Peralada Festival 2025: an invitation to the “paradise” of opera, music, and dance
Joyce DiDonato and the premiere of the contemporary opera 'Hort/Garden' are some of the highlights of this year's edition, which opens in the first half of July.
PeraladaThis summer, the gardens of Peralada Castle will reopen their doors to host a new edition of the Peralada Festival, which this year will be held more as usual, from July 3 to 18. In total, there will be twelve proposals of music, dance, and opera, with special attention to contemporary creation, under the motto of "the invitation to paradise," conceived as twelve movements of a single cultural and artistic symphony. Most of the shows, all small-format, will be performed inside the Carme Church and in the Mirador space, while work on the new open-air auditorium is pending.
This 39th edition is exceptionally brought forward to the first half of July, because, at the end of this month, the festival will travel for the first time to the prestigious Savonlinna Opera Festival (Finland), where it will present its production of The Fairy Queen, by Purcell, directed by Joan Anton Rechi, again with Xavier Sabata in the lead role.
Among the highlights of the program, the world premiere of the contemporary opera stands out Garden (July 16), a kind of musical monologue about memory, nature and the passage of time, conceived by actress and singer Helena Tarrats, with music by Mario G. Cortizo. The show will also premiere Genius loci (July 5), by countertenor Xavier Sabata, which combines baroque music with contemporary electronic adaptations, based on a staged reading by Rafael R. Villalobos.
The other two festival productions, which will premiere this summer, are The Terroir (July 4), by dancer Lorena Nogal, with electronic music by Franco Mento, which will be seen at the winery, and the festival's particular tribute to the singer Conxita Badia (July 17), whose 50th death anniversary is commemorated this year, with a recital by soprano Montserrat Seró, cellist Pau Codina and pianist Marc Heredia, which connects Badia with her teacher Pau Casals.
Beyond the premieres, the line-up also includes some great names in international opera: mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will make her debut at the Alto Empordà festival, offering the opening recital; soprano Angel Blue will also make her debut with an evening of great operatic excerpts; and the evening of great operatic excerpts will close the festival with a repertoire that revolves around the French novelist George Sand.
Likewise, maestro William Christie, who turns 80 in 2025, will present Handel's extraordinary oratorio The triumph of tempo and disinganno, and Christoph and Julian Prégardien, father and son, will share the stage with a program of lieds by Schubert and Liszt, with the presence of a white-voiced soloist from the Escolanía de Montserrat.
The program is completed by pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, a contemporary percussion proposal and a flamenco ballet dance piece, as well as a series of talks, workshops, and conferences prior to the concerts.
The program was presented this Wednesday in the castle gardens, with Oriol Aguilà, artistic director, at the helm, accompanied by artists from the program and the Suqué-Mateu family, patrons of the event. "This edition is part of the fascinating world of garden art, and explores several polyhedral signifiers of paradise, in a journey through world premieres, new creations, and major international names," said Aguilà. And, regarding the new theater's schedule, he added: "We won't give details until we have the exact opening date; the small format is beautiful and we've valued it over the years, but it's also true that the performing arts, opera, and dance, need a good stage."
