La Fura dels Baus pays tribute to the Mediterranean musician with the concert-show ‘Roman Trilogy’

•Emmanuel Carlier is responsible for the video projections that accompany the production directed by Carlus Padrissa

Valencia (14.6.11).- La Fura dels Baus pays tribute to the Mediterranean musician with the concert-show 'Trilogia romana', programmed by the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía on June 17, 18 and 19 within the IV Festival del Mediterrani.

At the helm of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana is the legendary French maestro Georges Prêtre (Waziers, France, 1924). With over sixty years of success in the leading opera houses of Europe and the United States, his name is linked to the greatest voices of the 20th century, most notably Maria Callas. The 'Prima Donna Assoluta' established him as her favorite conductor. With him, she made some of her most celebrated recordings, such as Puccini's Tosca with Carlo Bergonzi and Tito Gobbi, and Bizet's Carmen with Nicolai Gedda and Andréa Guiot.

Georges Prêtre and La Fura dels Baus join forces in Valencia to recreate Ottorino Respighi's three symphonic poems: Feste romane, Fontane di Roma , and Pini di Roma . The works are set in the streets and squares of the Eternal City, where the Bolognese composer resided from 1913, when he was appointed principal conductor of the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia.

Carlus Padrissa of La Fura dels Baus, following his successes in Valencia with the multi-award-winning production of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle and Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens, is conducting his first work at the Auditori of the arts center. According to Padrissa, Respighi's three symphonic poems form "a perfect piece for an orchestra to give its all." Therefore, La Fura will give maximum prominence to the musicians of the Valencian Community Orchestra (OCV) in this "hybrid format," which incorporates plays of light and shadow, as well as video creations by French filmmaker and photographer Emmanuel Carlier.

“There will be no shortage of classic elements of the 'furero' language, such as the reference to the four elements: earth, air, water and fire,” explains the stage director.

Maestro Georges Prêtre has conducted Respighi's works on numerous occasions, and will be performing them this coming weekend at the Palau de les Arts. As he himself explains: "These are three works in which we find imagination, construction, reverie, vision… Respighi was a genius capable of portraying the atmosphere of Rome in his scores in an unparalleled way."

Georges Prêtre, along with Lorin Maazel, music director of the Palau de les Arts, and Zubin Mehta, president of the Festival del Méditerrani, is part of the select group of conductors who have led the Vienna Philharmonic at the traditional New Year's concert at the Wiener Musikverein in the Austrian capital. In 2008, the French maestro became the oldest conductor to lead the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the traditional concert, a feat he repeated in 2010.

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía has established an additional discount program of up to 50 percent for young people and members of Musical Societies for this concert-show.