"Look at this lectern, it's historic. It's very beautiful", says Josep Pons (Puig-reig, 1957). He is in the pit of the Liceu, the chosen space for a press conference "special and sensitive", as Víctor Garcia de Gomar, artistic director of the Rambla theatre, says. Pons is bidding farewell to the musical direction of the Gran Teatre del Liceu after fourteen years of work. The farewell is twofold. On the one hand, from the pit, with Falstaff, Verdi's opera which is performed there until July 19th; on the other hand, from the stage of the Liceu, conducting with Symphony No. 8 by Mahler on July 24th.

Josep Pons bids an operatic farewell to the Gran Teatre del Liceu (the highlight of Mahler's Eighth Symphony on Friday, July 24, still awaits) with the same title with which Verdi said goodbye to the world of theatre: Falstaff, a lyrical comedy with text by Arrigo Boito based on William Shakespeare's The Merry Wivesof Windsor by William Shakespeare. A real declaration of principles in the hands of the almost octogenarian Italian composer, who in 1893 lowered the curtain on his brilliant career at Milan's La Scala with a comedy full of sarcasm and two basic principles: 1) life is a joke and we must know how to play it and accept its punchlines; 2) we must look back to progress (“Torniamo all’antico e sarà progresso”, Verdi had written in 1871 in a letter to Francesco Florimo). Hence the final fugue with which the third and last act of Falstaff concludes, a true ethical and aesthetic manifesto against the “modernity” of the composers of the Giovane Scuola, advocating for the masters of the past, just as Wagner had done in Meistersinger.Over fourteen years, Josep Pons has worked diligently with an orchestra that has been renewed in substance and form. And which has yielded excellent results, especially in Mozart and in German, Slavic, and 20th-century titles. However, is Falstaff the most suitable work for the director from Puig-Reig? These performances have once again revealed the work on the detailism of the sections and the generous sonority. But the theatrical verve has been missed, apart from occasional imprecisions in the coordination with the singers. Nevertheless, and setting aside entirely subjective stylistic issues, it must be acknowledged that Pons does not forget the precious background (Mozartian?) of episodes like the one in Windsor Park, where the baton shone brightly given the excellent performance of the musicians in the pit, in addition to the good work of the choir.In the second cast of the two scheduled for the end of the Liceu season, Ambrogio Maestri's indisputable authority has once again provided a lesson with a textbook Falstaff from the Italian singer-actor: he knows it all and knows how to bring water to his mill when his vocal conditions are no longer what they were ten or fifteen years ago (Maestri sang this title at the Liceu in 2010). Maestro Maestri masters the character, whom he humanizes with great theatrical intuition and musical wisdom. A lesson in style, in short.

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.

"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.

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).

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.

With Le nozze di Figaro (1786), the poet Lorenzo Da Ponte began his collaboration with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which would continue with two more operas: Don Giovanni (1787) and Così fan tutte (1790). And it must be said that the first of the three operas is the most perfect in terms of theatrical machinery. It is logical, therefore, that Marta Pazos has enthusiastically embraced the proposal made by the Liceu. Three weeks before her debut at the Grec Theatre with The Threepenny Opera (Dreigroschenoper), the Galician director has culminated a work processed through slow cooking in terms of ideas and the overall design of the show.Pazos has based the dramaturgical concept of this Nozze di Figaro on the famous article Notes on Camp, which Susan Sontag published in 1964. The North American writer states, among other things: "The camp sensibility is one that is open to a double meaning in which things can be taken. But it is not about the familiar dichotomous construction of a literal meaning, on the one hand, and a symbolic meaning, on the other. It is, rather, the difference between the thing as it means something, anything, and the thing as pure artifice." This passage is, I think, the keystone of Pazos's idea when approaching Mozart's opera. The aesthetic category of camp, markedly baroque and postmodern, permeates the show with good ideas, some close to the universe of Barrie Kosky and with occasional choreographic touches that are only partially effective. The giant cake that presides over the stage designed by Max Glaenzel – based on an idea by Pazos herself – is complemented by Agustín Petronio's costumes, markedly and deliberately grotesque, and to which, I think, the reference to packaging associated with culinary products that we all consume is superfluous. And Pazos explains the opera's story well, although he leaves a more precise portrait of the characters in the inkwell. Nevertheless, the production was liked and received more ovations than protests.

There is a desire to play in the mischievous gaze of the Galician stage director Marta Pazos. More than provoking, she seeks to surprise. "Laughter originates in the unexpected," she recalls at a press conference regarding the new production of Le nozze di Figaro (1786), the first masterpiece by the tandem formed by Mozart and the poet Lorenzo Da Ponte. The production, directed by Pazos and with Giovanni Antonini leading the orchestra, will have fourteen performances from June 4 to 21. "I am having a great time in this production by Marta that surprised us so much at first," assures the soprano from El Montsià, Sara Blanch, Susanna in a first cast shared with the Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni (Figaro), the Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva (Cherubino), the Italian baritone Andrè Schuen (Count Almaviva), and the Guatemalan soprano Adriana González (Countess Almaviva), among others. "I have sung the role of Figaro many times, and I have found a very fresh production, with a very new approach," exclaims Pisaroni, who is performing in substitution of baritone Konstantin Krimmel, who is out due to a foot injury. Everyone agrees: they are having a lot of fun. "And I hope it will be a success," says Schuen, who is finally debuting at the Liceu in an operatic role after having given many lied recitals around the country. after having given many lied recitals around the country.

With Jules Massenet's Werther one must tread carefully, because too much sweetness can cause chronic diabetes in listeners. But too much coldness can also be counterproductive, because the passionate motives that run through the opera must have the right emotional and expressive force to convey the misfortunes of the title character, inspired by Goethe's epistolary novel. Musical director Henrik Nánási opts at the Liceu for an amorphous reading, without a clear vision of the score and with uneven results, despite the good performance of the titular orchestra and the members of the Cor Vivaldi Petits Cantors de Catalunya.Vocally, the opera is also of maximum demand for the three protagonists: Werther, Charlotte, and Sophie. There was expectation to see at the Rambla theatre the debut of Xabier Anduaga in the role that gives its name to the work, which he resolved with more than enough means: sinuous phrasing, well worked, generous emission, and impeccable pronunciation. However, the Basque tenor is still treading carefully. And it is normal for it to be so, which makes us think that after two or three more productions he will end up being a reference Werther.The German mezzo-soprano Kristina Stanek tackled the role of Charlotte with absolute command of the dramatic and musical situation. The letter aria was one of the highlights of the evening, alongside the final scene with a dying Werther. Beside her, Sofía Esparza's Sophie spread beauty in all directions, without falling into the portrayal of the sun-drenched turnip with which some sopranos resolve this very significant role and which Christoph Loy's production intelligently reinforces.Albert de David Oller was insufficient, with an impersonal timbre and color and a frayed emission. Stefano Palatchi showed ample experience in the service of the mayor, and there was good chemistry and a just sense of comedy from two seasoned Liceu singers who should have more presence on the Rambla stage, Josep Fadó (Schmidt) and Enric Martínez-Castignani (Johann).The production signed by Christoph Loy and premiered a year ago at La Scala in Milan works very well the portrayal of characters and reinforces their sharp psychology, with well-resolved scenes, such as the link between the third and fourth acts: not only does Werther die, but Albert's world also collapses, which is shown in a brilliant coup de théâtre. Johannes Leiacker's cold but efficient scenography with the wall that separates two worlds plays a fundamental role on a stage well lit by Roland Edrich and with functional costumes by Robby Duiveman. It is not Loy's best production, but good ideas are suggested and the clichés associated with opera and the background of the original novel are set aside. It is appreciated.

The German director Christof Loy closed last season at the Liceu with a brilliant production of Rusalka, by Antonín Dvořák, with Piotr Beczala and Asmik Grigorian in the leading roles, both in a state of grace. Loy had the indispensable accomplice of set designer Johannes Leiacker, another master of clear lines and contained emotion, with whom he also worked on the staging of Jules Massenet's opera Werther, ten performances of which will be given at the Liceu from May 2 to 17, with a double cast. In the first (on the 4th, 7th, 9th, 14th and 17th), two singers debuting in the roles: Basque tenor Xabier Anduaga as Werther and German mezzo-soprano Kristina Stanek as Charlotte; two roles that in the second cast (on the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th and 16th) are sung by American Matthew Polenzani and AzerbaijaniElmina Hasan.

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) gathered throughout his life several madrigals, divided into nine books, the last of which was published posthumously. The fifth, written in 1605, marks a turning point because the musician from Cremona incorporates what is known as seconda prattica, in which word and music intertwine in an expressive will – which includes resources such as dissonances – that will soon blossom into opera: let's not forget that two years after that collection-book, written for the court of Mantua and the Gonzaga family, Monteverdi would premiere in that city and in the ducal palace La favola d’Orfeo, in which the composer demonstrates having assumed the principles that will govern from then on theopera per musica, both his own and others'..The Liceu has been offering the various series of Monteverdi's madrigal books since the 2020-2021 season, and until now the second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth had been heard. Now it's the fifth's turn, without this ordinal arrangement being very clear. Surely, Rinaldo Alessandrini has something to do with it. But it doesn't matter if the order isn't the established one, because what matters is enjoying these chamber sessions in a foyer very suitable for this type of evenings.Once again, the ensemble led by the Italian master demonstrates its commitment to Monteverdian music, with rigor, precision, and elegance. And, in the case at hand, with the measured theatricality of a compendium of pieces that prefigure the great theater man that Monteverdi would become, despite having bequeathed us only three complete operas.Facing the Concerto Italiano, which features a theorbo, two violins, two violas, and a cello, and with Alessandrini present on harpsichord, the vocal ensemble managed to convey the contrasts, the lights, and the shadows of the nineteen pieces that make up the compendium.Sober in gesture and generous in expressive transmission, Rinaldo Alessandrini once again demonstrated that he is not only an authority in the Monteverdian style, but that he has also managed to convey its modernity, thanks to a writing that also demands expressive imagination. And there was a lot of that on Wednesday evening in the foyer of the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

The Gran Teatre del Liceu already knows which are the five architecture studios finalists of the competition for the construction of the . They are the following: Sanaa, the studio founded by Japanese Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, Pritzker Prize 2010, with CFA; Batlle i Roig associated with Norwegian Snøhetta, designer of the Oslo Opera House; Barozzi Veiga with Maio and Burgos Garrido; Japanese Sou Fujimoto with Gras and Aldayjover; and b720 with Decas, the studio of British and responsible for the Barcelona City of Justice.In other words, five candidacies with Catalan presence: the Girona-based studio CFA, of and Josep Camps;

"Vinyl record factories are slow," said Silvia Pérez Cruz to explain the unique nature of Wednesday's concert at the Liceu. Indeed, the record Oral_Abyssal (Sony), which has been registered for some time, will be released on May 8th. Therefore, except for the tracks Dark, Captain and Liquid As a preview, the audience that filled the theater was unfamiliar with much of the repertoire he performed. This added a degree of anticipation for the spectators, and surely some unease for the artist from Palafrugell.

Manon Lescaut It always works if this opera is presented in a production that perfectly captures its essence: an apotheosis of melodrama, like virtually the entirety of Puccini's catalog. In the last twenty years, the Liceu has presented three different productions of Puccini's third opera, based on the novel The History of the Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut of theabbot Prévost. A story also inspired by the operas of Auber, Massenet, and Henze. Now, Puccini's version has returned to the Rambla. A production of the Frankfurt Opera, with stage direction by Àlex Ollé and part of his usual team: set designer Alfons Flores, costume designer Lluc Castells and lighting designer Joachim Klein.

I confess: I was dreading this recital by Juan Diego Flórez. But, little by little, the Peruvian tenor convinced me of two things: he was genuinely eager to sing, and he gave it his all. That said, the Peruvian tenor has a foolproof trick: he never deviates from the script. Having said that, it's perfectly understandable that the first part, with its undeniable technical difficulty, was the highlight of the evening.

"God is dead." Nietzsche's fatalistic-liberating maxim appears painted yellow in a Gothic church. Alberich, the Nibelung, is a deranged punk who steals the Rhine gold hidden in the very church that houses a grand altarpiece reserved for the gods. Wotan, the god, in contrast, is dressed according to medieval mythology, complete with a winged helmet. Thus, by linking nihilism, realism, and myth, German stage director Tobias Kratzer sets the stage. Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), the first of the four operas in Richard Wagner's Ring cycle. It premiered in 2024 at the Bavarian State Opera and will arrive at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in early 2027.

On November 7, 1893, Barcelona's high society flocked to the Liceu, because the opera season was beginning with William Tell by Rossini. Santiago Salvador, who was in his late twenties, accessed the upper floors of the theater from Sant Pau Street and saw the first act. After a short intermission, when the music began Oui, vous la arrachez à mon âme, He pulled out the two Orsini bombs he had hidden and dropped them into the audience. That day, as Èric Lluent (Barcelona, ​​1986) explains, in The bomb at the high school (NOW Books), Salvador inaugurated a new historical era. He was the perpetrator of the first attack of modern, indiscriminate terrorism. Who was Salvador? Who helped him and why? Why do we speak of modern terrorism? The Barcelona-born journalist residing in Reykjavik answers all these questions.

Amilcare Ponchielli's most famous opera is hardly defensible. Leaving aside the intensity of some arias, The Mona Lisa It lacks the dramatic appeal necessary for a staging that transcends the most blatant historicism. Arrigo Boito's pretentious libretto, disguised under the pseudonym of Tobia Gorrio, offers nothing more.

The Mona LisaOne of the great operatic dramas about loneliness returns to the Liceu, where it has been performed more than 150 times since 1883. The last performances, in 2019, were a revival of the production that Pier Luigi Pizzi had already directed at the Rambla theater in 2005. Seven years ago an explosive triumph for soprano Anna Pirozzi and tenor Brian Jagde as Gioconda and Enzo, respectively. Now, the same roles will be performed by Madrid native Saioa Hernández and American Michael Fabiano in a co-production of the Liceu and the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, directed by Frenchman Romain Gilbert, which premiered in the Italian city in 2024 with singers Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kauf. Ten performances will be held in Barcelona from February 17 to March 2, and an eleventh performance for audiences under 35 on February 16.

1. Adif and the train drivers who operate in Catalonia have thoroughly inspected all the tracks and identified the number of dangerous areas. They have reported that the sections of commuter rail lines that need repair are exactly 155. Not 154, not 156. 155. Does anyone think this number is a coincidence? Those of us who have been suspicious for some time now see it as a provocation every time this number is mentioned.