Festival Òpera amb Gràcia

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Opera is one of the most complex and complete genres when it comes to performing arts; it includes music, singing and theatre. It reaches the viewer through sight, hearing and emotion. However, it has historically been restricted to the elites.

Òpera amb Gràcia was born of a desire to make opera more accessible, modern and affordable for all audiences. Selected operas have been carefully reduced in length, and language that is over a century old has been modified to reflect a fresh, contemporary perspective. This year's program features a careful selection of works that reflect on women's role in society.

July 8: Carmen, Georges Bizet

Carmen is a drama is synonymous with freedom, jealousy and bloody passions that ends with the death of its protagonist.

In a newly created show based on Bizet's Carmen, the focus is on the female figure. Set in southern Spain among the trappings of ancient, stagnant customs, the story addresses ethnicity, toxic masculinity and gender roles.

​Carmen is an exuberant, free and provocative gypsy woman who seduces the head of the guard, Don José. Swept up with passion, he abandons everything he knows to follow her, shirks his military obligations and joins a smuggling gang. When another man enters the equation, José loses his mind; jealousy and obsession poison him, precipitating a fatal end.

July 15: Mujeres en la historia de la Ópera

Mujeres en la historia de la Ópera is a newly created show that revolves around the female figure in opera, from the baroque era to today.

Written, created and performed by three women, it is a journey through the female voice in the history of opera. It is the story of the evolution of music, composition and vocal technique at the hands of composers such as Händel, Mozart, Puccini and Bernstein who laid the foundations for the evolution of music.

July 22: La serva padrona, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

La serva padrona is a masterpiece of grace and lightness.

It tells us about the tricks of Serpina (in Italian "little snake") who wishes to become mistress of the house where she works as a maid. The victim of all this picaresque is Uberto, her employer, who becomes completely caught up by both her and the mute servant Vespone in a web of entanglements and manipulations.

A hilarious piece, and a sample of the musical boom of the baroque, it will be interpreted in its entirety by baritone Toni Marsol, soprano Cecilia Rodríguez, and an instrumental group directed by the maestro Guerassim Voronkov.

For more music events check our online events calendar.