The Barcelona soprano Maria Miró has four dates at the Liceu, where she interprets the role of Nannetta in the opera Falstaff, by Verdi, on July 10, 13, 16 and 19. "I love debuting papers", says Miró, who debuted at the Liceu in 2013 in the cantata Atlantis by Manuel de Falla and Ernesto Halffter. He returned that same year with the role Cinderella, by Massenet, and later to The Two Foscari (2015) and The Troubadour (2017), both by Verdi.

953,049 people passed through the Palau de la Música in 2025, 93,000 more than in 2024. The 678 scheduled concerts had 555,750 spectators; the modernist building received 358,519 visitors, and 38,780 people attended different own and private acts and events. Joaquim Uriach (Barcelona, 1966), president of the Orfeó Català Association and the Orfeó Català Foundation - Palau de la Música Catalana, speaks about these record figures and the institution's present.

A trio, a more reduced format than in previous visits to Catalonia; with The Police's repertoire well represented; overflowing with charisma, and with his voice challenging the tuning at times. That's how Sting carried out Tuesday's concert at the Jardins de Pedralbes, within the Les Nits d’Occident festival. The audience, who had paid up to 300 euros, was up to par from the start. With an ovation, they received the first notes of Message in a bottle, one of the many songs by The Police that he is playing on this tour, which he shares with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas. The British singer and bassist, 74 years old and with a jovial appearance, quickly realized the spectators' good predisposition and let them sing the first verses of Englishman in New York. “Catalonia!”, exclaimed Sting at the end of a song that he performed with more rock clamor than jazzy flourishes.

May the sea breeze alleviate the heatwave. This must be the dream of the spectators who trust in the sixteenth edition of the Cruïlla Festival, which takes place from July 8 to 11 at the Parc del Fòrum. In general, the artistic DNA of recent years is maintained; in fact, there are groups that have already passed through the festival before, and salsa proposals like those in 2022, 2023, and 2024 are missed. The main change in this edition has to do with the arrangement of the stages, with a new one in the area closest to the port of the Fòrum where the comedy programming will unfold, which includes names like Oye Sherman, Manel Vidal, Marc Sarrats, Ignatius Farray, and Charlie Pee. Tickets for Cruïlla 2026 can still be purchased at different prices: 171.48 euros for the four-day pass; 160.934 euros for the three-day pass (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday); 150.29 euros for the Friday and Saturday pass, and 137.68 euros for the Thursday and Friday pass or for the Thursday and Saturday pass. Daily tickets cost 81.50 euros (Wednesday), 86.80 euros (Thursday), and 95.34 euros (Friday and Saturday). Below is a selection of ten recommended concerts.

"Megadeth!, Megadeth!", shouted the Rock Fest audience past midnight on Friday. There was a desire to see the North American band and to thank its leader, the Californian guitarist Dave Mustaine, for his service to the cause of heavy metal for forty years. Everything suggested that the concert in Santa Coloma de Gramenet was part of Megadeth's farewell tour, but Mustaine himself clarified on Friday that it is the tour for the latest album, Megadeth (2026), and that the final tour will be the next one. In any case, the dedication of the audience that traveled to Can Zam park was one that fosters devotion.

"It is a luxury to be able to have this farewell", says maestro Josep Pons at the press conference, who this month closes his stage as musical director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu after fourteen years of work. It is a farewell in two phases: conducting the orchestra of the Rambla theatre in the eight performances of Verdi's opera Falstaff (from July 9 to 19) and in the concert dedicated to Mahler's Symphony No. 8 'The Thousand' (July 24). "I tend to hold back my emotions", says Pons, who does admit that he feels very happy. "I believe that the job we were entrusted with, we have done. We have created a family, and we are lucky to be among good people. I am very pleased to finish at a peak moment", he assures, just after explaining that "working in an opera house is like entering a convent: it is an absolute absorption, you stop living". Happy and grateful, Pons, however, does not want the farewell to overshadow the performances of Falstaff. "Maestro Pons's last staged title, although he will have a title every year, at least", clarifies the theatre's artistic director, Víctor Garcia de Gomar, who recalls that from next season Pons will be honorary musical director of the Liceu.

From cathedral to cathedral. The music that sounded in Barcelona's between 1705 and 1713 during the reign of Archduke Charles of Austria stars in the inaugural concert of the 15th edition of the Pyrenean Early Music Festival (FeMAP), which takes place this Friday, July 3rd, at the Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Seu d'Urgell (Alt Urgell), and is also scheduled for the church of Santa Cecília de Molló (Ripollès) on Saturday, July 4th, and the sanctuary of El Miracle in Riner (Solsonès) on Sunday, July 5th.

The Nights of the West in the Jardins de Pedralbes began on Wednesday with the characteristic scent of carefree summer festivals, especially the so-called festivals boutique with village. The group chosen to open the 2026 edition was Taburete, the band of Willy Bárcenas and Antón Carreño. Everything within a fairly moderate order: among the more than 2,300 people who filled the venue, there was only one spectator waving a discreet constitutional Spanish flag, and the chants against Pedro Sánchez that have been frequent in other Taburete concerts were not heard. Sense at the upper, so who knows if because they already assume that the Spanish president has his days numbered or because Pedralbes has been weighed.

Change at the helm of the Conservatori del Liceu. Maria Serrat, who has been its general director since 1999, hands over the reins to Iñaki Sandoval (Pamplona, 1974), who is currently the dean of the Hong Kong Music School. "I will join the conservatory in December," Sandoval announced at a press conference at the Ca l'Isidre restaurant, in Barcelona's Raval neighborhood. For Sandoval, this new responsibility is like "a return home." "My connection with the Conservatori del Liceu is intimate and foundational. I started my musical studies in Pamplona at the age of 8, but it was a scholarship from the government of Navarra that allowed me, as a young person, to travel to Barcelona. Here I supplemented my higher studies in classical piano at this very institution, and I began my training in jazz at AULA de Música Moderna. Years later, I had the privilege of directing it, of founding the Jazz Department of the Conservatory and of promoting its postgraduate studies. Barcelona is a city I deeply love and where I have experienced some of the happiest moments of my life," explained Sandoval, who has also undertaken academic work in Estonia.

Concert promoter The Project postpones the first edition of the Salsón Barcelona Festival, which was to be held on October 2 and 3, according to what has been reported El Periódicoand has confirmed ARA. The reason for the cancellation is the impossibility of hiring suitable headliners. "We had a super headliner, but in the end it couldn't be," explains Tito Ramoneda, executive president of The Project, to ARA. However, the promoter is working on the 2027 edition of a festival designed for a daily capacity of 9,000 people. "Before running the risk this year, we prefer to prepare next year's festival," adds Ramoneda, who recalls the importance of headliners who sell tickets.

Many of Arnau Tordera's (Tona, 1986) musical interests are present in I hold it in my heart (Global Music, 2024-2026), an album by the group Obeses released in two parts. Now comes the second part: Diastole. Eight songs that mix rock, metal, musical, pop, sound of quartans band and a version of the Virolai with the Coral Canigó. About the album, but also about the position of resistance in the Catalan musical ecosystem, about various political and economic breakdowns, about the Obeses festival and the program The Renaissance, speaks the leader of the group completed by Arnau Burdó (keyboard), Maiol Montané (drums) and the poet Jaume Coll Mariné (below), winner of the Carles Riba prize 2025 with the poetry collection Like the leaves (Proa).

It was a close call that a wild boar didn't turn a concert review into an epitaph. "Remember this name: L'Arannà". This was the title of ARA about the concert that the Ibizan-Empordà duo had performed at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa on October 11, 2025. "The day after the concert, we were driving on the A2 and suddenly a wild boar appeared from the right. I swerved a few times, the car started to wobble and hit a concrete barrier. We miraculously didn't flip over," recalls Anna Sala (Sant Feliu de Guíxols, 1996). "The car was destroyed, but we were unharmed. And the instruments too. If we had died, that article would have been an epitaph," adds Lara Magrinyà (Ibiza, 1993). Both had just presented the show Turmarí, which next autumn will become an album, and which in recent months has already made L'Arannà one of the most exciting musical projects in the country thanks to how they delve into the tradition of Ibizan double singing with contemporary tools and mentality. They will demonstrate this once again this Friday, June 26, at the Auditori de l'Ateneu de Banyoles (8 p.m.), as part of the (a)phònica festival program.

The ship is sailing with a fair wind. The Òh!pera project by Liceu and DHub reaches its fifth edition with the premiere of three new micro-operas at Fabra i Coats in the Sant Andreu neighborhood of Barcelona on July 2, 3, 4, and 5, as part of the Festival Grec program. The original idea was to ""create a new pool of creators who attract new audiences", as Àlex Ollé, artistic director of Òh!pera, stated in 2022. The purpose remains the same, and year after year, well-established composers, stage directors, and librettists have passed through. One of the three works in 2026 is Jo, núvol, by the composer Sergi Puig Serna from Badalona (who last year premiered I tot caminant em va semblar que el temps reculava in Austria), with stage direction by Lucia del Greco (who also directed the opening show of the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic) and libretto by Alicia Kopf (the publication of the novel Memòria d'Eco, on which the micro-opera is based, is still recent). Another is La vida por los cuernos, a flamenco-opera by Anna Colom from Barcelona (who participated in the tour of Rosalía's El mal querer), with staging by Alexandre Rodríguez Fons (author of Los hijos perdidos de Dios, premiered at Fundació Brossa) and libretto by Pablo Macho Otero (founder of the company La Bella Otero). And the third micro-opera of the year is Opereta, by the composer Arnau Brichs from Barcelona (who premiered Graus de presència in Paris in 2024), which features stage direction by Marc Salicrú (with experience at Liceu as a set designer and lighting designer) and libretto by Pol Guasch (who this year published Relíquia).

150,000 attendees at Sónar 2026. This is the data provided by the festival's management. It is a global figure that also includes Sónar Kids (1,500 people), Sónar+D (4,000), Sónar District parties at Parc del Fòrum, and OffSónar at Poble Espanyol. However, the festival does not detail the audience for OffSónar activities, nor for Sónar District, nor for the three musical days at the Fira Gran Via venue. Therefore, it is difficult to compare it with 2025, beyond the fact that last year the global figure was 161,000 attendees: 52,000 at Sónar de Dia in Montjuïc, 66,500 at the two days of Sónar de Nit in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and 42,000 at OffSónar.

The new layout of Sónar at Fira Gran Via means that the simultaneous offering grows considerably. Up to six simultaneous stages operate during a large part of the afternoon, night, and early morning. The feeling of frustration for not being able to get everywhere exists, but perhaps it is not as evident as in other festivals. Well into midnight, the public moves between the stages and rest areas without haste and with a more contemplative than restless attitude. Surely managing energies to be in top form when it's time to give it all at Charlotte de Witte's set, one of Friday's early morning highlights.

The Francoist repression and the workers' struggle are two of the axes of La rosa dels set pètals, the new community opera that will be performed at the Liceu on June 4, 5, and 6, 2027. It is the second work of the Òpera Prima project promoted by the Rambla theater, following La gata perduda (2022), set in the Raval. The seven petals in the title refer to the seven neighborhoods of the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona: Navas, la Sagrera, el Congrés i els Indians, Sant Andreu del Palomar, la Trinitat Vella, el Bon Pastor, and Baró de Viver. And the rose evokes the plastic flowers that the prisoners of La Trinitat Vella were to make, a scene of penitentiary repression against women in Catalonia during the last fifteen years of Francoism and where the re-educative role imposed by the nuns of the Cruzadas Evangélicas de Cristo Rey was particularly sinister. "Freedom, women, identity, and memory" are the concepts that link the work done by Blanca Bardagil in the libretto and also permeate the musical composition of the brothers Tomàs and Lucas Peire. Similarly, this will be transferred to the staging directed by Israel Solà.

Feeling of a cycle change on the first day of Sónar 2026, the first edition since 1994 without the three founders (Sergio and Enric Palau and Ricard Robles). Therefore, the first with François Jozic as director, and also the first without distinction between Sónar de Dia and Sónar de Nit because now all activity is concentrated in a single venue, Fira Gran Via, in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, although the professional part of Sónar+D is premiering location at La Llotja de Mar and Sónar Kids is being revived, which takes place at Parc del Fòrum. Despite the aroma of a turned page, there are invariable things, such as the pleasant feeling of letting yourself be carried away by hedonism and unexpected discovery.

A new stage begins at Sónar, with a change in management and concentrating musical activity at Fira Gran Via de l'Hospitalet de Llobregat because the Sónar de Dia, which was held in Montjuïc, is disappearing. In this edition, which takes place from June 18 to 20, performances will begin at 5 p.m.; on Thursday the 18th they will end at 3 a.m., and on Friday the 19th and Saturday the 20th, at 7 a.m. Sónar+D is also being separated, relocated to La Llotja de Mar. There are still tickets on sale: Thursday, at 49 euros; Friday, at 99 euros, and Saturday also at 99 euros. The pass for two days (Friday and Saturday) costs 159 euros. Below, ten artistic recommendations from Sónar 2026.

Ferran Cruixent (Barcelona, 1976) is one of the Catalan composers with the most presence in auditoriums worldwide. This year he premiered Mare nostra for the Cor Canta Foundation and Voladúries at the Liceu, and he did the orchestrations for Rosalía's Lux tour. In June, two works by Cruixent will be performed in Germany: the duo for viola and percussion Deserts and Trinity, the triple concerto for violin, cello, piano, and orchestra. He talks about all of this, as well as spirituality, philosophy, and reflection on technology that accompanies his compositions, in this interview.

A special show directed by playwright Lucia del Greco inaugurated the 38th edition of the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic, which will take place from September 16 to 20. "It is a project designed to generate discourse and activate new perspectives on the concept of live music," says, without revealing any details, Joan Rial, one of the directors of the Market along with Rubèn Pujol and Jordi Casadesús. "It's one of the things I'm most excited about this year," he adds. Over these five days, different venues in Vic will host the 72 performances programmed by the Market, a selection made from the 1,751 proposals received, 250 more than in 2025. All in all, including the strictly professional part, with a budget of 1.18 million euros (80,000 more than last year), provided mainly by public administrations (Generalitat, Vic City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council, Ministry of Culture). The main private sponsor remains Estrella Damm, which contributes 90,000 euros.