Shostakovich, Wagner, Bernstein: Liceu unveils eclectic program for 2024/25 season

Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu has unveiled its eclectic new program for the 2024/25 season, tied together around the concept of dreaming. 

In total there are 206 events throughout the year, including seven brand new productions – six operas and one dance work. 

Three of the new opera productions are led by the Liceu. 

The first is the world premiere of artist-in-residence Àlex Ollé's new production of Shostakovich's 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'. 

It will open the season on September 25 with Sara Jakubiak as Katerina and Pavel Černoch playing Sergei. 

Wagner's 'Lohengrin', directed by the composer's great-granddaughter Katharina Wagner, arrives from March 17 to 30, 2025, after being canceled in 2020 due to the outbreak of the pandemic. 

World-renowned Wagnerian tenor Klaus Florian Vogt takes on the title role.  

Liceu commission 'Benjamin in Portbou' premieres on July 19. This new work will be conducted by the composer himself, Antoni Ros-Marbà. The libretto by Anthony Carroll Madigan is centered on the life of the philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin. 

Verdi, Puccini, Jordi Savall, Gustavo Dudamel 

The new season includes performances of Verdi's 'La forza del destino' from November 9 to 19, and 'La traviata' from January 17 to February 2, 2025. 

Puccini's classic 'Madama Butterfly' runs from December 8 to 28. 

Legendary Catalan musician Jordi Savall has "dreamed up" a co-production between the Ballet de Capitole de Toulouse and the Liceu to recreate, through dance, the "sensitive and nuanced world of Gluck's music." That runs from March 26 to April 1, 2025. 

Gustavo Dudamel will direct a concert version of Bernstein's 'West Side Story' on July 29 and 31. The renowned Venezuelan conductor will lead the London Symphony Orchestra in a program that also includes works by Strauss and Ravel. 

Special offers for under 35s for many of the operas are available via the LiceUnder35 scheme.