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

The Barcelona International Jazz Festival

The autumn will resonate with jazz rhythms with the arrival of the Barcelona International Jazz Festival, offering over 80 activities on its programme, including music dinners, family breakfasts, jazz-rhythm performances at the Montjuïc Magic Fountain and an area for professionals that is still to be decided on. The festival will also support Barcelona’s promising new jazz artists.

Andrea Motis (16 years) has become a new sensation, along with the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, on the Barcelona jazz scene. The trumpeter and singer will perform with Europe’s youngest big band during the Barcelona International Jazz Festival.

The event gives resolute support to new Catalan talent, as it did for Llibert Fortuny, who will give a guest performance with La Locomotora Negra, a group that celebrates their 40th anniversary this year, and is due to receive the festival’s Medal of Honour. The award will be shared with the composer and band-leader Maria Schneider.

Paolo Conte will draw the festival to a close at the Auditori on 1 December, offering songs from his latest project, Nelson. Other attractions in the festival include Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Michel Camilo Trio with Giovanni Hidalgo, Pat Metheny Trio with Larry Grenadire and Bill Stewart and the Joshua Redman – Brad Mehldau Duo.

::.. Barcelona International Jazz Festival ..::

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.

The whitest party: Sensation Barcelona

After a spectacular world premiere with an audience of 40,000 in Amsterdam in July, the new edition is going to fill the Palau Sant Jordi with people dressed in white and ready to dance to this new festival concept.

On the 8th of October 2011, Sensation will make its return to Barcelona. The venue, Palau Sant Jordi, will be transformed into Innerspace, making it the second city to host Sensation’s latest theme after the premiere in the Amsterdam Arena.

Sensation started in Amsterdam in the year 2000. Since then, over 1,5 million visitors in seventeen countries have experienced what is arguably the world’s most spectacular dance and music phenomenon. Each year, Sensation tours the globe with a completely new show. Consistently taking the acclaimed theme ‘be part of the night, dress in white’ to new heights, Sensation’s aim is to bring a positive message to a growing global audience.

Barcelona will be dressing up in white with Sensation Innerspace, a new, exclusive event dedicated to dance music. Wally López, Sharam, Fedde Le Grand and Mr White are just some of the artists who will be bringing Barcelona the very best in electronic music at the moment. Máxima FM, the media partner for Sensation Barcelona, will broadcast the event.

Allocation near Palau Sant Jordi can be found at B-Hotel and Hotel Barcelona Universal.

From Broadway to Barcelona: Chicago at Teatre Tívoli

A thirteen-year run in Broadway, six Tony awards and an audience of 17 million. These spectacular figures bear witness to the success of Chicago, the Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb musical with music by John Kander, which has seduced half the world and which is now coming to Barcelona, backed by the international show’s very producers.

Teatre Tívoli‘s will become 1920′s Chicago to bring audiences the story of Roxie Hart, a woman who kills her lover and ends up in prison. There she meets Velma Kelly, another crime-passionnel killer, her rival in securing the services of the best criminal lawyer, Billy Flynn, and turn herself into a star.

The sensuality of the music and dancing, and the great songs that everyone already knows, set the pace of a show where characters and story never lose their power. And that is because the stage, which is practically bare, only makes rooms for the actors and orchestra, delighting us with their live music.

Chicago is playing at the Tívoli for eight weeks, to the sound of jazz!

La Mercè festivities 2011

La Mercè festivities (from 22 to 25 September), they will once again be offering a broad, varied programme featuring traditional activities, spectacles, shows and plenty of entertainment.

The Correfoc (fire run) is premiering a new Porta de l’Infern (Hell’s Gate), which will extend across Via Laietana, until it becomes a hell’s wall, to quote Xavier Cordomí, the artistic director of Tradicional.

Dance companies and contemporary dancers will be performing at Ciutadella park to the chimes of a travelling carillon, a very unusual instrument hailing from the city of Douai. What’s more, the Mercè Dansa display will once again be taking over the stage opposite the Cathedral.

The La Mercé parade is expected to be the largest ever, with participants joining in from all over Catalonia.

Ciutadella park is one of the main settings of La Mercè. During the day it becomes a Dance and Street-Theatre Park and during the night, the Lights Park, with shows making use of new technologies.

These two approaches meet in El Llac dels Cignes (Swan Lake), one of the star shows of the La Mercè, combining dance with spectacular screenings at the park’s fountain, among other surprises. This is a local production featuring over a hundred dancers, whose main figures come from the Mariinsky Theatre of St Petersburg, the guest city at this year’s La Mercè.

The music programme’s details are not yet out but most of the groups taking part have already been announced, with the venue being shared between BAM and Mercè Música.

Antònia Font, Javiera Mena, Mazoni, Els Pets, El Columpio Asesino, Fangoria, Antonio Carmona, Anímic, Astrud & Col·lectiu Brossa and Gràcia Power are just some of the groups who’ll be playing at the La Mercè festival.

As for the Pyromusical, which will conclude the festivities once again, this year tribute will be paid to the four Puig i Cadafalch columns.

The Mas i Mas Festival adds Rock

The adventure began nine years ago: providing a musical programme in Barcelona over the month of August. The Mas i Mas Festival was created to fill a vacuum and has become a big hit over the years.

Last year saw over 40.000 people attend its characteristic variety of music shows and 30-minute concerts.

Rock has never had a foothold at the Mas i Mas Festival until now, though, given its inclusion on the Sala Moog’s programme since last September (to take advantage of the early night hours) it could hardly be absent from this one.

It will follow the line established by the club’s annual programme, more or less veteran underground rock. Nodozurdo, Los Tiki Phantoms, James McCann Band, Joan Colomo, Tweak Bird and Title Fight are the big names.

Once that programme has ended, sometime around midnight, a new one will take over, electronica at the Moog, one of the city’s pioneering clubs in this style which happens to be celebrating its 15th anniversary this year.

The nightly performances include a review of the Spanish scene, international guests and nostalgia sessions reclaiming the ruta del bacalao – the Valencia techno route. James Holden, Optimo, Tony Verdi, Ángel Molina and John Talabot are just some of the artists who’ll be attending the birthday celebrations.

Poster for La Mercè Festivity 2011

A festival brimming with colour, energy, joy and light. That was how the Colombian illustrator Catalina Estrada wanted to portray Barcelona’s annual festival in the poster for La Mercè 2011.

Using the style and shapes she is known for, she has brought together the traditional features of the festival and the essence of this year’s, which will see lots of circus activities, music and art on the city’s streets.

With this in mind, this year’s guest city will be St Petersburg, one of Russia’s cities with a very strong dance and circus tradition.

The festival’s other big name revealed this Wednesday was that of journalist Joaquim Maria Puyal, who will get La Mercè 2011 under way with the traditional opening speech in the Saló de Cent at the City Hall on 22 September, over the three days of the festival, one less than last year because the 24th falls on a Saturday .

More than 40 Catalan street art companies will demonstrate the high standard of the shows produced here, some of which have received international awards. Parc de la Ciutadella and the Castell de Montjuïc, two star festival venues, will provide a showcase for these artists to put on their creations.

Inevitably tradition will play a unique part in the festival. This year the fire-totting devils and beasts will lead the way through Hell’s Gate, which will span the whole of Via Laietana.

And once again the City Council facade will turn into a cinema screen for La casa màgica, by Franc Aleu.

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

Program BAM Festival 2011

Despite having a new artistic director, the BAM festival retains its essential spirit: every style of music and a fair share of local representatives.

From 22 to 24 September, one of the big attractions of the coming BAM will be Herman Dune. The French folk group has become a summer phenomenon thanks to the inclusion of the 2006 hit “I wish that I could see you soon” in a beer commercial.

This is not the first time the festival programme has included the creators of soundtracks for such ads. It did in 2009 with Billie Vision and The Dancers.

BAM has always been a platform for new groups. That means you’ll be able to see the new British Jazz sensation, Portico Quartet, and the young Canadian singer-songwriter Little Scream, in the style of Arcade Fire and The National.

As regards electronic music, it has been announced that Zomby will be taking part, bringing BAM a touch of British dubstep. And from the Dominican Republic, Rita Indiana y Los Misterios will be bringing a taste of electro-merengue beat.

The festival is clearly opting once more for home-grown music. Guillamino and Bedroom, two very different musicians, head the list of Barcelona talent.

::: BAM Festival 2011 :::

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