"I live in a country, the United States, which together with Israel has attacked my country, Iran," says visual artist Shirin Neshat (Qazvin, 1957). She explains this during a break in rehearsals for the production of the opera Aida, by Verdi, for which she is the stage director and which will inaugurate the 2026-2027 season of the Gran Teatre del Liceu on September 25th. Seventeen performances will be held until October 15th, including one for those under 35 on September 23rd. "Aida is an Ethiopian princess in love with Radames, an Egyptian general who will invade her country. And the taxes I pay in the United States have been used to attack Iran, where my relatives live," recalls Neshat, known for works about women in the Middle East, "situated between political tyranny and religious fanaticism, who try to defend both their individuality and their humanity"; women who, in addition to contexts of oppression, also suffer from Western gazes fueled by orientalist stereotypes.

"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.

Until July 23, and over eighteen performances, the Teatro Real in Madrid has scheduled the production of La Traviata which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2005 with stage direction by Willy Decker. Twenty years after those first performances, starring Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, and Thomas Hampson, the show maintains its solidity thanks to a dramaturgy that contemporizes the story of the Lady of the Camellias, without betraying the essence of the work but reinforcing and highlighting certain aspects that traditional interpretations do not.