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Carmen – Georges Bizet

Carmen at the Gran Teatre del Liceu – September/October 2010 and July 2011
Carmen, Opéra-Comique in four acts by Georges Bizet, will be on stage at the Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona from September 27 to October 17 of 2010 and again from July 21 to July 30 of 2011.
The new coproduction between the Gran Teatre del Liceu from Barcelona, the Teatro Massimo from Palermo and the Teatro Reggio from Torí with stage director Calixto Bieito is based on the one created by Bieito for the Peralada Festival in 1999 and that has been presented in different International theaters as the OPERA ZUID (Maastricht, Holland), the OPERA IRELAND (Dublin), the ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA (London) or the Vlaamse Opera (Anvers and Ghent, Belgium).
Carmen with music of Georges Bizet, libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy and based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée was first performed on 3 March 1875 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Bizet died of a heart attack at the age of 36, on 3 June 1875, never knowing how popular his Opera Carmen would become as at the premiere it was denounced by the majority of critics. Only 48 performances were made in its first run. It was not staged again at the Opéra Comique until 1883 and first performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu some years later on 26 January 1888.
Conducting this new production is Marc Piollet with the Liceu Symphony Orchestra, the Gran Teatre del Liceu  Chorus together with the Cor Vivaldi-Petits Cantors de Catalunya and three different casts (two international and one national) for the September/October performances being in the leading roles of Carmen: Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Jossie Perez and Maria Jose Montiel; Don Jose: Roberto Alagna, Brandon Jovanovich and German Villar; Micaela: Marina Poplavskaya, Barbara Haveman and Ainhoa Garmendia and Escamillo: Erwin Schroyy, Jean Francois Lapointe and Angel Odena. For the July 2011performances there will be two other casts being in the leading roles of Carmen: Anna Caterina Antonacci and Jossie Perez; Don Jose: Fabio Armiliato and Neil Shicoff; Micaela: María Bayo and Ainhoa Arteta and Escamillo: Kyle Ketelsen and Angel Odena.
The story of the opera Carmen is set in Seville, Spain, around 1830, being Carmen, a beautiful Gypsy with a fiery temper and free with her love; she woos the corporal Don José, an inexperienced soldier. Don Jose being caught by Carmen's charm leads to the rejection of his former love, Micaela, a mutiny against his superior and joining a gang of smugglers. The jealousy of Don Jose when Carmen turns from him to the bullfighter Escamillo leads him to murder Carmen.
Carmen is an opera in 4 acts with an approximate running time of three hours and forty-five minutes.

Iphigenie auf Tauris - Christoph Willibald Gluck

Gluck at the Gran Teatre del Liceu – September 2010
Openening the 2010-2011 season of the Gran Teatre del liceu it will be presented for the first time in Spain the second version d'Iphigenie auf Tauris from music composer Christoph Willibald Gluck (2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787). The Opera was first performed on May of 1779 at the Académie de Musique de París, and a second version in german was first performed in October 1781 at the Burgtheater de Viena.
This second version of d'Iphigenie auf Tauris clearly marks his returns to Viena and the end of his Parisian period (1773-1779), in which at the time there was a great dispute between famous Italian opera (Piccini) or reformed and French (Gluck).
The version of this Opera in 4 Acts is a production from the great choreographer Pina Bausch for the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.
Pina Bausch was born 1940 in Solingen and died 2009 in Wuppertal. She received her dance training at the Folkwang School in Essen under Kurt Jooss, where she achieved technical excellence. Soon after the director of Wuppertal's theatres, Arno Wüstenhöfer, engaged her as choreographer, from autumn 1973, she renamed the ensemble the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Under this name, although controversial at the beginning, the company gradually achieved international recognition. Its combination of poetic and everyday elements influenced the international development of dance decisively.
The Musical director is Jan Michael Horstmann, conducting the Orquestra Simfònica Julià Carbonell de les Terres de Lleida with the Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana and two different casts in the principal roles; Elisabete Matos, Nikolai Andrei Schukoff, Christopher Maltmann on September 4 and 6 and Danielle Halbwachs, Norbert Ernst, Markus Eiche on September 5 and 7.

Die Walkure - Richard Wagner

The Valkyrie, first journey. Gran Teatro del Liceo , May 2008

From the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) by  Richard Wagner.
This time with only two opportunities in May 28 and 31, to listen to this Opera with an excellent cast of voices led by Placido Domingo and accompanied by René Pape, Waltraud Meier, Alan Held, Evelyn Herlitzius, Jane Henschel, Silvana Dussmann, María Rodríguez, Eugenia Maria Bethencourt, Jane Dutton.
Music drama in three acts. Die Walküre (1870) is the first day in the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner's most ambitious undertaking. It comes between the prologue (Das Rheingold) and the second and third days (Siegfried and Götterdämmerung) which complete the composer's opus magnum. Libretto and music by Richard Wagner. First performed on 26 June 1870 at the Königliches Nationaltheater in Munich. First performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 25 January 1899.
Directed by Sebastien Weigle and presented in concert version with an approximate running time of 4hours and 45 minutes.

Tannhauser

Wagner at the Gran Teatre del Liceu - March/April 2008

Elektra by Richard Strauss

Gran Teatre del Liceu - February /March 2008.

Elektra is a one-act opera-defined as a «Tragödie»- by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal adapted from his drama of 1903—the first of many such collaborations between composer and librettist, based on Sophocles' eponymous tragedy. It was first performed at the Dresden State Opera on January 25, 1909, and remains a part of the standard operatic repertoire.
This new Co production between the Gran Teatre Liceu and La Monnaie-De Munt from Brussels is conducted by Sebastián Weigle and in the principal roles: Eva Marton-Klytämnestra, Deborah Polaski-Elektra, Graham Clark- Aegisth, Adrianne Pieczonka-Chrysothemis and Albert Dohmen-Orest.
Form February 9th to March 5th at the Liceu Opera House in Barcelona. Approximate running time 1 h. 45 min. without pause.

Aida - Guiseppe Verdi

Gran Teatre del Liceu - Barcelona, November 07 to January 08

Opera in four acts. Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Music by Giuseppe Verdi. The premiere took place at the Cairo Opera House, which had been inaugurated two years earlier, in 1869 (the year of the opening of the Suez Canal) on 24 December 1871. First performed in Barcelona on 16 April 1876 at the Teatre Principal. First performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 25 February 1877. It has become the most frequently performed title in the theatre's history.
One of the prime attractions of this particular co-production, between the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Festival Internacional de Música de Santander, is the scenery by Josep Mestres Cabanes, which was first used in 1945. The art of Mestres Cabanes is part of the realist aesthetic, to which he applies an abundance of detail and ornamentation in order to achieve historical authenticity with magical effects of light and depth, producing an exquisitely harmonious overall effect.
Musical Director of this production Daniele Callegari and in the roles of Aida: Fiorenza Cedolins, Micaela Carosi, Hasmik Papian; Amneris:  Elisabetta Fiorillo, Marianna Cornetti, Larissa Diadkova; Radames:  Roberto Alagna, Marco Berti, Piero Giuliacci; and Amonasro: Joan Pons, Ambrosio Maestri, Alberto Mastromarino.16 representations from November 19 to January 19.

Festival d'Òpera de Butxaca i Noves Creacions.

Barcelona, October-November 2007

The Pocket Size Opera and New Creations Festival will be in Barcelona from October 24 till November 25. The Festival shows this year four new premières from Contemporary composers Joan Albert Amargós, Agustí Charles, Lleonard Balada and Jordi Rossinyol.
Amargós together with Toni Rumbau and Luca Valentino will confront in the guise of a magic show and cabaret the principal character and the audience with the subject of death. Agustí Charles together with the dramatist marc Rosich will present a type of opera buffa but with dramatic content. Balada will present a double programme on the theme of greed. Rossinyol together with Albert Mestres present a new opera with a reflection on violence.
The venues of the festival will be the Small Hall at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, the Tete Montoliu Hall at L’Auditori, The Foyer of Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Sala Becket Theatre

Andrea Chenier

Umberto Giordano at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. September-October 2007

To open the 2007-2008 season at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Opera Andrea Chénier; Drama istorico in four acts. Libretto by Luigi Illica. Music by Umberto Giordano. First performed on 28 March 1896 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. First performance in Spain at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 12 November 1898.
Andrea Chénier, the most famous opera by Umberto Giordano (1867-1948), is also one of the most popular musical works in Italian Verismo style.
Production from New National Theatre, Tokio, conducted by Pinchas Steinberg
From September 25th to October 17th, 13 nights with the voices of Deborah Voigt / Daniela Dessì / Anna Shafajinskaia, in the role of Maddalena de Coigny, and José Cura / Fabio Armiliato / Carlo Ventre in the role of Andrea Chenier.

Norma - Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini at the Gran Teatre del Liceu

For closing the season 2006-2007 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu it will be on stage the Opera Norma, Lyric tragedy in two acts. Libretto by Felice Romani based on the work by Alexandre Soumet. Music by Vincenzo Bellini. First performed on 26 December 1831 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. First performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 16 October 1847.
Norma (1831) is unquestionably one of Bellini's great operas, and one of the finest in the bel canto repertory and the entire history of opera.
Co production between the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Grand Théâtre de Genève, conducted by Giuliano Carella. The role of Norma will be played on different days by the sopranos Rachele Stanisci and Fiorenza Cedolins.

Manon - Jules Massenet

French Opera at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, June-July 2007

Manon (1884) is Massenet's most popular and famous work and a veritable paradigm of French opera. Based on L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost (Amsterdam, 1731), it follows the original more closely than most other operas on the same topic. It tells the tale of two adolescents -an attractive young girl on her way to a convent and a provincial nobleman who has fallen madly in love with her- who elope to Paris. There life's harsh realities uncover their true characters. Manon is ambitious and yearns for comfort and luxury to the point of betraying her lover and prostituting herself. The weak, ingenuous Des Grieux, on the other hand, falls into a milieu of gambling and violence. In the novel Manon is deported to Louisiana and dies there in the arms of her repentant lover; in the opera this episode is reduced to Des Grieux's bid to free her on the quayside at Le Havre, where she expires from exhaustion.
From June 21st till July 6th this production of the English National Opera Conducted by Víctor Pablo Pérez. Opera in 3 acts with an approximate running time of 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Tancredi – Giocchino Rossini

Palau 100 – Palau de la Musica Catalana, May 2007

Tancredi, was written for the Fenice Opera Theater and was premiered in February 1813 with enormous success; opera in two acts by composer Rossini and librettist Luigi Lechi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède (1759)
This production is one of the first collaborations between René Jacobs, conductor, and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, and the first rendition of a Rossini opera on period instruments.
At the Modernist Concert Hall of the Palau de la Musica Catalana in concert version. With the English Voices, Veronica Cangemi and Rosemary Joshua, sopranos, Romina Basso, contralto, Bernarda Fink, mezzo soprano, Lawrence Brownlee, tenor, and Federico Sacchi, baix.
This production will be performed in concert version through Europe in Rome, Rotterdam, Valladolid, Valencia, Paris, Cologne and Brussels. In Barcelona on May 30th.

Der fliegende Holländer

Wagner at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, April 2007
From April 4 to April 25 there will be ten opportunities to listen to the Romantische Oper Der fliegende Holländer /“The Flying Dutchman”/ considered the first of Wagner's mature operas, composed in 1843 and first performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 12 December 1885.
Libretto and music by Richard Wagner based on the text Aus den Memorien des Herren von Schnabelewopski by Heinrich Heine.
Conducted this time by Sebastian Weigle, the Music Director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona since 2004, with Allan Titus on the role of Hollandër and Susan Antony in the role of Senta, two classic Wagner voices.
This new co production between the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Teatro Real de Madrid is presented without pause with an approximate running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes.