Les Arts Volant visits 14 municipalities and 6 neighborhoods of Valencia on its second tour with ‘Bastià i Bastiana’

The Regional Secretary for Culture and Sport, Albert Girona; the Vice President of the Valencia Provincial Council, Maria Josep Amigó; the President of the Board of Trustees of Les Arts, Susana Lloret; the Provincial Councillor for Culture, Xavier Rius; and the Councillor for Culture of the Valencia City Council, Glòria Tello, presented the second edition of Les Arts Volant. This project, which brings opera to a wider audience, will visit 14 municipalities in the Valencia region and six neighborhoods of the city of Valencia with Mozart's opera 'Bastià i Bastiana', performed in Valencian, as announced today at a press conference.

Les Arts Volant began its journey just over a year ago, within the agreement of the Palau de les Arts, dependent on the Ministry of Education, Research, Culture and Sport, with the Culture Area of the Diputació de València, which made it possible to build a portable opera stage, capable of folding itself up and being transported in a transport and stage support truck.

The production, a first in Spain, adapts Mozart's first opera, 'Bastià i Bastiana', performed in Valencian by singers from the Centre Plácido Domingo, accompanied on piano by Aïda Bousselma and Husan Park. The staging, by the Les Arts team, is a production by Davide Livermore, with costumes by José María Adame and lighting by Antonio Castro.

The Valencia Provincial Council has prepared a collaboration agreement with Les Arts, which is being renewed for a second year with a budget of €250,000. This agreement has led to the Les Arts Volant 2018 tour, as well as the use of venues for activities organized by the Provincial Council or shared between the two institutions, such as the piano concert by Fatima Dsuzova and the Valencian Community Orchestra last February.

Likewise, at the end of the year, groups of residents from various municipalities will again be invited to a selection of opera dress rehearsals.

 Collaboration and institutional alignment

The harmony between the different public administrations, especially in the cultural field, is evident in a collaborative project such as Les Arts Volant, in which Generalitat, Diputació and City Council have worked together.

This was highlighted by Albert Girona, for whom the continuity of this project is the "best example of a common commitment: to create culture and make people part of it, a fundamental line of work in the new stage that the Generalitat has launched in Les Arts."

In this regard, the president of the Board of Trustees of Les Arts, Susana Lloret, has emphasized the importance of the project, because “within this commitment to bringing opera closer to everyone, regardless of their age, origin or training, Les Arts Volant breaks down an important barrier, distance, and the fact that we are presenting a second season means that we are working in the right direction.”

For her part, the Vice President of the Provincial Council, Maria Josep Amigó, praised the “dynamism of this project. The initiative to adapt an opera to a portable format and bring it to every corner allows us to contribute to decentralizing and strengthening the ties between culture and the territory. These are fundamental objectives of the institution, which Les Arts Volant perfectly fulfills.”

Furthermore, Amigó insisted, “collaboration between Les Arts and the Diputació had not occurred until this legislative term. It was, quite clearly, an anomaly that needed to be rectified urgently.” For public institutions, Amigó continued, “it makes no sense to promote an art form as complex as opera and then make it exclusive or elitist. If we can make opera accessible by bringing it to our towns and cities, then there is no doubt that we are sowing a seed for the future of this exceptional art form.”

Xavier Rius, the Deputy for Culture of the Valencia Provincial Council, after announcing that the 2017 tour allowed some 8,000 people to attend the various performances, stated, from a more emotional and personal perspective, that “for many of the attendees, this was their operatic debut, and without leaving their own town. I am very confident that the Les Arts Volant project will strengthen the work carried out by an institution like Les Arts, but will also gain new and enthusiastic fans.”

Regarding the initial meetings that gave rise to the project, Rius acknowledged that “we took a risky gamble on an unconventional product that had never been implemented before. Now, a year later, and after having seen several performances, I believe that this traveling show that reaches every corner of our country was a great success.”

Rius emphasized the quality of the work and the team of singers who perform it. He also recalled some past performances, such as "the one in Castielfabib, such a small town, where I can assure you there were more visitors than registered residents, or the tour's opening in Càrcer, under a persistent rain, with a moving performance by both the actors and the pianist, with an assistant holding an umbrella for her live, or performances in other towns where the front row was filled with children under five who maintained an astonishing silence and attention."

For its part, the Valencia City Council is also maintaining its commitment to Les Arts Volant for the second year in a row, as the Councillor for Culture, Glòria Tello, has pointed out. Tello framed the traveling opera project within the route initiated three years ago by the municipal department to “democratize culture, dignify it, and make it accessible to all citizens, defending the individual right of access and enjoyment under equal conditions in all neighborhoods.”

The 2018 edition

The tour poster is a reinterpretation of the graphic design created for the previous edition by Eusebio López. The image captures the conceptual essence of the work: a story of encounters and missed connections in a lush forest full of mysteries.

The poster lists the 14 towns in different regions where Les Arts Volant will stop this year. In June, it will visit Alcàsser (23), Ademuz (29), and Llutxent (30). In July, it will visit Meliana (1), Potries (5), Benifairó de la Valldigna (6), Chiva (7), Polinyà del Xúquer (8), Camporrobles (11), Montesa (12), Rafelguaraf (19), L'Olleria (20), and Carlet (23).

In addition to these performances, there will be six more season-ending events to be held in September and October in the city of Valencia, financed by the City Council.