LYRIC AND DANCE ARE CROWNED AT THE CASTELL DE PERALADA FESTIVAL

On 14 March the programme for the 32nd Castell de Peralada Festival, organised by the Castell de Peralada Foundation, which features 22 shows to be held between 6 July and 17 August has been announced.

True to itself, the 32nd edition will open with Verdi's Requiem, which will feature the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya under the baton of Giampaolo Bisanti. The voices of the Coro Intermezzo and soloists Leah Crocetto, Ekaterina Gubanova, Charles Castronovo and Alexander Vinogradov will sing to the memory of Carmen Mateu, alma mater of the music festival. The evening of 27 July sees the start of the lyric week with a recital by tenor Javier Camarena in the Carme Church. This is followed the next day by a concert with the leading tenor of the day, German Jonas Kaufmann, who returns to the festival accompanied for the occasion by the Choir and Orchestra of the Teatro Real de Madrid. The cherry on top of the weekend’s cake comes on 29 July with a concert version of the opera Thaïs starringPlácido Domingo and Ermonela Jaho in the lead roles, and with the resident line-ups of the Teatro Real for the second evening at the festival. Josep Bros will be celebrating his silver anniversary with an extraordinary special programme for Peralada. On 5 August, Xavier Sabata will star in Rinaldo, the famous opera by Handel, in the 1731 version, which comes to the festival as a concert for the first time. The counter-tenor, the resident artist at the Peralada 2018 festival, will sing alongside Núria Rial, Hillary Summers, Mary-Ellen Nesi, Juan Sancho, Josep-Ramon Oliver with music performed by Vespres D’Arnadí conducted by Dani Espasa.

One of the highlights of the summer is undoubtedly the opera début of theatre director Oriol Broggi with a new Festival production. Broggi will be directing the opera of his life, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, under the music direction of Josep Pons and with the participation of the Orquestra Simfònica i Cor del Gran Teatre del Liceu. An international cast headed by Adrian Ërod, Liparit Avetisyan, Olga Kulchynska and Kathryn Lewek and featuring the participation of Anaïs Constans, the winner of the 2017 Castell de Peralada Festival Prize in the Viñas Competition. The opera Acis and Galatea, also by Handel, with stage direction by the youthful Rafael R. Villalobos, will bring the lyric season to a close on 8 August in the Carme Cloister with a new Peralada brand première, with Vespres D’Arnadí conducted by Fausto Nardi and the voices of Roger Padullés, Lucía Martín-Carton, Víctor Sordo, Hugo Bolívar and Josep-Ramon Olivé.

Dance will shine once more at Peralada with some great names. On 13 July, the Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse, directed by Kader Belarbi, will be presenting a new Giselle in Spain. María Pagés will be presenting Una Oda al Tiempo in Catalonia on 20 July. The great Svetlana Zakharova will be premièring Amore in Spain alongside stars from the Bolshoi on 13 August. The festival will end with Folia, a proposal that is as original as it is daring, by choreographer Mourad Merzouki. A multidisciplinary show with dance, hip-hop and Baroque music that aims to open up the festival to new audiences.

In the Summer of Music, the international accent will be provided by Rufus Wainwright (7 July), Carla Bruni (21 July), Santana (11 August) and disco-funk line-up Kool & The Gang (15 August). Serrat, the artist who has appeared the most times on the Peralada stage, will be starting his Mediterraneo Da Capo tour in Catalonia on 6 July, and on 9 August, the duo of Sílvia Pérez Cruz & Marco Mezquida will be presenting their first collaboration together for the very first time.

This summer, two new stages are premièring to offer cultural experiences in new formats. On 12 July, Finca Malaveïna (Garriguella) will be hosting an evening with viticulture and jazz in a dream setting with the Ignasi Terraza Trio. To mark the 25th anniversary of Golf Peralada, one of the spectacular terraces of the Hotel Peralada Wine Spa & Golf becomes the perfect stage on which to enjoy an evening of Cabaret; Xavier Sabata and Rafael R. Villalobos will be presenting Encore, with music direction by Dani Espasa.

Peter and the Wolf with the Brodas Bros is this year’s Petit Peralada show. It’s coming to Peralada with the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès, in collaboration with SonarKids. Classical music, hip-hop, urban culture and literature in a fresh show for all the family. Once again this year, to thank to the town of Peralada, a free concert has been organised in the Plaça Gran with Vespres D’Arnadí and Dani Espasa, who will be performing Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks.