The Plácido Domingo Perfection Center premieres Narciso, by Domenico Scarlatti

Narcissus premieres on May 22nd, with further performances on the 28th and 31st of that same month. The performance on the 25th is educational in nature.
Davide Livermore announces that on June 3rd he will present all the new features of the 2015-2016 Season of the arts center
A total of 1,038 musicians have auditioned for 14 vacancies in the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.

Valencia. Domenico Scarlatti's Narciso will close the ninth season at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía on May 22. This opera, performed by artists from the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo, will premiere at the Teatre Martín i Soler.

Federico Maria Sardelli, musical director, and Davide Livermore, author of the staging, presented this co-production between the Valencian arts center and the Innsbruck Early Music Festival, the oldest in Europe in its repertoire, at a press conference today.

The staging of Narcissus , directed and designed by Davide Livermore, with costumes by Mariana Fracasso, video art by D-WOK, and lighting by Antonio Castro, premiered on August 29, 2014, in Innsbruck, Austria. The production received an excellent response from critics and audiences alike, with special mention of the artists from the Centre de Perfeccionament Federica Alfano: Valentino Buzza, Choi Hyekyung, and Chiara Osella.

Livermore is inspired by Wes Anderson's feature film Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) to transport the plot of Narcissus to the early 1920s, in the Grand Hotel Arcadia.

“Intelligent, daring and entertaining,” according to the German portal KlassikInfo ; “Wonderful and splendid” for the Austrian Der neue Merker , Narciso was the star show of the latest edition of this prestigious Festival.

Federico Maria Sardelli signs his third collaboration with the Palau de les Arts, where he has previously conducted the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in Vivaldi's works L'incoronazione di Dario and Juditha Triumphans .

A renowned scholar and researcher of Italian Baroque music, Sardelli is the founder of the Modo Antiquo orchestra. With this ensemble, he has achieved considerable success, including two Grammy Award nominations, and is a regular guest at major early music festivals.

For Sardelli, Narciso is a perfect opera from a dramaturgical point of view, in which the young Domenico Scarlatti demonstrates incredible artistic maturity. “ Narciso is a work of great structural richness, in which all the universal characteristics of opera are found. There are comic moments, dramatic moments, recitatives that invite introspection, triumphant arias…,” the maestro noted.

Federico Maria Sardelli also highlighted the work of the artists at the Centre and the flexibility of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, which, despite not being an orchestra specializing in early music, "has achieved a perfectly baroque sound and mentality."

The artists from the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo make up the cast premiering Narcissus in Valencia: the Roman mezzo-soprano Cristina Alunno (Narcissus), the Turin-born mezzo-soprano Chiara Osella (Echo), the Palermo-born soprano Federica di Trapani (Procri), the Sicilian tenor Valentino Buzza (Aristeus), and the Brazilian soprano Lina Mendes (Cephalus). They are joined on stage by the dancers from the Ballet de la Generalitat, Fátima Sanlés and Júlia Cambra.

Livermore, artistic director of the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo, emphasized the quality of the singers in this training program, a point also highlighted by the specialized press in Innsbruck last summer. “The Centre Plácido Domingo receives an average of 300 applications each year from young people around the world, artists eager to develop a significant international career, who begin with work here at the Teatre Martín i Soler, the stepping stone to moving to the Main Hall.”

Davide Livermore also emphasized the importance of the Baroque repertoire in the training of future artists at the Centre de Perfeccionament. “This repertoire allows for excellent work on vocal grammar with singers, due to the relationship that Baroque opera establishes with the text, which forms the basis for tackling other repertoires,” Livermore explained.

Domenico Scarlatti's Narcissus premieres on May 22, with additional performances on May 28 and 31. The Palau de les Arts has also scheduled an educational performance for May 25.

Presentation of the 2015-2016 Season

Davide Livermore concluded the press conference with the announcement of the upcoming presentation of the 2015-2016 Season, the tenth season of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, on June 3rd.

Furthermore, the Artistic Director has noted that throughout June and early July the arts center is holding its largest audition process since the founding of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.

“A selection process for 14 positions in the specialties of violin, viola, cello, double bass, bassoon, horn, trumpet, and trombone is already underway with very good news. We have received 1,038 applications from all over the world, which is a testament to the prestige of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and also to the interest generated by its new musical directors,” Livermore pointed out.