Peralada keeps July hot

Only a festival like Peralada can afford to extend the construction of its new auditorium for several years and still retain its summer charm. Because when it can't set up its large-scale stage in the castle gardens, it invents all kinds of delicacies for lovers of lyric, dance, and opera, emphasizing new creations that, in its hands, combine genres and hybridize artistic interests, while unleashing the creativity of local artists. This is what will happen this year, from July 3 to 18, in the Carme Church, on the Mirador stage, and in the unusual open-air venue that Peralada has built above its Celler.

In its 39th edition, which takes place in the first half of July—because it will then be invited to the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland with The Fairy Queen —the festival turns its gardens into a metaphor for the creative paradise it aspires to be: it is an ode to the garden as a common paradise, as a utopia. And the sculptor Cristina Iglesias could not be missing, whose Wet Labyrinth 2022 (with Spontaneous Landscape ) is the image on the poster and who will also be exhibiting her Pozo XI (In and around the walls) in bronze, granite stone and steel in the castle gardens.

The Empordà festival goes from diva to diva: it is opened on the 3rd by Joyce DiDonato and closed on the 18th by Sonya Yoncheva

The entire program embraces this idea, including the presence of maestro William Christie (12th), who has extensive gardens in the Vendée region of France, sometimes Gallic, sometimes Italian, or sometimes English, which he likes to personally care for. The Baroque wizard, whose great loves are music and gardens, will celebrate his 80th birthday by performing Handel's oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno with Les Arts Florissants in Peralada. And the festival will award him its Medal of Honor.

There will be 12 distinctive shows for this edition, which, once again, is being held in a small group, while the park's auditorium is taking shape on a blueprint. The opening ceremony will be held by Joyce DiDonato, and the closing ceremony will be held by Sonya Yoncheva: from diva to diva. The American mezzo-soprano makes her debut at Peralada, despite living in the Empordà region, while the Bulgarian soprano returns with her new project, George , which engages in a dialogue with the literary world of George Sand and recreates an evening spent in what would be her home with Chopin.

Another recital will be given by Christoph and Julian Prégardien, father and son together for the first time in Spain (6th), with a festival commission entitled "In Paradisum," in which they embrace the idea of ​​the garden through lieder by Schubert and Liszt, and with narration by actress Alba Pujol and a voice from the Escolania de Montserrat. Another familiar pair will be the Labèque sisters, who will play piano four-hands, from Ravel to Philip Glass, including Schubert (11th). Continuing with vocals, the American soprano Angel Blue will make her debut in this square (12th), with a versatile recital of opera arias, jazz, African-American spirituals, and a nod to zarzuela. In addition, to mark the centenary of Conxita Badia, Pau Casals' pupil and favorite soprano, there will be a tribute (17th) featuring Montserrat Seró, accompanied by Pau Codina and Marc Heredia.

On the stage, the festival's highlights are two world premieres. The first is Genius Loci (day 5), a soundscape for countertenor, plucked strings and electronics that once again reunites Xavier Sabata and director Rafael R. Villalobos. The other is the musical poem Hort/Garden (16), starring the famous actress and singer Elena Tarrats, who is also a composer this time, in collaboration with the playwright Helena Tornero. The libretto is inspired by the psychiatrist Sue Stuart-Smith, author of the acclaimed The Well-Gardened Mind .

Other experimental shows will include Lorena Nogal's tectonic dance piece, "Le terroir ," inspired by the process of transforming grapes into wine; the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, which explores the origins of its art with the Accademia del Piacere; and the humor of Frames Percussion.

For those looking for large-scale opera in Catalonia this year, there's Lírica-T, the festival promoted by the Friends of the Tarragona Lyric Theatre in Camp de Mart. On July 11 and 13, Ainhoa ​​Arteta will play Mimì in Puccini's La bohème —get your handkerchiefs ready—along with Antonio Gandía (Rodolfo), Mireia Tarragó (Musetta), and Àngel Òdena (Marcello), who is also the driving force behind the production and artistic director. All of this will be performed by the Orquestra Camerata XXI-Ciutat de Reus and the Tarragona Opera Choir, along with students from the Conservatory.

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And a little further north, in El Vendrell, the 44th Pau Casals Festival will be held from July 11 to 22, with an emphasis on the maestro's friendships—pianists Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Eugene Istomin, and Rudolf Serkin, and violinists Alexander Schneider and Isaac Stern—whose friendships were marked by exile and the political upheavals of the 20th century. The festival's monographic concerts feature these friendships, featuring violinists Jaime Laredo, Casals's disciple and friend, and Christian Tetzlaff; pianist András Schiff; and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras.