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). Berlusconi, then Italian prime minister, had announced a drastic cut in the culture budget. The Roman public was furious with Berlusconi, and at the end of Go, thoughtThe heart of the Hebrew slaves in the third act called out against the prime minister. Muti emerged from the orchestra pit and invited the audience to sing. Go, thought Let's reclaim together the value of culture.

That same heart of Nabucco The Palau de la Música was filled with dignity at the end of the closing concert of the ARA's 15th anniversary celebrations. As in the concerts of the previous two years, dedicated to Maria Callas and in PucciniYesterday's event had a common thread: the music of Verdi, especially the operatic arias, but also the Days of anger of the Requiem by the Italian composer. As in 2023 and 2024, the stage was occupied by the Vallés Symphony Orchestra, this time conducted by Beatriz Fernández Aucejo from Valencia, with the participation of the Madrigal Choir and three soloists: the soprano Berna Perles from Málaga, the tenor Antoni Lliteres from Mallorca, and the baritone. And from beginning to end, the warmth of the audience was palpable, who immediately rewarded the performances with applause.

The title of the concert was Long live Verdi!translation of Long live Verdi! which Italians in the mid-19th century also used to claimVittorio Emanuele from Italy" and to free themselves from Austrian domination. In fact, freedom, power, and politics are often the moral and historical context upon which Verdi built operas such as Macbeth, Othello, The Troubadour (a plot of revenge during the time of the Compromise of Caspe) and Don Carlo (an adaptation of a Schiller drama about the firstborn son of Philip II). In any case, there is always emotion, and the concert was certainly exciting, beginning with the Vallès Symphony Orchestra performing the opening of The power of destiny and preparing the ground for Lliteres to embody the Duke of Mantua to sing the popular La donna è mobileNext, Perles and Òdena performed the duet Look, say bitter tears of the last act ofThe Troubadour, and the Madrigal Choir, after accompanying the tenor to Di quella pira (The Troubadour), took it fully Chico siamo zingarelle and Di Madride boy siam mattadori, of La TraviataOnce all the participants had been introduced, the evening progressed with the usual fluidity of the Vallès-based group (which is currently facing The Flying Dutchman by Wagner in the Fundació Òpera Catalunya season).

The soprano from Malaga was able to shine embodying Violetta in the first act of La Traviata (also in the encore with the always stimulating toast), in the trio Say jealous love, ofThe Troubadourand in the duo Teco yo sto!, ofA masked ballwith the tenor from Artà, also outstanding as Otello. And Òdena knew how to take advantage of some of the great roles for baritone that Verdi wrote, such as Macbeth (the aria Pietano, rispetto, amore(rewarded with an ovation and cheers), and also the Rodrigo de Don Carlo who shares with the tenor the oath of friendship Dio, che nell'alma infondere and that at the Palau de la Música he sang with Lliteres.

The Madrigal Choir was enthusiastically applauded at several points during the concert. For example, at the end of the first part, with the Glory to Egypt from Aida, in the Days of anger of the Requiem and, of course, in the exciting epic of Go, thoughtLong live Verdi, always. And as the director of the ARA, Esther Vera, said at the concert's entrance: "Long live journalism."