Plácido Domingo in Barcelona

Placido Domingo returns to the Liceu of Barcelona with ‘Thaïs’ de Massenet

Plácido Domingo in Barcelona

The tenor Plácido Domingo will return next Wednesday and Saturday to the Gran Teatre del Liceu  de Barcelona to star in the opera version of ‘Thaïs‘ by Jules Massenet, the “eternal duet” between a monk and a courtesan to whom he tries to save and from which pure love arises, the singer said friday at a press conference.

As he did in Los Angeles in 2012, the conductor will share the stage with the soprano Nino Machaidze in the role of Thaïs, who tries to seduce the monk Athanaël (Plácido Domingo) who wants to convert him to Christianity, and he stands firm until it achieves its purpose.

The concert of the opera ‘Thaïs’, played 34 times in the Liceu, will run under the baton of Patrick Fournilier, and will also have the tenor Celso Albelo in the role of Nicias and the baritone Damian del Castillo as Palemon, among others.

“As always, returning here gives me so much joy,” said the singer at the beginning of his speech, in which he recalled the success of the ‘Simon Boccanegra’ function last year to celebrate 50 years of his debut in the Lyceum.

The soprano has also celebrated returning to the Liceu three years later, and Domingo has emphasized his “extraordinary versatile capacity”, which can not be seen in the operatic stage version, but in concert, providing greater intimacy.

Domingo has stressed that ‘Thaïs’ is one of the most singular works of Massenet, who has recalled that he was criticized in his time, despite being a great composer, who has been referred to as a “painter with music”, has saying.

The story, set in Egypt, tells the story of an “eternal duo that unfolds in an extraordinary way until the final moment”, which fascinates Domingo so much, who premiered this montage in 2012 at the Palace of Arts in Valencia to celebrate the Centenary of the death of Massenet (1842-1912).

Passionate about football, basketball, tennis and car racing, Domingo has admitted that he would like to have a little more free time to enjoy sporting tournaments and have a quieter family life, and has joked that he dreams of a final Of the Champions League between Real Madrid – of which he is faithful follower – and Barcelona.

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Rocambolesc Barcelona

The first ice cream store of the Roca brothers in Barcelona, opens in La Rambla

Rocambolesc Barcelona

Jordi Roca – the younger brother of El Celler de Can Roca – and his wife, Ale Rivas, smell yesterday some ice cream on the Rambla in front of his new store. Finally, and what better to do it in one of the hottest days of the year, it was time to lift the curtain on its first ice cream shop in Barcelona, in a privileged location. “It would be impossible to have found a better place than the Liceu own stage,” he admitted the author of El Celler desserts.

Since four years ago opened in the city, Girona, the first Rocambolesc, the ice cream shop craftsmen, the look was set in Barcelona. But there had just found a place with the perfect location. Until he came an invitation to which they could not resist. “It was Jordi Armengol, the promoter, and Annette Abstoss, culinary coordinator, who proposed us to open the store,” Rivas, who runs the ice cream parlors explains.

Although the store has direct access from the Rambla, it is part of the gastronomic and cultural space Espai Liceu which will open after the summer. After the reception in Girona and while still looking for premises in Barcelona opened branches in Platja d’Aro and Madrid.

For its first store Barcelona, Jordi Roca has created a pole in honor of the city with the shape of the finger of Columbus. It has done so following the custom that began in Girona, where he chose as a symbol of the Cul Lleona and in Madrid The Bear and the Strawberry Tree.

The smaller of Roca, that in two weeks will start with his brothers and all the restaurant team tour by different countries, told La Vanguardia that does not rule out open more stores in Barcelona or in other cities, inside or outside Spain. such as sweet and savory ice cream the Parmesan, the toasted bread with oil, beer or asparagus with trufa- part of a proposal in which no shortage of classic flavors like chocolate or vanilla, which can be tasted in hot rolls.

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Jeremy Irons recited at the Liceu in Barcelona

British actor confesses how music helps act

Jeremy Irons recited at the Liceu in Barcelona

Great excitement tonight at the Liceu. And not because of the impending action of an extraordinary tenor or a baritone or soprano in particular, but by the presence of someone with a vocal otherwise. A voice that is not singing less impressive or familiar: British actor Jeremy Irons first walked at 67 Gran Teatre to participate in the concert featuring the Wiener Akademie today. At the lectern, the Egmont Beethoven, a piece with which you are familiar Irons says, “but had never heard with the interpretation of texts by Goethe”. “The idea intrigued me a lot.”

Beethoven composed the music for the representation of the tragedy of the same name written by Goethe in 1877, he arrives this time with the narrator. Reading passages helps explain the history, the life of the Count of Egmont, Flemish national hero defending the ideal of independence from the Spanish monarchy and ends up being beheaded. It interventions between movements of, although there are also a part of melodrama, in which the actor must recite above the orchestral mass.

That venture was carried out no further than a couple of years ago, in the Born Cultural Centre, on the occasion of the birth of the Orchestra of Monsalvat. There was the actor Josep Maria Pou. Goethe translated into Catalan, the work took on a special meaning in key Catalan independence. Now is none other than Jeremy Irons chosen by the Wiener Akademie to provide this artistic deli replacing John Malkovich, who ended up canceling their participation in this project. The texts have been translated into English by screenwriter Christopher Hampton, winner of an Oscar for the film adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons.

“Christopher Hampton, who is a good friend of mine, and who in the past enjoyed playing his Tales of Hollywood, asked me to put voice to his translation of Goethe’s texts that declaim from one movement to another in this Symphony Egmont “says the always enigmatic Irons, to which the public has been able to follow closely since 1980 mesmerize the world with elegance and restraint in the series Brideshead Revisited.

“Not the first act interpreting texts with music,” he adds. He has already done on several occasions, in Oxford Elegy, Britten; in King Oedipus or The Soldier’s Tale Stravinsky, and in the music of Paul Gallico The Snow Goose. He has also narrated The Carnival of the Animals, Stravinsky. “Since I was a boy and went to school I loved to play my violin in an orchestra. I have always enjoyed the opportunity to interact closely with great musicians and great conductors. I think for the public, the interweaving of words and music produces a much greater enjoyment of both. ”

But what importance music has had on the life and career of Oscar-winning Irons (Best Actor for Reversal of Fortune, 1990)?

“It has always played a big role in my life. Play a number of instruments, not great, but enough to enjoy doing it. Guitar, piano, violin, harmonica and drums. I could not live without music. ” And as for their tastes, he says that “are broad, depending on my mood.” “Understanding music is important for an actor she adds. An actor must have knowledge of pitch, rhythm and phrasing whether to correctly use the word to communicate with an audience. ”

And what about your musical influences? What listened as he began his career in the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and then in his years with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London ?, asked by email. No doubt the loss of multifaceted David Bowie has left him indifferent in this regard …

“Bowie is a great loss. It was it more than any other who joined music, art and performance in a single performance, “admits mystical Pied Mission (1986). “Probably my biggest influence at an early age were the Beatles, with his extraordinary ability to write songs. And the Rolling Stones and the Animals, who introduced me to the great American music. ”

Imagine the breathtaking scenery of the Liceu encourages him. “I’ve never been in that theater but I hope that it is inspiring to our concert today,” he says.

The Wiener Akademie, who heads the organist Martin Haselbök, is always ready to incorporate actors in their performances. Peralada Festival, for example, brought in 2009 with John Malkovich in The infernal comedy a diary of Austrian serial murderer Jack Unterwege.

The live experience is now one of the most notable players in the British school … Among the skills required for this role is the ability to question and dialogue with an orchestra; do not be afraid to act with the presence of music, and that being a single actor dominates the amplitude of the performance.

Ah! Perfidious, perjurer,

heartless traitor, are you going?

In his film side, this is a prolific year for Irons: appears on Race, Stephen Hopkins, on the life of Jesse Owens; in The Man Who Knew Infinity, on the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, and Batman vs. Superman, as well as correspondence of Giuseppe Tournatori. And then there is his return to the Bristol Old Vic, where he began his career with The Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill.

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Othello in Barcelona

A new stage in the assembly incorporates a total of 85 beds

Liceu theater Barcelona

A new production of Othello, opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi and the tenor Jose Cura in the title role, comes the next day 21 to the Gran Teatre del Liceu, with an impressive staging that plays a refugee camp and incorporating on stage a total of 85 beds. With this play, directed by Andreas Kriegenburg and the musical direction of Philippe Auguin, lyric institution Barcelona starts the year Shakespeare, who in February combine this piece with Rossini’s version, which will play Gregory Kunde in concert .

It is also planned that I Capuleti ei Montecchi, Bellini, based on Romeo and Juliet see in May and June with a scenic proposal Vincent Boussard and the musical direction of Riccardo Frizza. The artistic director of the Liceu, Christina Scheppelmann, accompanied by Philippe Auguin, the Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho, representing Desdemona, and co-director of scene, Claudia Gotta, presented this afternoon the work, which has been framed in this year’s Shakespeare, right when they met 400 years of his death.

Gotta have revealed that, six years ago Kriegenburg started thinking about directing Othello, he saw the work the theme of war was essential and even influenced all relations that exist between the different characters, whether between Othello and Desdemona, whether between Othello and Iago. But as in the stage of a theater is more difficult to show a battle in the film, in the end he opted to “show the results of the war, including refugee camps,” a very topical issue today but not six years ago, when this project was conceived. “The reality has been behind the art,” he asserted Gotta.

On this occasion, therefore, Othello will move between the beds of a refugee camp, but “the story is the usual” with a protagonist who is an authoritarian, able to control every man, although shown unsafe in your life Private, which it will use Yago. Desdemona and Emilia become volunteers in the field and the rest of the characters will be confined there after the war.

Moreover, in this opera produced by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, they have a major role Cor Children Friends of the Unió de Granollers, led by Josep Vila and the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. In the case of children, Gotta commented that remain on stage throughout three acts because “Andreas Kriegenburg wanted to show how it can affect younger, both by good people as by the very poor” .

The soprano Ermonela Jaho, debuting as Desdemona, has acknowledged that, when it starts work and go to the children’s choir singing, he “shed tears because they make a very powerful work,” without forgetting that “music is a language universal, capable of transmitting the power of the most powerful or feelings like envy and love. ” The musical director, Philippe Auguin, stressed that Verdi organized everything “to maximize the intonation of the text,” seeking all “tempos and interventions of the orchestra were ideal to highlight the role of the word.”

In his view, Verdi gives also the impression of steady drive, “that nothing is ever to until the end of the play” and has made no secret that he has tried to “not destroy anything that Verdi wanted to express” . Further he believes that the Italian makes the public “with music from the brain of the characters,” while relaxing moments alternating with more romantic, “aware that two hours of climax can not endure.”

The work, which will run until the 7th of February, will have to José Cura as a protagonist in some functions, but also give voice to Othello Carl Tanner and Marc Heller, while Desdemona, plus Jaho, will be performed by Maria Katzarava. In the role of Yago they intervene Marco Vratogna and Ivan Cassio will Inverardi and Alexey Dolgov; Vicenç Esteve Madrid will Roderigo; in the role of Ludovico Roman Ialcic will complete the cast and Olesya Petrova (Emilia), Damian del Castillo (Montano) and Ivo Mischev and Gabriel Slides (heralds).

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Donizetti Opera in Barcelona

The Liceu welcomes the debut of Juan Diego Florez in ‘Lucia di Lammermoor

Juan Diego Flórez at the Liceu in BCN

The Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez debut on December 4 in the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, reaching the Liceu with a staging of Damiano Michieletto dominated by a leaning tower of nine meters high, which go up interpreters repeatedly.

Florez shown today very proud to debut in a role that “have interpreted all the great” and recalled that the first thing he saw was the Edgardo Alfredo Kraus in New York, and was “very impressed”.

“I was very young he remember- -HA. Just leave my country and had no money for the cheapest ticket. I was lucky that the security worker was waiting at the door gave me an entry that was left over. I will never forget.”

It has been many years since that time and Flórez has not decided to tackle this role up to now: “It is true that throughout my career I have played harder than this role, but Edgardo requires a specific vocalism for which I now feel prepared, “he said.

The singers represent their roles in a market dominated by a leaning tower suggesting “the distortion of a world that is falling” scenario, he has clarified the artistic director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Christina Scheppelmann.

The soprano Elena Moşuc added that this tower of glass cutting and cold also represents distortion Lucia character she plays a woman who goes mad after facing a hostile environment, which forces her to marry to preserve the power of his family.

The tower is where Lucia shows the situation of women will be isolated and the prison will only death.

During the mad scene, certainly one of the most famous operatic repertoire, soprano is forced to run and climb stairs by a crooked tower, which is especially difficult in the bel canto, a vocal style that needs “of a perfect vocal and breathing techniques, “as pointed Mosuc.

Fortunately for the interpreter, as she has explained, the director has given freedom to move at their own pace in this scene because otherwise reach the end “without breath.”

The soprano who will alternate in the role with Elena , Maria Jose Moreno, ratified the difficulty of the mad scene, but said that “worth” because it “quite shocking”.

The two tenors who play Edgardo Juan Diego Florez and Ismael Jordi, clarified climbing the tower less than her co-stars, which allows them to be “comfortable” and “favoring the bel canto” said Florez.

The work is “a lot of frills and phrases with very colorful requiring filigree work,” stressed Mosuc, and the musical director, Marco Armiliato, is clear that “we must show the singers” and “the orchestra has to support without cover”.

Juan Diego Florez has acknowledged he has had little time to prepare the role and the tests “still had things” we did not know, but trust your “good memory” because, until now, never failed.

Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti, is one of the most popular works of bel canto and the debut of Juan Diego Florez “is very attractive to the public,” said Christina Scheppelmann, who has been very satisfied with the pace of ticket sales .

“We already have 75% of capacity sold on average and in some functions arrived at 90%,” he pointed Scheppelman.

The overall figures are also “very good” and that since the start of the season the occupancy rate was 98% on average, depending on the direction of Barcelona opera arena.

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Paul Anka, Johnny Hallyday and Sopa de Cabra, prominent names of Suite Festival in Barcelona

The second edition of the musical event, held at the Liceu, will feature other artists such as Kusturica, Julieta Venegas or Chris Cornell

Paul-Anka

Paul Anka, Johnny Hallyday, Emir Kusturica and Julieta Venegas perform at the Liceu in the international program of the second edition of Suite Festival, which opens on 17 January with Sopa de Cabra, a band returns to the stage 15 years after separation. The popular Catalan group offered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona their only concert of the tour to promote his new album “Cercles”, as reported by the organizers of Suite Festival.
Sopa de Cabra opened fire from a program that included musicians like Manuel Carrasco (April 13), Chris Cornell (April 21) and Michel Camilo (May 18). The festival director Juli Guiu has announced eight of the twelve concerts that ultimately form the cartel Suite Festival, and has advanced that “confirmed the missing are all first swords in their respective genres, capable of filling the Liceu”.

Among the announced performances include the Johnny Hallyday, acting for the second time in Spain, as throughout his long career he has visited only once and that was in Madrid at the end of the sixties. The father of French rock’n roll, twist and mashed potato hit the Liceu on March 8, “with an over twenty musicians on stage”, as advanced Guiu. The show will include some of the most danced hits of the interpreter, who is credited with 22 platinum and 5 diamond. According Juli Guiu, the average ticket price will be equal to or slightly higher than the 55 euros last year, in a range that goes from 15 euros to 190 of the most expensive towns of Johnny Hallyday

Chris Cornell, pioneering grunge, held at the Liceu the first performance in Spain of his current tour, while Manuel Carrasco and Julieta Venegas presented in this space their new jobs. Paul Anka, leading into the gap since 1957, will dance the audience on January 30 and Emir Kusturica visit Barcelona accompanied by The No Smoking Orchestra on March 21.

The Dominican Michel Camilo will perform on May 18 in the last of the musical events announced so far by the organizers. In total, Suite Festival this year will include 12 performances, three more than last year, indicated Juli Guiu, president of Ediciones Musicales Clipper’s promoter and director of the Festival. An event that has also increased this year’s budget, which has grown from 1,220,000 euros last approximately a million and a half year of this year.

However, the Festival will not repeat the New Year’s Eve concert, which last year was led by Woody Allen, because the organization has found “no artist renowned for this date,” said Guiu, who “still looking” for it and does not rule out return to recover in subsequent editions.

For its part, the director general of the Liceu, Roger Guasch, has defended the commitment of this operatic arena in accommodating other artistic proposals and described the Suite Festival as “a success”. Guasch has revealed, last year this event provided input for the Liceo income net 115,000 euros, “which allowed us to strengthen the operatic programming and parallel activities.” “In addition, we find it very helpful to bring the Liceu to all audiences and create new viewers because the Liceu be social or will not be,” he concluded.

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