"These days I am rereading the first attempt at a biography of Josep Maria de Sagarra (1894-1961). Unfortunately, our country still does not have a proper biography of the writer," explains the theater director Xavier Albertí. The book that has him captivated and that he recommends is Sagarra, seen by his intimates (Edhasa, 1982), which the journalist Lluís Permanyer (1939-2025) published four decades ago based on testimonies from people in the writer's closest circle. "Lluís Permanyer passed away recently, and I think we need to re-evaluate the work of documenting his personal relationship with Sagarra and everything he tells us about it. It is an essential book for understanding Sagarra's figure and work, and at the same time, for dispelling a great number of prejudices that this man carries with him," claims Albertí, who this summer has presented two shows at the Dansàneu festival.

Pau Casals' echo is international, but it is not widely known that his brother Enric also contributed to his success. "He was Pau Casals' technical soul. He was the one who orchestrated and also acted as his manager, friend, and assistant director," points out stage director Xavier Albertí. In alliance with writer Jordi Lara, they have created a show about the relationship between the two Casals brothers and their ways of experiencing success. The play is titled "Les barques volen pel cel" and premieres on Saturday at the Church of Santa Maria d'Àneu, as part of the Dansàneu festival. Later, in December, it will also be performed at the Palau de la Música.

Like every summer, for a month, from the end of July to the end of August, Torroella de Montgrí once again becomes the musical capital of Baix Empordà. During the tourist season of major festivals on the Costa Brava, filled with media names and magnificent stars, the Torroella event, at the foot of the Montgrí massif, keeps its identity alive with 16 classical music concerts, from Baroque to contemporary proposals, very interesting and of a high level. Of the entire program of this 46th edition, which is presented under the slogan Love also leaves a trace, ARA recommends, with the help of renowned personalities from the world of culture, six unmissable concerts for summer nights.

If wise is a person with deep and extensive knowledge about the topics they speak or write about, there is no doubt that Xavier Albertí is a wise man of theater and music. Who was director of the Grec Festival (1996-1999) and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (2013-2021), colleague of Lluïsa Cunillé in the company La Reina de la Nit and director of small theater gems on texts by Harold Pinter, Thomas Bernhard, Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, until now had only flirted with acting, almost always in front of a piano, or cross-dressed as the Polish director Wanda Pitrowska for the premiere of L’aplec del Remei, by Josep Anselm Clavé in 2016 at the TNC, but had never achieved such prominence as in this Beethoven with a clear enough title.

A little over thirty years have passed since the powerful, caustic and tense proposal that Ariel Garcia Valdès directed of The crown of thorns at the Romea Theatre on December 22, 1994. Many years for a work that, without being one of Josep Maria de Sagarra's best known, is undoubtedly one of his most profound and tragic, and which confirms the linguistic, poetic and dramatic quality of this dramatic poem written in 1930 and which now, in the TNC's standing audience.

The seemingly most boring lives can hide small and large dramas. The protagonist of this dark tale by Lluïsa Cunillé is a gray man with a gray life. Despite being widely read, he has had little choice. And it's not that he didn't have youthful dreams; quite the contrary, he wanted to travel and see the world. One day, he even thought he'd like to join the circus of his future wife, the daughter of an elephant tamer. But the world that passed him by was that of his father's kiosk next to a convention center, where he had no choice but to work.