The Palau de les Arts production of The King Who Raged will be performed on July 25 at the Castell de Peralada Festival
21.07.2009
Stage director Emilio Sagi is at the Valencian arts center finalizing rehearsals. Jordi Bernàcer will take the reins of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana for the first time after successfully conducting Britten's The Beggar's Opera at the Castleton Festival, chaired by Lorin Maazel. Valencia (July 21, 2008) - The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía production of Ruperto Chapí's zarzuela El rey que rabió will be performed this coming July 25 at the Castell de Peralada Festival.
The Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and the Cor de la Generalitat will also travel to the town in Girona to participate in this key event on the summer music festival circuit, which features recitals by renowned singers, symphonic-choral concerts, operas, interdisciplinary music and theater performances, dance, jazz, pop concerts, chamber music concerts, and family shows. On this occasion, Jordi Bernàcer will conduct the resident orchestra of the Valencian opera house for the first time, following his performance this July of Benjamin Britten's The Beggar's Opera at the Castleton Festival (Virginia, USA), chaired by Lorin Maazel.
The production's stage director, Emilio Sagi, is already at the Valencian arts center finalizing rehearsals with the cast that will sing in Peralada. Tenor Pablo Martín Reyes, soprano Elena de la Merced, mezzo-soprano María José Suáez, and baritone Manel Esteve will reprise the roles that delighted Valencian audiences at the production's premiere last January at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.
The King Who Ran Furious, with which the Valencian cultural center joined the celebrations of the Chapí Year, commemorating the centenary of the death of the maestro from Villena, is not the first zarzuela production that the Valencian center has exported to other theaters. Back in April 2008, The Witch, also by Ruperto Chapí, was performed at the Baluarte de Navarra. The Cor de la Generalitat has participated seven times in this prestigious festival since 1997: in operatic productions (The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, The Magic Flute, 1714 World of Wars), contemporary music (Apocalypse, Woman's Voice), staged oratorio (Oedipus Rex) and zarzuela (La Verbena de la Paloma), with stage directors such as Àlex Ollé, Carlus Padrissa, Lindsay Kemp, Irene Papas, Joan Ollé, Ramón Simón or Álvaro Albiach, and musical directors such as Frédéric Chaslin, Gianandrea Noseda, Joan Cerveró, Josep Vicent, Ángel Gil or Joan Font.
