The Liceu proposes daring to jump into the void

When one faces a dilemma, whether opting for one option or another, one jumps into the void. That brave act of deciding to choose something and leave everything else behind will be the guiding thread of the new season of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, which will encourage stepping out of the comfort zone, taking risks, and looking to the future hand in hand with characters such as Alexina, Manon, Parsifal, and Macbeth. With a program of 40 shows and more than 200 performances, including operas, dance, concerts, and recitals, the 2022/2023 season will continue the celebration of the 175th anniversary started in the current one. "We are living a good moment," defends the president of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Foundation, Salvador Alemany, after having successfully overcome the crisis caused by the pandemic.

The new season will kick off with the first display of the Liceu's twinning with the Opéra de Paris and the consequent exchange of orchestras, postponed due to covid. Gustavo Dudamel will return to the theater with Mahler's Ninth Symphony, performed by the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Paris. In turn, Josep Pons will go to the French capital to offer Bartók's opera Bluebeard's Castle. The relationship with the Opéra de Paris will go beyond this exchange and will extend over time, emphasizes the artistic director of the Liceu, Víctor Garcia de Gomar. "It is the first stone of a building that we will be constructing," he explains. Dudamel's Ninth Symphony will also be one of the pieces of the deployment that Pons will make at the Liceu in the next five seasons. The musical director of the Liceu will conduct a symphonic cycle that will cover Mahler's entire universe, starting next season with the Symphony No. 3 and 6.

As for new productions, the 22/23 season will bring the world premiere of Verdi's Macbeth with the staging by Jaume Plensa, who will fulfill a long-held dream. The Barcelona artist will have the opportunity to set his sculptural and plastic creation in motion, under the direction of maestro Josep Pons, with whom he will reunite after many years. Also noteworthy will be the arrival of the opera Alexina B. by Raquel García-Tomás, which addresses the life of an intersex person at the beginning of the 19th century and the violence with which society treated her. This representation will make García-Tomás, National Music Award in 2020, assert herself as the second woman in the history of the Liceu to premiere an absolute work, after Matilde Salvador with Vinatea (1974).

In its commitment to great national voices, the Liceu will program Donizetti's amusing Don Pasquale, which will serve to kick off the opera season, with Xavier Anduaga and Iván Ayón-Rivas in the role of Ernesto, and Sara Blanch and Serena Sáenz as Norina. The Liceu will also invite the most acclaimed names of the current scene with the return of Puccini's Il trittico, with Lise Davidsen, Ermonela Jaho, Ambrogio Maestri, and Daniela Barcellona. The three operas by the Italian composer will also be an opportunity to reduce the gender gap in the grand theater, giving the baton to Susanna Mälkki and entrusting the production to Lotte de Beer.

In Macbeth, international voices will also be heard, with Luca Salsi, Sondra Radvanovsky, and Anna Pirozzi, as well as in Massenet's Manon, with Nadine Sierra and Javier Camarena, and Wagner's Parsifal, with Nikolai Schukoff, Elena Pankratova, René Pape, Matthias Goerne, and Evgeny Nikitin, who will bring the German composer and conductor back to the Liceu. The recital starring three legends of the Wagnerian world such as Waltraud Meier, Iréne Theorin, and Lise Davidsen will also stand out.

In the handling of these voices, both national and international, the 22/23 season will welcome professionals of the stature of Álex Ollé, resident artist at the Liceu, who will direct Verdi's Il trovatore with a staging inspired by the First World War. "We must think about a future, if possible, in peace," Ollé demands. The connection between Calixto Bieito and Jordi Savall will also be experienced in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, about vanity and its obsessive characters. Bieito signs the production, premiered at the Opernhaus in Zurich in 2018 and one of the most acclaimed shows in recent seasons, while Savall will conduct.

For the arts

Dance will be present in the new season. Blanca Li will be in charge of the choreography and stage direction of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, accompanied by William Christie in the direction. Akram Khan will return to the Liceu with Jungle Book reimagined, based on Rudyard Kipling's original story and dealing with climate change and shared life among the different species on the planet. The most experimental proposal will be Coppél-i.A by Ballets de Montecarlo, playing from the beginning, in the title itself, with the world of artificial intelligence.

There will also be space to promote new talents, through the (Òh!)pera project, and other disciplines, delving into the path that the Barcelona theater has taken to become an arts center, initiated by Garcia de Gomar. Beyond Macbeth, Schubert's Winterreise will be nourished by the scenic proposal of painter and sculptor Antonio López, an initiative that also had to be postponed. It will be performed in the old Modelo penitentiary center, making his work dialogue with the music of the Austrian composer. 7 Deaths of Maria Callas will mix opera, live art, performance, and video creation with Marina Abramović, on the centenary of Callas' birth.

Reaching 17,500 subscriptions

To culminate the celebration of its 175th anniversary, the Liceu wants to reach 17,500 subscriptions, an objective it wants to contribute to by making them 100% flexible, allowing unlimited changes from now on, both in titles and dates. Currently, it has more than 15,300 subscriptions. A new digital platform will also be created to follow next season's operas from home, with live streaming and extended versions.

It will introduce 100% flexible subscriptions, allowing unlimited changes from now on, both in titles and dates.

The Liceu's second venue moves forward

Barcelona's selection to host the America's Cup in 2024 does not stop the Liceu's plans to expand in Port Vell. The cultural institution had set its sights on the old Imax, forgotten and abandoned for years. It was expected to be demolished in the short term, but this action has been postponed, considering that this will be the space that will host New Zealand, the organizing team of the competition that will have to defend the title against its rivals, and the America's Cup offices.

Despite all this, Alemany emphasizes that the project for the Liceu's second venue is still underway, after the foundation's board of trustees unanimously approved this Monday to begin preparations for the international architecture competition to define this new space. Without yet specifying the cost of this project, the president details that the works are expected to be completed in the second half of 2027.