Liceo 2025-2026: The Big Names of the Season
The official opening will be with Janáček's 'The Cunning Fox', with stage direction by Barrie Kosky
BarcelonaTwo men are closing out their tenure at the Liceu at the end of the 2025-2026 season. On the one hand, the musical director, Josep Pons, which is leaving after fourteen years and with one objective clearly achieved: to first recover and then consolidate the good performances of the Liceu Symphony Orchestra. On the other hand, the resident artist of the 2020, the stage director Àlex Ollé, who in addition to promoting newly created micro-operas has premiered a magnificent production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk, by Shostakovich. Pons and Ollé will be well represented in the 2025-2026 season of the Rambla theatre, which will open with The cunning fox, by Janáček, with stage direction by Barrie Kosky and musical by Pons himself. It will be the season of Lise Davidsen, the great soprano of the moment, takes on Wagner's Isolde in a new production at the Liceu directed by Bárbara Lluch. The theater will premiere another of its own productions, Figaro's Wedding, by Mozart, with stage direction by Marta Pazos.
It will also be the season, among others, of Asmik Grigorian starring Manon Lescaut, by Puccini, with stage direction by Ollé; by Pretty Yende, Serena Sáenz and Marina Monzó sharing theAdina of The elixir of love by Donizetti; by Xabier Anduaga and Matthew Polenzani giving themselves over to Werther Massenet in a production by Christof Loy; Luca Salsi and Ambrogio Maestri taking on the role Falstaff of Verdi, and of Saoia Hernández and Ekaterina Semenchuk alternating in The Mona Lisa, by Ponchielli.
Among the events of the next course, it is worth highlighting Akhenaten, Philip Glass's third opera. And in the realm of concert operas, Orlando, by Händel, by Les Musiciens du Louvre directed by Marc Minkowski; Semi-branch, by Rossini, conducted by Paolo Arrivabeni; and Here, Galatea and Polyphemus, by Handel, with René Jacobs conducting the Basel Kammerorchester. As for the opera recitals, there will be Renée Fleming, Roberto Alagna, and Juan Diego Flórez, among others.
The Liceu reaffirms its confidence in Marina Abramović, who will be the guest artist and will bring to Barcelona a dance and dance show performance with choreography by Albanian Blenard Azizaj and inspired by a classical piece by the Serbian creator, Balkan erotic epicThe season's dance program also includes Giselle by the Bayerisches Staatsballett and Nijinsky, by John Neumeier and the Hamburg Ballet, as well as a gala with dancers such as Natalia Osipova and Svetlana Zakharova. All of this, 88 opera performances, 16 dance performances, and 12 concerts.
Other special guests of the season will be the visual artist Santi Moix (who will work with Jordi Savall in the concert) Creole Festival), the visual artist Joan Jonas, the poet Enric Casasses, the photographer Liu Bolin, the sculptor Gonzalo Guzmán and the visual artist Eulàlia Valldosera.
As detailed this Monday by the general director of the Liceu, Valentí Oviedo, the budget for the 2025-2026 season of the Liceu is 58 million euros, 6.3% more than in the previous year. The contribution from public administrations reaches 49% of the budget, 1% more than in 2024-2025: 11.8 million from the Ministry of Culture, 11.6 million from the Generalitat, 2.6 million from the Barcelona City Council and 1.8 million from the Barcelona Provincial Council.
The €3.5 million increase compared to the previous year comes from public administrations (€1 million more from the Generalitat and €1 million more from the Ministry of Culture), ticket sales (between €700,000 and €800,000 more), and patronage (€700,000 more). Artistic spending will be €19 million (€17.1 million in 2024-2025), and investment in productions will reach €1.8 million, the highest in the Liceu's history (the previous year was €1.1 million).
"Artistic and economic balance is essential for continued growth," said Salvador Alemany, president of the Liceu's board of trustees, who noted that the theater has eliminated historical debt and that of the pandemic. "The cancellation of the debt hinders our growth, but the artistic offering must take into account both traditional and new audiences," added Alemany, who asserted that the Liceu "is in a good place." He also thanked the public authorities, which are supporting the theater's growth.
The 9 operas of the Liceu's 2025-2026 season
'The Cunning Fox', by Leoš Janáček
Seven performances, from September 20 to 30
The season will start with The cunning fox (1924) directed by Australian Barrie Kosky, co-responsible for the wonderful Magic Flute which was performed at the Liceu in 2016This is a co-production between the Teatro de la Rambla and the Bavarian State Opera. Russian soprano Elena Tsallagova plays the fox, and it will premiere at the Liceu. The performance on September 20th will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Liceu.
'Akhnaten', by Philip Glass
Seven performances from October 16 to November 3
The American countertenor Anthony Roth Constanzo and the Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb are Akhenaten and Nefertiti in the opera composed by Glass in 1983, the culmination of the trilogy dedicated to historical figures begun with Einstein on the beach and Satyagraha (inspired by Gandhi). The production, produced by the English National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, features stage direction by Phelim McDermott and musical direction by Karen Kamensek. It will be the first time Akhnaten is represented in Barcelona.
'Elisir de amore', by Gaetano Donizetti
Fifteen performances, from November 22 to December 15
The Liceu is bringing back the production of The elixir of love (1832) directed by Mario Gas in 1983 at the Greek Theatre and the Adina Festival, which will be shared by Pretty Yende, Serena Sáenz and Marina Monzó; and by Nemorino, Michael Spyres and Filipe Manu Wagner
Seven performances, from January 12 to 31
The presence of the Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen converts Tristan and Isolde (1865) is one of the highlights of the season. It is also the premiere of a new production by the Liceu with stage direction by Bárbara Lluch, who is repeating the production at the Rambla theatre after The sleepwalker, and the baton of Finnish Susanna Mälkki. One of Lluch's challenges will be to live up to the splendid staging he gave them. Àlex Ollé for the Lyon Opera and seen at the Liceu in 2017Davidsen will be joined by American tenor Clay Hilley, an expert in the Wagnerian repertoire, who shared the concert with the Norwegian singer on the occasion of the first act of The Walküre which was performed at the Liceu on June 28, 2024. In the second cast, Tristan and Isolde will be the American Bryan Register and the Russian Elena Pankratova. Curiously, the role of Brangäne will be played by the Swedish Iréne Theorin, who played Isolde in Àlex Ollé's production. Altogether, "an epic Wagnerian cast," according to the Liceu's artistic director, Víctor Garcia de Gomar.
'La Gioconda', by Amilcare Ponchielli
Eleven performances, from February 16 to March 2
The Liceo and the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples share this new production of The Mona Lisa (1876) which in 2024 starred Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann in the Italian city. In Barcelona, the role of Gioconda will alternate between Madrid's Saoia Hernández and Belarus's Ekaterina Semenchuk, while the role of Enzo Grimaldo will be shared between Michael Fabiano and Martin Muehle. The stage direction is by Frenchman Romain Gilbert and the orchestra will be conducted by Israeli Daniel Oren.
'Manon Lescaut', by Giacomo Puccini
Six performances, from March 17 to April 1
In the last season as resident artist, Àlex Ollé brings to the Liceu the stage reading of Manon Lescaut (1893) which he performed for the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt. Also featuring Josep Pons in the pit. The cast is led by Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, American tenor Joshua Guerrero (making his Liceu debut), and Belarusian baritone Yurii Samoilov.
'Werther', by Jules Massenet
Ten performances, from May 2 to 17
The German stage director Christof Loy returns to the Liceu, who opened the 2023-2024 season with a sensational production ofEugene Onegin, by Tchaikovsky. Now he delves into Werther (1892) by La Scala in Milan and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, with musical direction by Hungarian Henrik Nánási. The Basque tenor Xabier Anduaga and the American Matthew Polenzani will alternate in the role of Goethe's ill-fated hero. And the German mezzo-soprano Kristina Stanek and the Azerbaijani Elmina Hasan will play Charlotte.
'Le nozze di Figaro', by Wolfgang A. Mozart
Fourteen performances, from June 4 to 21
Marta Pazos signed the magnificent stage direction of the opera Alexina B., by Raquel García-Tomás, which premiered at the Liceu in 2023. The Rambla theatre fully trusts in the intelligence and artistic sensitivity of the Galician creator, and has commissioned her to direct a new production of The Marriage of Figaro (1786). The double cast includes names such as André Schuen, Samuel Hasselhorn, Sara Blanch, Anna Prohaska, Julia Lezhneva, Mercedes Gancedo, Konstantin Krimmel and Alejandro Baliñas.
'Falstaff', by Giuseppe Verdi
Eight performances, from July 9 to 19
The opera season will end in July 2026 with Falstaff (1893), which comes to the Liceu in a production by the Teatro Real in Madrid directed by the French Laurent PellyThe main roles will be played by two Italian baritones: Ambrogio Maestri (who in November will have played Doctor Dulcamara in The elixir of love) and Luca Salsi. The cast also includes Serena Sáenz, Daniela Barcellona, Carolina López, Santiago Ballerini and Igor Golovatenko. And the baton will be held by maestro Josep Pons, who after Falstaff He will say goodbye to the musical direction of the Liceu by conducting the Symphony No. 8, 'Of the Thousand', by Mahler, on July 24. "I'm beginning the end of a period. 14 years is a long time, and I want to thank the theater for giving me the time to develop this work. Everything has an expiration date, like yogurt, and we must know how to read it," explained Pons, appointed the new conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. "We have worked to maintain good health at the Liceu Orchestra, and we have been able to attract the best talent from a very young generation," he added. However, Josep Pons will remain linked to the Liceu, perhaps as "conductor emeritus," as Salvador Alemany has suggested.