50th anniversary of the debut of Montserrat Caballe at Gran Teatre del Liceu

Montserrat Caballé made her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and in Spain on Monday 7 January 1962, in Richard Strauss’ Arabella.

This concert celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Liceu debut of the great soprano from Barcelona. Her emotional and professional relationship with the theatre was soon consolidated by her performances as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly. These were the first steps in a long and close partnership that has included many of her most seminal interpretations: Norma, Roberto Devereux, Maria  Stuarda, Lucrezia Borgia, Il Pirata, Aida, Un ballo in maschera, I vespri sicilianni, and others. The Liceu awarded her its Gold Medal in 1966 and now rounds off this sincere tribute with an exhibition in the Foyer recalling the most significant and memorable events in an exceptional joint biography.

Hotel 1898, located in Las Ramblas, is the nearest hotel to Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Gran Teatre del Liceu -> La Rambla, 51 | Ciutat Vella

Barcelona: November music

This November sees soloists dominating the classical music billing at the city’s concert halls. Guitarists, cellists, flautists and harpists are just some of the star attractions on the programme.

The Palau de la Música is to play host to performances from the guitarists Manuel González, Manuel Barrueco and Àlex Garrobé on 23 November.

The cellist Beatriz Blanco, the winner of the 2010 Primer Palau, will be performing works by Cassadó and Elgar in a concert on 24 November, accompanied by the JONC Philharmonic.

The OBC will be performing Mozart’s Concert for Flute, Harp and Orchestra, accompanied by Frauke Oesmann and Magdalena Barrera, from 18 to 20 November, it will be showcasing Tchaikovsky’s most romantic side.

And the Fura dels Baus are bringing the Liceu a production of György Ligeti’s Le Gran Macabre, an outstanding opera in the contemporary lyrical repertory. Halfway between comedy and tragedy, this work born of the theatre of the absurd has a highly unique staging.

Opera Carmen on the Beach by Gran Teatre de Liceu

When summer is here the beaches are the ideal venue for enjoying culture, including opera. So, this Wednesday, 27 July, you’ll be able to treat yourselves to Georges Bizet’s opera, Carmen, which is being shown on Barceloneta beach from 10.15 pm.

Carmen, a veritable archetype of opera, is unrivalled in popularity and the admiration of both musicians and artists. It has given rise to numerous adaptations and owes it greatness to its innovative conception, well-crafted plot and brilliant melodic, harmonic and instrumental inventiveness.

To make that possible, a giant screen is being set up in the Plaça del Mar square, at Sant Sebastià beach. Visitors will be able to enjoy the opera for free, as long as you pick up an invitation from the neighbourhood associations beforehand.

Carmen on the Beach

Julio Iglesias at Gran Teatre del Liceu – Barcelona

After an absence from our city’s stages for more than ten years, Julio Iglesias is finally returning to Barcelona, making a grand entrance at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

The artist will be giving two concerts (May 19 & May 22, 2011), where he will be performing some of the big hits that made him one of the ten most successful singers ever, having sold over three hundred million albums, after four decades on the stage, and recorded songs such as De niña a mujer, La vida sigue igual and Un canto a Galicia.

Gran Teatre del Liceu -> C/la Rambla, 51 – Ciutat Vella

Barcelona Liceu: The Tragedy of Anne Boleyn

The first opera chosen for the Gran Teatre del Liceu in the mid nineteenth century, Anna Bolena, is back with this story of the English queen unjustly condemned to death along with her supposed lover, for hiding her infidelity from her husband, the king.

The Liceu version, also based on Felice Romani’s libretto, – with its subtle characterization, logically linked situations and great dramatic efficacy – permitted Gaetano Donizetti to develop a new, more evolved dramatic idiom whose great force of expression relegated the Rossinian tradition to the past. The plots tells how the cruel Henry VIII had Anne Boleyn beheaded in order to marry Jane Seymour. The famous final scene, in which Anne, about to be executed, oscillates between lucidity and delirium («Al dolce guidami»), prefigures the madness scene in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Approximate running time -> Act I 90 min | Pause 30 min | Act II 95 min.
TOTAL 3h 35 min

Gran Teatre del Liceu (From 20/01/2011 to 05/03/2011) -> C/la Rambla, 51 | Ciutat Vella

New Music Season in Barcelona

The city’s new music season gets under way in September with a varied and attractive programme.

You could start by sampling the programme at the Palau de la Música, which has a “Mozart in jazz” concert on 1 September, with Llibert Fortuny on sax and Manel Camp on piano. Also awaiting you will be the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès (18 September) and the guitarists Xavier Coll (8 and 17 September) and Pedro Javier González (24 September).

If you visit the Liceu between 4 and 7 September, you can enjoy an opera in four acts, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, with music by Christoph Willibald Gluck and a libretto by François Guillard. It opened in Paris in 1779. This is the second version of Iphigenie auf Tauris, which marked the end of the composer’s Paris period and is one of his truly brilliant operas.

On 27 and 30 September you will find Marc Piollet and Calixto Bieito directing the comic opera Carmen, with music by Georges Bizet, a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy and based on the novel by Proper Mérimée. It opened in Paris in 1875 and in Barcelona in 1881, coming to the Liceu in 1888.

As regards symphonies, the OBC will be at the Auditori (24-26 September), conducted by Pablo González and playing compositions by Ramon Humet, Debussy and Shostakhovich.

Music in the Parks of Barcelona

Last wednesday, 2nd June, started the inaugural concert in the latest “Music in the Parks” cycle, organised by the Barcelona City Council Environment Area, with a performance by the Sant Andreu Jazz Band – the youngest big band in Europe – in the Teatre Grec Gardens.

The concert has opened new “Music in the Parks” programme. Now a traditional event, this year it aims to reach more people by raising the number of city parks holding the concerts to eight, doubling last year’s total.

It includes three parallel programmes, classical music, jazz and sessions by the Banda Municipal de Música of Barcelona, and these run from 2 June until 25 August.

There are 28 concerts in this year’s cycle. The Municipal Band’s concerts will take place in the Creueta del Coll, Diagonal Mar, Barceloneta and Guineueta parks. Turó Parc, the Príncep de Girona Gardens and the Hivernacle (Winter Garden) in Parc de la Ciutadella will hold the classical music concerts, while the Drets Humans (Human Rights) Gardens and the Hivernacle will hold the jazz sessions. The Municipal Band concerts start at 8 pm and the classical music and jazz concerts begin at 10 pm. All concerts are free and in the open air and you don’t need to book in advance.

The summer park concert programme came about fifteen years ago. The aim is top bring quality music to every kind of audience and to encourage performers by young musicians, while promoting the possibilities offered by parks as meeting places and recreational areas on summer nights and evenings.

Sponsored by DAMM Free, the event is being collaborated on by Cespa, UME Unión Musical, El Periódico, Time Out, Aigües Veri, the Conservatori del Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).