theatre

‘The Bewitched Love’, a well-known musical piece composed by Manuel de Falla celebrates a century on stage this year. Catalan theatrical company La Fura dels Baus, world-reknown for their innovative, provocative and technological creations, is commemorating the anniversary by preparing a musical performance which includes flamenco dance, fire and water as part of the play. The show is going to be called ‘El amor brujo: el fuego y la palabra’ [The Bewitched Love: the fire and the word], and will premiere on 10 July in Granada before travelling to the Castell de Peralada International Festival in Girona. 

Cesc Gelabert, a dancer and choreographer from Barcelona, premieres Foot-Ball on 22 January at the National Theatre of Catalonia. This show features seven dancers including Gelabert who express the way FC Barcelona play on stage. Foot-ball features costume by Lydia Azzopardi and audiovisual creations by Jordi Morató. The choreography will be a dialogue with these audiovisuals that will show the best moments from the Barça of Frank Rijkaard, Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova. Gelabert wants to honour his club with this performance. “Barça's football is particularly aesthetic and choreographic because it is based on combinations and not on force”, he said. 

Núria Espert, one of the most international and widely recognised theatre actresses in Catalonia, has taken on the role of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ at the age of 79. This challenging project also means her return to the Catalan theatre scene after spending the last few years working on the Spanish stage. Lluís Pascual, the Director of the Catalan theatrical adaptation, justified the decision, stating “the best candidate to play King Lear was an actress, not an actor”. This Catalan version of ‘King Lear’ will be running until February 25^th at the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona.

The Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, which runs the surrealist genius’ museum in Figueres (near Catalonia’s Costa Brava and the French border), has purchased ‘Violetes imperials’ (‘Imperial violets’) from a private collector. The piece from 1938 is a dark creation, painted during Spain’s Civil War and just before the start of the Second World War. It will be on display at the museum from Tuesday onwards. The painting, the price of which has not been disclosed, belongs to the Catalan artist’s surrealist period, but does not employ the colours regularly used by Dalí. Nonetheless, ‘Violetes imperials’ does depict some of the symbols used by one of the world’s most important artists of the 20^th century. 

The world famous opera singer Montserrat Caballé reached on Tuesday a prejudicial agreement to avoid trial for tax fraud committed in 2010. The Catalan soprano, aged 81, admitted that her fiscal residence was not set in the fiscal haven of Andorra that year and therefore had evaded paying taxes to the Spanish authorities. Caballé, who is considered one of the greatest sopranos ever by both critics and fans alike, accepted the Public Prosecution’s petition of a 6-month jail sentence and a €240,000 fine, which corresponds to almost half of the evaded money. Since the jail sentence is shorter than 2 years and Caballé has no criminal record, she will not have to be imprisoned. The fine is to be added to the €508,000 she already deposited in the spring to compensate the Spanish Tax Agency. On top of this, she will still have to pay €75,000, corresponding to the interest on the money evaded.

Solsona's International Music Academy (AIMS) is a high level international project, which is also the first and only pedagogical music festival in Catalonia. It was created by the German cellist Peter Thiemann in order to bring together classical music students and professors of acknowledged international prestige who play in Europe's main orchestras. It is an intensive education project which takes place in a beautiful rural environment in Solsona, a town near the Pyrenees in Central Catalonia. This year, the 13^th edition of the AIMS festival is held from the 6^th to the 17^th of August, and includes the participation of 65 students from 20 different nationalities. 30 concerts have been scheduled in ten municipalities of Western and Central Catalonia.

The renowned performing arts festival Temporada Alta has revealed the first big names for its 23^rd edition, which will take place in the cities of Girona and Salt (north-eastern Catalonia), from the 3^rd of October until the 8^th of December. The headliner on the international scene this year is MacbETH, an adaptation by Brett Bailey of Verdi’s opera relocated in the centre of post-colonial Africa and sang by twelve African voices. Pau Miró's adaptation of Angel Guimerà's Catalan classic Terra Baixa (Lowlands) in a solo-performance by the actor Lluís Homar and the play Ruz-Bárcenas, based on the 2013 corruption scandal involving the People's Party (PP), are also amongst the more than 90 shows that will perform in this festival that is a springboard for fresh talent.

This year's edition of Barcelona's performing arts summer festival, Grec, attracted around 80,000 spectators and achieved a 58.15% capacity utilisation in the shows which require payment. According to provisional statistics, taken before the event was over, for the 79 shows that made up the summer festival there were 136,291 seats available and 67,623 tickets were sold, filling 49.61% of the potential capacity. However, overall there was total of 79,254 spectators. Last year 66,466 people attended the shows which required payment and 55,766 tickets were sold. The total number of spectators who attended the festival this year, both paying customers and those who went to free shows, amounted to 127,471 people, whilst in 2013 there were 119,000 individuals.

The director of the Dalí Theatre-Museum, Antoni Pitxot, stated on Monday that he does not contemplate changing the functioning of the museum in the event of Catalan independence. "I think there will be no conflict because the museum was created by Dali and an intelligent leader would never put any obstacles to the continuation of his great work" said Pitxot, who was a close friend of the artist until his death in 1989. Pitxot also stressed that the museum and its collection is "not divisible". In his last will, Salvador Dalí named Spain as the universal heir to his property, and the state negotiated with the Catalan government to leave 134 works of art in Figueres and bequeath 56 to Madrid.

On Sunday 29 June, a stellar cast performed 'Ferran Adrià and the factory of solidarity food', a comedy show which aimed to share the secrets of Catalan haute cuisine while raising money for the Casal dels Infants, a community centre for children in need. The Grand Theatre of Liceu was chosen as the venue where internationally renowned Catalan chefs Ferran Adrià, Carme Ruscalleda, Cristian Escribà and Joan Roca demonstrated how to cook in an 18th century kitchen, to commemorate the tercentenary of the War of Spanish Succession of 1714. Familiar faces such as journalist Josep Cuní or chef Alberto Chicote also participated in the show.

In the last week of August, over 600 amateur actors from across the world will be descending on Girona for one of the liveliest dramatic art summer festivals, the International Festival of Amateur Theatre (FITAG). In the 14th edition of the festival, taking place from the 26-30 August, 33 performances will be staged over just five days, at various venues in the Girona capital and surrounding towns such as Figueres, Lloret de Mar, Palamós, Palafrugell, Maçanet Selva and La Jonquera. 15 of the participating theatre groups are local companies from Girona; a further 5 are from the rest of Spain and 11 are international. The aim of this year’s festival is to bring together the culture and theatre from different immigrant communities and strengthen international exchanges.

Six Catalan performing arts companies have introduced their projects at the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival (GDIF) 2014 Showcase and a further three have taken part in the official program of the festival, thanks to the collaboration of the Culture Department and FiraTàrrega with GDIF. The 2014 edition of the renowned street arts festival will run from 20-28 June, showcasing some of the most interesting street theatre on the continent. Its director, Bradley Hemmings, told CNA that FiraTàrrega has "influenced the structure and development" of the show, one of the largest in the UK, and he was looking forward to receiving fresh Catalan projects.

The Catalan Government issued last Friday the public tender for granting licenses to build six mega-casino hotels in the Costa Daurada, next to PortAventura amusement park. These 6 Las Vegas-style recreational centres are the main part of BCN World, a $6 billion project that will create the largest holiday resort in Europe.  The main promoter of the project, Veremonte, announced on Friday they will be presenting an offer for each of the six hotel and casino licenses in partnership with international investors, such as Chinese casino giant Melco and US multinational Hard Rock. Veremonte also added they have “everything ready” to launch construction.  All candidates must submit a minimum initial investment of €300 million, as well as a business plan to prevent money laundering. The tender will have 2 eliminatory phases and bids have to be presented before 25July.

The Catalan Parliament has finally approved the legal framework allowing the construction and the activities of the BCN World mega-resort, to be located next to PortAventura amusement park in the Costa Daurada. Now, the company Veremonte has the final green light to start construction, after it already had announced the first investors some months ago. Casino giant Melco, hotel brand Melià, US Hard Rock, Value Retail shopping malls and Investindustrial, which owns PortAventura, will participate in the $6 billion project. Furthermore, Ferrari announced it will build its first theme park in Europe there. BCN World involves 6 mega-casinos, large-size hotels, shopping malls, convention centres, theatres, golf courses, parks, a beach club, technology institutes and smart city developments.

Japanese conductor Kazushi Ono was appointed the next main conductor of the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra (OBC) taking over from the current conductor Pablo Gonzalez in September 2015. The decision to appoint Ono has received the consent of "all parties". The Director of the L’Auditori concert hall, where the OBC is based, hopes that Ono will lead the ensemble to be a worldwide fame orchestra from Catalonia. Ono is currently the main conductor of the orchestra of the Opera National de Lyon and will also be the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Spring 2015.