Les Arts increases institutional collaboration and offers 249 artistic and educational sessions in the 2017-2018 Season

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía increases institutional collaboration and offers 249 artistic and educational sessions in the 2017-2018 Season, which were presented by the regional secretary of Culture and Sport, Albert Girona, and the artistic director-intendent Davide Livermore.

The program, as Albert Girona pointed out, includes 38 opera performances, 10 ballets, 11 symphonic concerts, 2 chamber music sessions, 3 recitals, 4 band concerts, 5 days of continuous and free activities, and 37 educational performances. This totals 110 performances, which, together with the educational workshops and programs, amounts to 248 activities for the public—27 more than last season.

The regional secretary of Culture highlighted the agreements with the University of Valencia, the Federation of Musical Societies, the City Council of Valencia, the Valencian Tourism Agency, the Provincial Council of Valencia, as well as a symphonic activity in Alicante and Castelló, in line with the opening of Les Arts to the territory, which this year will again host, twelve years after its inauguration, the institutional concert of October 9.

Albert Girona also recalled that the Generalitat's commitment to achieving genuine citizen participation in cultural heritage is materialized in a preseason with affordable prices and a program at the same artistic level as the rest of the shows at Les Arts.

Lucrezia Bori, in a new interpretation by the Italian artist Francesco Calcagnini, remains an icon of Les Arts, as announced by Davide Livermore. The illustrator and set designer has also created a series of compositions that will serve as the visual identity for each of the productions in the 2017-2018 season.

On October 5, Fabio Biondi, with a concert featuring works by Handel and Rameau, inaugurates the preseason at Les Arts, following the same philosophy of affordable prices as previous editions: tickets from 7 to 50 euros for opera performances and from 10 to 20 euros for concerts, along with combined passes with added discounts of up to 50% on these amounts.

As a major highlight this year, Les Arts premieres a new production of Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly,' with five performances on October 11, 14, 17, 20, and 22. Diego Matheuz, the rising star of Venezuela's National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras and Choirs, will conduct. On stage, two young stars will take the reins: Armenian soprano Liana Aleksanyan, who debuted at La Scala in Milan with Riccardo Chailly in the role of Cio-Cio-San, and Sergio Escobar from Toledo, who recently saved Zubin Mehta's farewell performance at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino by stepping in as the lead in 'Don Carlo' after the performance had already begun. Emilio López, a young Valencian choreographer who began his career at the arts center, is responsible for the stage direction.

On November 2nd, Fabio Biondi will conduct, in concert version, the first work in this collaboration with the Valencian Tourism Agency: Gluck's 'Le cinesi', an opera about the cultural differences between East and West, featuring two leading voices at the Auditori: Italian soprano Desirée Rancatore and Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg. A week later, on the 7th, the Palermo-born maestro will present his first Rossini work at Les Arts: 'Petite Messe Solennelle', a sacred work by the genius from Pesaro.

On November 10th, La Fura dels Baus returns with five performances of Falla's 'El amor brujo' (Love, the Magician). Carlus Padrissa directs this spectacle, which explores the famous gypsy theme and other works by the Spanish composer, combining words, fire, magic, sand, and water in a feast for the senses. On the podium, one of the most promising young conductors on the national scene, Andrés Salado from Madrid, makes his debut with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.

For the second year in a row, the artists of the Centre Plácido Domingo close the Preseason with the concert 'Noves Veus', with opera excerpts in the program.

Opera season

On December 9, Plácido Domingo, in the role of Rodrigo, opens the subscription season with 'Don Carlo', Verdi's monumental opera about the palace intrigues of King Philip II at El Escorial. Principal guest conductor Ramón Tebar leads a cast of top stars: María José Siri, Violeta Urmana, Alexander Vinogradov, and Andrea Carè. The renowned Swiss director Marco Arturo Marelli is the creator of this Deutsche Oper Berlin production.

Gregory Kunde returns in February to sing the role of the English fisherman Peter Grimes in Benjamin Britten's opera of the same name, one of the English composer's early successes. Christopher Franklin returns to the pit to conduct the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana's third Britten opera. German director Willy Decker, who created the minimalist 'La Traviata' that opened the 2013-2014 opera season, is directing the production, acquired from the La Monnaie theater in Brussels.

In March, the artists of the Centre Plácido Domingo will perform Haydn's 'Il mondo della luna' at the Teatre Martin i Soler, a delightful comic opera about the deceptions of an innocent bourgeois man with a passion for astronomy, sure to please audiences of all ages. Emilio Sagi will premiere an exciting production from the Teatro Arriaga, awarded best operatic production of 2013 in Spain, with musical direction by Jonathan Brandani.

At the end of that same month, the opera house revives one of Giuseppe Verdi's early operas: 'Il Corsaro', a tragic melodrama in three acts based on Lord Byron's poem of the same name, conducted for the first time in his career by Fabio Biondi. The young American tenor, Michael Fabiano, one of the most exciting talents of the moment, stars in this production alongside Oksana Dyka and the promising soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan. Nicola Raab, who premiered the acclaimed staging of Massenet's 'Thaïs' in 2012, directs his first production for Les Arts.

In May, the main hall's podium welcomes Nicola Luisotti, director of the San Francisco Opera, for Puccini's 'Tosca'. The Armenian diva, Lianna Haroutounian, stars in this production, which we are presenting in a staging by Davide Livermore for the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, exploring the story of the actress Floria Tosca and the painter Mario Caravadossi from multiple perspectives.

Roberto Abbado premieres Berlioz's 'La damnation de Faust' at Les Arts, a dramatic legend straddling the line between symphony and opera, based on Goethe's work, with Canarian tenor Celso Albelo and Burgos-born bass Rubén Amoretti in the leading roles. Damiano Michieletto, one of today's most prominent directors, is behind this new co-production between Valencia, the Rome Opera, and the Teatro Regio di Torino.

The Auditori de Les Arts presents Mozart's last opera, 'La clemenza di Tito', in a concert-performance version on June 24 and 28, with Fabio Biondi as musical director. Two renowned Mozartian voices, American tenor René Barbera and distinguished Italian soprano Eva Mei, lead the cast.

Ballet

On February 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25, the Main Hall welcomes the Antonio Gades Company with a show that revolutionized the world's perception of flamenco: 'Carmen,' the legendary dancer's third narrative ballet and his first collaboration with Carlos Saura. Flamenco, the music of Bizet, and the literature of Prosper Mérimée come together in this performance, the second dance offering in Les Arts' program.

Concerts, chamber music and recitals

In addition to the preseason concerts, the Palau de les Arts' twelfth season includes seven other key events with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, most notably the return, after 12 years, of the Institutional Concert on October 9th. Jordi Bernàcer, from Alcoy, the first Valencian to conduct opera in the Main Hall, will lead the Les Arts resident orchestra for this performance.

Roberto Abbado will take to the podium at the Auditori on three occasions. On December 14, the Milanese maestro will present works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Hindemith, while on May 25, he will focus on one of the composers who has brought the OCV the most success: Mahler, with his Seventh Symphony, also known as the 'Song of the Night'. On June 2, the music director of Les Arts will conduct one of the season's highlights, a concert in which Mariella Devia will perform some of the arias that have established her as the queen of bel canto.

Plácido Domingo will headline the Christmas concert as conductor on December 22nd, an event at Les Arts that will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana (Choir of the Valencian Government). The symphonic program also includes a concert on February 2nd featuring José Iturbi, winner of the José Iturbi International Piano Competition, and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana (Orchestra of the Valencian Community), a collaboration between Les Arts and the Diputación de València (Provincial Council of Valencia).

On April 20, the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana welcomes one of the most highly regarded conductors by the public, the Hungarian Henrik Nánási, who, after 'Bluebeard's Castle', 'Macbeth' and 'Werther', will conduct a concert with the OCV.

The 2017-2018 season continues its chamber music program with two concerts by Fabio Biondi and the musicians of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in March and April, featuring Bach's complete Brandenburg Concertos. Additionally, artists from the Centre Plácido Domingo will offer two Lieder recitals in April and June.

Teaching program

Les Arts' Educational Program increases its presence in the season with 176 planned sessions, which include educational shows such as: 'Feel the Music', 'Detectives in the Opera', 'Drawing the Music', dramatized readings and participatory concerts, as well as educational workshops, outreach activities and approaches to opera.

Throughout the course, the cultural center will host work proposals around opera, its professional environment and functioning such as 'Opera in Construction', 'A Morning With…', 'Atrezzomania', 'VestuArts', 'CaracterizaT', 'Tots a Cor', in addition to the working groups of the LÓVA Project.

In addition to the conferences prior to the opera performances, which are held in collaboration with the University of Valencia, the main protagonists of the season will participate in educational activities such as 'The voice of…' and the masterclasses.

The program also includes initiatives to open up opera to younger audiences with programs such as 'Feel the Opera', performances aimed at the educational community and 'European Opera Days'.

Free activities and opening of Les Arts

On September 24, Les Arts celebrates its 10th Open Day, with two free shows: a concert by Jordi Bernàcer and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and a recital by the singers of the Centre Plácido Domingo with excerpts from opera and zarzuela.

The arts center will once again celebrate Mozart's birthday with the cultural marathon 'Mozart, Mozart Nacht und Tag', which in its first edition last January registered the attendance of 2,500 people to the more than 24 hours of music, talks and activity for all audiences.

As every season, Nit a Les Arts will close the theater's activity with technical-artistic shows from the main hall stage and live music on different terraces and open spaces of the building for two consecutive nights.

In addition, the 'Bandes a Les Arts' cycle officially joins the season with four concerts on September 17, February 11, March 25 and June 3, in addition to the celebration of the Valencian Community Band Competition that is traditionally hosted by the Auditori.