Gran Teatre Del Liceu News
opera house in Barcelona, Spain
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2024-03-15
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2022-06-21 16:49:58
Anglais - McVicar’s Old Zauberflöte continues to be Magical
David McVicar’s production of Die Zauberflöte commissioned by London’s Covent Garden was premiered almost 20 years ago and it has now reached Liceu after touring the world and becoming a reference amongst the many stagings of Mozart’s Singspiel in the last decades. This wasn’t Liceu’s first choice, however, as when the season – now almost over – was first announced it featured a production form the Dutch National Opera signed by Simon McBurney which hasn’t happened. The old production from Covent Garden continues to work very well nowadays on stage due to McVicar’s wise move in maintaining the naïve register of the almost childlike fairy tale (the similarities between the Queen of the Night and Snow White’s Evil Queen stepmother by Disney aren’t coincidental) which he combines skilfully with the transcendent layer of the Masonic initiation ritual, presenting a striking and agile ensemble. On the musical side, there […]
2022-05-24 20:38:28
Anglais - Wozzeck at the Liceu: The Dark Beauty of Horror
In the 18th century there was pain and misery, but art generally displayed the beauty of the world. In the 19th century there was also pain and misery and art showed a part of it. In the 20th century there was a lot of pain and a lot of misery and very often art became unpleasant because the artist felt the need to show the world all the unnecessary pain, the avoidable misery, the great alienation and violence that govern human relationships. For many artists, failing to do this would have been a guilty omission. The opera Wozzeck, composed a hundred years ago by Alban Berg, is colossal, genius, truly innovative, sad, sordid, unpleasant and uncomfortable. It belongs to the group of pieces of horrible beauty that show the world its own ugliness. In order to bring Wozzeck to the stage, Liceu turned to the production from the […]
2022-03-05 10:20:29
Anglais - A Pelléas et Mélisande of Dark Beauty at Liceu
Achieving perfection in opera, the most complex form of artistic expression that Western culture has ever created, is not easy, but when it is achieved, the result is magical. The Pelléas et Mélisande currently on stage at Liceu does not reach perfection but it is very, very close to it and it is more than likely that it will become the great show of the season on an artistic level and will remain for many years in the theatre’s memory. Pelléas et Mélisande, Gran Teatre del Liceu 2022 © David Ruano Everything works at a very high level in this Pélleas. Getting an opera theater orchestra, usually accustomed to a different sonority, to sound ‘as Debussy’ is not easy, but Josep Pons has fully succeeded. In the orchestral sound there was a richness of colours, a floaty sound, transparencies, a delicate balance between sections and nuances, […]
2022-01-31 20:39:55
Anglais - Pikovaya Dama at the Liceu: The Return of a Historic Production
In January 1992 Liceu presented a new production for Pikovaya Dama, a relatively infrequent opera in the Barcelona stage despite being one of the best Tchaikovsky operas. At that time, it was unanimously considered to be one of the most luxurious productions the theatre had ever done. In 2003 and 2010 it made the stage again and now, thirty years after its premiere, it has once more come back to Liceu – a rare event for an operatic production. Pikovaya Dama operates in two registers, in two levels. On one hand, as requested by the Mariinsky theatre in Saint Petersburg where the opera was due to be premiered, the piece takes the extreme shape of a French grand opéra, with an abundance of characters, more or less historical scenes (it even includes Catherine the Great, thankfully in a silent character), great choral scenes and ballet. Modest Tchaikovsky, the composer’s […]
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