The Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana will be the first Spanish orchestra conducted by Valeri Gerguiev
18.10.2009
Valencia (10-18-09).- The Valencian Community Orchestra will be the first Spanish group conducted by Valeri Guerguiev, musical director of Les Troyens (The Trojans) by Hector Berlioz, an opera with which the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía will inaugurate the 2009-2010 season.
Gergiev is considered one of the greatest conductors of our time and works with such renowned orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, Montreal, and Birmingham. From 1995 he was principal guest conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and from 1997 to 2002 of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Since January 2007, Valery Gergiev has been principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Among his most notable operatic engagements are Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Lohengrin (Wagner) and Semyon Kotko (Prokofiev) at Covent Garden in London; The Gambler (Prokofiev) and Khovanshchina (Mussorgsky) at La Scala in Milan; War and Peace (Prokofiev), The Fiery Angel (Prokofiev) and Herodias (Massenet) at the San Francisco Opera; and Otello (Verdi), The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich) and Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
At the age of 35, Valery Gergiev was appointed artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre Opera Company, and since 1996 he has served as its artistic and general director. Under his leadership, in December 2008, the resident orchestra of the renowned St. Petersburg theatre was named one of the twenty best musical ensembles in the world by the prestigious Gramophone magazine. He has received numerous national and international awards for his extensive artistic and musical career.
Maestro Guergiev is also a profound connoisseur of Berlioz's work, having conducted some of his best-known works such as La Damnation de Faust, Benvenuto Cellini, Roméo et Juliette and Symphonie Fantastique.
The Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, under the direction of Lorin Maazel and with Zubin Mehta as president of the Festival del Mediterrani, has established itself in its three years as one of the leading ensembles on the European music scene. Its performances at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, and in concert halls in Abu Dhabi, Munich, Essen, Mannheim, and Regensburg have been met with resounding critical and public acclaim.
Under the musical direction of Maestro Guerguiev, the resident orchestra of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, the Cor de la Generalitat and a cast made up of renowned names from the current operatic scene such as Stephen Gould, Lance Ryan, Daniela Barcellona, Veronica Simeoni, Elisabete Matos, Stephen Milling, Zlata Bulicheva, Giorgio Giuseppini, Dmitri Voropaev, Askar Abdrazakov and Eric Cutler will perform Les Troyens, one of the most vocally and musically demanding operas.
This is also the first time Berlioz's masterpiece has been performed in its entirety in Spain. The staging by La Fura dels Baus, directed by Carlus Padrissa and with a creative team comprised of Franc Aleu, Roland Olbeter, Chu Uroz, and Peter van Praet, following their success with the Valencian production of The Ring of the Nibelung, will once again surprise audiences with its commitment to technology and avant-garde stagecraft.
