Plácido Domingo closes the sixth season of the Palau de les Arts with Le Cid by Jules Massenet
19.04.2012
•Tenor Jorge de León sings the role of Rodrigue for the first time in this opera, which is presented in a concert version, on April 24, 27 and 30
•Plácido Domingo will also conduct the last two performances of Puccini's Tosca and a concert featuring works by Beethoven and Dvořák on the 26th of this month
•Helga Schmidt announces that Maestro Domingo will record an album of Verdi arias for baritone with the OCV for Sony Music and will sing Verdi's I due Foscari in a new production in the 2012-2013 Season
Valencia (19-4-2012).- Plácido Domingo, leading the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, closes the sixth season of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía with Le Cid by Jules Massenet, which premieres on April 24.
After his acclaimed performance as Athanaël in Thaïs, the 138th role in his repertoire, the artist is now focusing on his role as a conductor in the final performances of Tosca, a concert featuring works by Beethoven and Dvořák, and the concert version of Le Cid . This commitment to the Valencian Community was acknowledged by the Director of the Palau de les Arts, Helga Schmidt, at the presentation of this premiere.
“Plácido Domingo’s support is a real boost for this project, an artistic privilege in these challenging times. The Palau de les Arts is proud to have one of the greatest figures in the world of opera of recent decades on board.”
Le Cid is also the second of the Massenet works with which the Palau de les Arts and Plácido Domingo are paying tribute to the French composer on the centenary of his death. Domingo himself has noted that “there aren’t many opera houses in the world that are celebrating the Massenet year in this way, an artist whose greatness wasn’t sufficiently recognized in his time.”
Plácido Domingo conducts this operatic adaptation of the exploits of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid Campeador, at the Auditori. This historical figure is strongly linked to the city of Valencia and to Domingo's career as a tenor. Domingo, considered by the specialized press to be the best Rodrigue, performs from the podium one of the defining scores of his artistic life and one of the operas most closely associated with the Valencian people, as he has pointed out.
“As a work, Le Cid is one of the most epic and dramatically powerful scores, containing, at the same time, brilliant moments of intimacy and tenderness, as it is also a love story. It showcases the great versatility of Jules Massenet, a quality never repeated in any of his compositions. Le Cid is a work deeply connected to my career and also to this region. That is why I invite the people of Valencia to hear it, because it is rare to have the privilege of three performances of this composition.”
Tenor Jorge de León, in his debut as the medieval knight, heads the cast of Le Cid . Domingo emphasized the great difficulty of this role, which he himself has sung on many occasions, and praised the qualities of the Tenerife-born singer and his growing international profile.
Alongside her, the rising Ukrainian soprano Liudmila Monastirska (Chimène) will perform at the Palau de les Arts, emerging as one of the new promises of opera after her recent performances in London, Milan and Berlin, as Domingo has emphasized.
In the role of Don Diègue, the father of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Madrid-born artist is joined by the established bass Hao Jiang Tian, who already sang with him in Washington in this same role in one of the few stage productions of this title that have been made in recent decades.
English bass-baritone James Rutherford plays the role of The King, while soprano Micaëla Oeste takes on the role of The Infanta, in her second performance in Valencia under Domingo's baton, after Amelia al ballo and The Telephone in 2011.
The cast of Le Cid is completed by: Felipe Bou (Le Comte de Gormas), Josep Miquel Ramon (Santiago Apóstol), Isaac Galán (Moorish Envoy), Mario Cerdá (Don Arias) and Leonard Bernad (Don Alonzo).
The cultural center has scheduled three performances of this opera in concert version on April 24, 27 and 30.
Plácido Domingo and Le Cid
In 1873, Édouard Blau and Louis Gallet based their libretto for Le Cid on Pierre Corneille's tragedy of the same name, and the score was initially commissioned to Georges Bizet. However, the Parisian composer never completed the work.
Eleven years later, Georges Hartmann obtained the rights to the libretto and entrusted it to Jules Massenet who, after the plot adjustments by Adolphe-Philippe D'Ennery, undertook the elaboration of a new score in its definitive format of four acts and ten scenes.
Le Cid premiered to great acclaim on November 30, 1885, at the Paris Opera, becoming one of the composer from Saint-Étienne's most celebrated works. However, the opera disappeared from the standard repertoire of major opera houses once the 20th century began.
Plácido Domingo has been one of the greatest champions of Le Cid, which he has sung in New York, Hamburg, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, Chicago, Seville, and Washington. In his role as artistic director, he spearheaded one of the most recent productions of this opera at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville and the Washington Opera, directed by Hugo de Ana. His 1976 recording of Le Cid at Carnegie Hall in New York is a landmark in the discography of Jules Massenet.
Last concert of the 2011-2012 Season
Plácido Domingo also conducts the last concert of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in the 2011-2012 Season.
The works on the music stand are: Coriolan Overture and Symphony No. 7 in A major, by Ludwig van Beethoven, and Cello Concerto in B minor by Antonín Dvořák, with OCV cellist Guiorgui Anichenko as soloist.
Upcoming projects at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía
Intendant Helga Schmidt has announced that Plácido Domingo will participate in the first of the titles with which the Palau de les Arts will celebrate the bicentenary of Giuseppe Verdi's birth in 2013. He will sing the role of Francesco Foscari, written for baritone, in the Valencian arts center's new co-production of I due Foscari, which also involves Los Angeles Opera, Theater an der Wien and London's Covent Garden.
In addition, Maestro Domingo will also record an album of Verdi arias for baritone with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in 2013, which will be released by Sony Music.
