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.

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

11th Gospel Festival of Catalonia

It promises to be spectacular with the best performances in contemporary gospel, to judge by the choice on offer at the Catalonia Gospel Festival. The South African choir Soweto, the American choirs Georgia, Amen and Black Heritage, plus the ‘lady of gospel’ and soloist Bridget A. Bazile from New Orleans, are just some of the acts.

In addition, the Barcelona Gospel Institute choir, with its 200 members, has shown we too have our own home-grown enthusiasts of this highly spiritual style of music. All these choirs will be filling Catalonia, throughout this month, with an authentic Afro-American spirit.

One of the voices you’ll be able to savour will be that of the classically trained Bridget A. Bazile, who hails from New Orleans and puts her unique voice at the service of an equally unique tradition.

On Thursday 17, at the Palau de la Música, you can treat yourself to the impressive music of the South African choir, Soweto. You’ll be amazed by their explosion of rhythm, colours, strength and vitality. You’ll have the opportunity to experience the gospel you’d expect of this music genre, the kind performed by choirs and with the force of a whole continent behind them.

You’ll find yourself carried away by the authentic African legacy of Black Heritage, who pay tribute to the Afro-American musical tradition, from its origins in the plantations of the Deep South to its urban variations.

Concert ‘Amen Gospel Choir + The Brotherhood Singers’ | Date: 12/12/2009
Place: Gran Teatre del Liceu

Concert ‘Soweto Gospel Choir’ | Date: 17/12/2009
Place: Palau de la Música Catalana

Concert ‘Bridget A. Bazile Singers i la Coral de l’Institut Gospel Barcelona | Date: 23/12/2009
Place: L’Auditori de Barcelona

Festival Website: www.theproject.es  | NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com