Raquel García-Tomás dialogues with Bach, Monteverdi and the stars in Peralada

Raquel García-Tomás (Barcelona, 1984) borrowed the title of one of Claudio Monteverdi's madrigals, Sfogava con le stelle, to present the concert with which she debuted at the Castell de Peralada Festival and with which she invited spectators to "relax with the stars under a night sky." The luxurious setting chosen for the occasion was the cloister of the Carmen convent, with a sky that wanted to contribute to the endeavor, even if it wasn't at its clearest. The atmosphere was such that even the local fauna joined the party, seeming to slow their flight to the rhythm of the chords they were hearing.

The composer, awarded the National Music Prize in 2020, decided to combine her work with that of baroque classics like Monteverdi and Bach for her first stop in Peralada. It was not a casual choice. García-Tomás chose her three baroque-inspired pieces and made them dialogue with the originals she had borrowed in a brief and intense concert. Thus, in the first diptych, Bach's Allemande. French Suite No. 2 was combined with My Old Gramophone #2, making Noelia Rodiles' exquisite piano interpretation accompanied by the voice of mezzo-soprano Lidia Vinyes-Curtis, originally characterized as a robotic being, with cables coming out of a silver head and mechanical movements. There came a point where it was hard to see who of the two was in charge of the musical direction, whether the pianist or the machine.

The second diptych corresponded to the concert's title, with the interpretation of Monteverdi's Sfogava con le stelle, followed by [...]così mostraste a lei i vivi ardori miei[...], which served to demonstrate the power of the Cosmos Quartet. The string quartet reached its maximum expression when it coincided, in the third diptych, with the voices of the Ensemble O Vos Omnes group and Rodiles' piano in Suite of Myself by the Barcelona-born creator.

Precisely, García-Tomás has adapted Suite of Myself, which draws on Bach and Walt Whitman's poems, for the concert in Peralada, giving the festival a premiere and thus finding in the baroque a common thread for the concert, a not minor and no less difficult matter, considering that there was much to choose from and with a very varied repertoire. To further round off the premiere, the composer gave the audience ---for the first time--- the joint interpretation of her three baroque-inspired works.

Before arriving in Peralada, Suite of Myself had been performed in its orchestra and choir version last May at L'Auditori de Barcelona. Raquel García-Tomás revised it to be performed by a chamber group and to fit into the cloister of the Carmen convent. "With the festival's commission, the three works could be inserted into one concert; otherwise, we would have needed an entire orchestra," explains the composer. "Since there was a coincidence that in My Old Gramophone #2 and […]così mostraste a lei i vivi ardori miei[…] we had a pianist and a quartet, I felt capable of reducing the orchestra of Suite of Myself," she continues. The experience has been worthwhile, remarks the native of Barcelona's Maresme neighborhood, who believes that the chamber format has helped her work on the piece in much greater detail. "It is performed without a conductor and, therefore, there is much more dialogue among the musicians and also more involvement from all of them. The interpretation, even with many fewer instruments, is more intense than what is often found in large orchestras and choirs," she maintains.

With an eye on the Liceu

Raquel García-Tomás is thus preparing for her grand premiere next season at the Liceu. She will present her opera Alexina B. in the main hall, becoming the second woman in the theater's history to do so, after Matilde Salvador in 1974 with Vinatea. "For me, the headline is not so much that she is the second woman, although I understand its transcendence, but rather the theme we address. It is the first testimony we have of the first intersex person, who wrote about their life in the 19th century. What we find truly revolutionary is that in a venue with such visibility as the Liceu, intersexuality is discussed because it is not common, neither at the Liceu nor in other opera houses nor in theater halls," she remarks.

The creator will present her opera Alexina B. next season in the main hall of the Liceu, becoming the second woman in the theater's history to do so

García-Tomás's new opera arrives after the success of Je suis narcissiste, premiered at the Teatro Real in the 2018/2019 season. In Alexina B., Marta Pazos will repeat as stage director and Elena Copons in the cast.