Les Arts offers 15 titles of opera, zarzuela, ballet and concert-shows in its tenth season

General ticket sales for the preseason begin on June 15, with a priority period for season ticket holders from the 9th to the 14th of this month.
Verdi's Macbeth , starring Plácido Domingo, opens the subscription season, with titles such as Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila and Aida.
< Along with the OCV's principal conductors Roberto Abbado and Fabio Biondi and the main guest conductor Ramón Tebar, opera is conducted by conductors such as Henrik Nánási and Manuel Coves.
Four new productions are presented in Valencia: Handel's Silla , Mozart's Idomeneo , Francisco Coll's Café Kafka , and Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream .
Gregory Kunde stars in Samson et Dalila , Idomeneo and conducts the artists of the Centre Plácido Domingo in a bel canto recital
< The Valencians Sergio Alapont, Jordi Bernàcer, Rubén Gimeno, Juan Luis Martínez and Cristóbal Soler take the helm of the OCV this year
< For the new season, Saturday shows will start at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday and holiday shows at 6:00 p.m.

Valencia. The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía offers 15 titles of opera, zarzuela, ballet and concert-shows to mark its tenth season, which also celebrates the tenth anniversary of the building's inauguration.

This was stated by the Artistic Director at the press conference held today at the Teatre Martín i Soler to announce the new season. During the conference, the new image of the arts center for the 2015-2016 season was also unveiled, featuring photographs by German photographer Herbert List, the result of a collaboration between Les Arts and the IVAM (Valencian Institute of Modern Art).

This season, according to Davide Livermore, offers works from the great operatic and symphonic repertoire—Puccini, Verdi, Mozart, and Berlioz—as well as zarzuela, ballet, and forays into other styles such as Baroque, 20th-century opera, and contemporary repertoire. “These are essential offerings for a public theater that, in addition to entertaining, must educate and foster new interests in its audience,” he noted.

“A proposal,” he continued, “in which I want to remind you that there are also titles chosen and programmed by Mrs. Helga Schmidt, who was the one who started this season that we are presenting to you today.”

Livermore explained, as the main novelty, the existence of a preseason, which begins on September 20 with the Open Day to celebrate 10 years of opera in Valencia.

“A top-quality preseason that, until November 30, offers five shows with affordable prices ranging from 7 to 50 euros for opera and zarzuela in the Main Hall, or 10 to 20 euros for concerts and recitals in the Auditori and the Teatre Martín i Soler,” he explained.

Puccini's La Bohème opens the Preseason performance series on October 2nd. The cast of this opera, presented in a production by Les Arts and the Philadelphia Opera (originally premiered by Riccardo Chailly), features prominent singers who have performed at the Centre Plácido Domingo and are now leading artists. Manuel Coves, from Jaén, conducts this production, which he also led this past summer in El Escorial. Four more performances of La Bohème will be held on October 4th, 7th, 10th, and 12th.

On October 8, Les Arts commemorates the tenth anniversary of the building's inauguration with David de Penitente , a highly complex Mozart cantata marking the debut of the OCV's new principal conductor, Fabio Biondi. He will be accompanied on stage by a trio of exceptional voices: soprano Jessica Prat, mezzo-soprano Manuela Custer, and tenor Antonino Siragusa. The program also includes Mozart's Paris Symphony .

The following day, October 9, on the occasion of the Day of the Valencian Community, Maestro Biondi offers a select recital under the name 'The violin in the Age of Enlightenment' selected 'ad hoc' by Biondi himself for this celebration.

Zarzuela arrives with Pablo Sorozábal's Katiuska , conducted by Valencian Cristóbal Soler. The maestro from Alcàsser and musical director of the Teatro de La Zarzuela in Madrid conducts for the first time at Les Arts. Emilio Sagi, the great creator of this genre, directs this production, which features two Valencians, Maite Alberola and Javier Agulló, in the lead roles. There will be four performances on October 29 and 31, and November 3 and 6.

The preseason activities conclude with a concert-performance at the Auditori on November 5th, featuring Roberto Abbado on the podium. This program is a Berlioz retrospective, including the score for Lélio , a work for narrator, singers, chorus, and orchestra, composed as a complement to the Symphonie Fantastique , which will be performed in the first half. Actor Javier Cámara will also participate in the concert.

Ticket and season pass sales for the preseason begin this June, with a preferential period for season ticket holders from June 9th to 14th and general public sales starting on the 15th.

Season ticket 

On December 5th, Les Arts raises the curtain on its tenth subscription season with Verdi's Macbeth in the Main Hall. It was the first Shakespeare play that the composer from Busseto brought to the operatic stage, and features Plácido Domingo as the star of the cast in his 145th role.

Hungarian conductor Henrik Nánási returns to the podium at Les Arts with this Verdi opera after his success with Bluebeard's Castle last year. The cast features prestigious performers familiar to Les Arts audiences: Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk as Lady Macbeth, Italian tenor Giorgio Berrugi (Macduff), and Russian bass Alexander Vinogradov (Banquo).

German director Peter Stein is staging Macbeth , a co-production between Salzburg and the Rome Opera, with six performances scheduled for December 5, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 20.

In December, Fabio Biondi and the artists of the Centre Plácido Domingo will premiere Handel's Silla , a new foray into the lesser-known Baroque repertoire, which, according to Livermore, is "fundamental for the training of singers." The young and talented Italian director Alessandra Premoli will helm a new production of this opera, which will be performed at the Teatre Martín i Soler on December 12, 16, 19, and 21.

Les Arts begins 2016 with the return of grand French opera to the Main Hall. Roberto Abbado conducts Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila , with Gregory Kunde (Samson) and mezzo-soprano Varduhi Abrahamyan (Dalila) in the leading roles. Carlus Padrissa and La Fura dels Baus, the creative force behind this production rented from the Rome Opera, also return to Valencia. Performances are scheduled for January 12, 14, 17, 20, and 23.

On January 27, the artists of the Centre Plácido Domingo and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana celebrate the birth of Mozart, with 'What are clouds' , a concert-show directed in 2016 by the Valencian Rubén Gimeno with arias and orchestral passages from the most famous operas of the genius from Salzburg on the music stand.

Verdi's opera returns at the end of February with his colossal Aida and the official debut of Ramón Tebar, principal guest conductor, who, after his triumphant debut conducting the final performances of Nabucco last season, returns to work with the composer from Busseto. The cultural venue revives David McVicar's production, a co-production with London's Covent Garden and Oslo's Den Norske Opera.

The role of Aida is sung by Ukrainian soprano Oksana Dyka, who performed successfully in Valencia in Madama Butterfly and Tosca . Dyka will alternate the role with the rising star Lucrecia García, one of the most exciting new voices in the Verdi repertoire. Puerto Rican tenor Rafael Dávila, who appeared in Puccini's Manon Lescaut in 2015, sings the role of Radamès. Completing Aida 's love triangle is Russian mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaya as the jealous Amneris. Aida will be performed on February 25 and 28, and also on March 2, 5, and 9.

In March, the Ballet de la Generalitat will premiere a new show, Lobby , directed by Inmaculada Gil-Lázaro. The production is inspired by The Green Table by German choreographer Kurt Jooss, with music by Fritz Cohen. “It is one of the masterpieces of the 20th century that analyzes the relentless tragedy of war,” as Livermore explained.

In the orchestra pit is the Grup Instrumental de València, led by Joan Cerveró. The Teatre Martín i Soler will host three performances on March 3, 4, and 6.

This same hall will also host a recital by artists from the Centre Plácido Domingo, featuring bel canto works on the program on March 23. Gregory Kunde, who joins the Centre Plácido Domingo this season as Head Coach, will conduct the performance.

“April begins with a different proposal,” Livermore explained, “a mano a mano between our two principal conductors, Roberto Abbado and Fabio Biondi, in a concert in which they both conduct and which will conclude in a special way, with Fabio Biondi as a violinist under the baton of Roberto Abbado in the Ciaccona for violin, organ and strings by Tomaso Antonio Vitali on April 7.

April is also the month in which Fabio Biondi premieres Idomeneo, re di Creta , the third foray this season into the work of Mozart.

“Idomeneo is one of the first works in which Mozart’s talent and genius began to overflow and foreshadowed later successes,” noted Davide Livermore, who will be the stage director of the second new production of the 2015-2016 Season.

Gregory Kunde and the Valencian soprano Carmen Romeu, both winners of the Campoamor Prize in 2014, take on the main roles in Idomeneo , an opera with five performances on April 21, 24 and 28 and May 1 and 4.

For the performance on the 28th, a Valencian with a renowned career, Sergio Alapont, makes his debut in the Main Hall. He was the first director from the Valencian Community to direct opera at Les Arts with Una cosa rara by Martín i Soler.

The National Dance Company presents the second ballet performance of its tour of Spain. On May 12, 13, 14, and 15, they will premiere a new production of Ludwig Minkus's Don Quixote at Les Arts, with choreography by José Carlos Martínez, the company's artistic director. American conductor Kevin Rhodes will lead the OCV in this ballet, which consists of four acts and eight scenes, in the Main Hall.

At the end of May, Francisco Coll's Café Kafka premieres in Spain with a new production for the Centre Plácido Domingo. This one-act opera, with a libretto by Meredith Oakes, received rave reviews from the British press.

Alexander Herold, a British director based in Valencia, is staging the debut opera by a Valencian composer living in the UK. Jordi Bernàcer will conduct the production, which will feature singers from the Centre Plácido Domingo. Performances will be held on May 22, 25, 28, and 31.

Maestro Bernàcer combines the musical direction of Café Kafka that month with Joan of Arc at the stake on May 26 at the Auditori, which Livermore has designated as a new concert-show. 

Joan of Arc at the Stake is a dramatic oratorio, based on a poem by Paul Claudel and composed by Arthur Honegger, that depicts the final hours of the French heroine. It is a hymn to freedom with modern orchestration, and the lead role has been performed by stars such as Ingrid Bergman and Marion Cotillard. At Les Arts, the renowned Valencian actress Rosana Pastor will bring the Maid of Orléans to life.

Season Finale

The 2015-2016 opera season concludes with Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream , a production chosen by the Director "to broaden the repertoire of Les Arts and its resident companies, and also to cultivate and promote new interests among our audience." Livermore also intends this work to commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death.

Roberto Abbado takes over the musical direction of this masterpiece based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name, which opens in a new, original production. Making his debut at Les Arts is the Scottish director Paul Curran, one of the leading directors of our time and winner of awards such as the Italian Franco Abbiati Prize.

Countertenor Christopher Lowrey sings for the first time at Les Arts, and soprano Nadine Sierra, who captivated audiences last season with her Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale , returns alongside him. The Main Hall hosts five performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream on June 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18.

Ramón Tebar closes Les Arts' symphonic season with another adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, this time the one written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy , which was used as the musical accompaniment to the play throughout the 19th century. A Midsummer Night's Dream will be performed at the Auditori on June 23, marking the start of the season with a concert-spectacle featuring the renowned Rossy de Palma.

As an epilogue to the Les Arts Season, a new edition of 'Nit a Les Arts' will be celebrated, the white night of Les Arts with exhibitions, technical-artistic displays and open-air music.

New management measures 

Livermore has announced that from next season Thursday will be the reference day for symphonic programming at the Auditori, a proposal in which it wants to boost the number of concert-shows.

It has also been announced that weekend performance times are changing. Weekday shows will continue to start at 8:00 p.m. However, from now on, Saturday performances will begin at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday and holiday performances at 6:00 p.m.