The 18th OPERA SEASON IS OFFICIALLY INAUGURATED IN THE TEATRO REAL

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By Muriel Feiner

Mozart’s Le marriage de Figaro has inaugurated the Teatro Real’s 18th season on September 15, with 10 performances up to the 27th of the month.¹

Mozart actually was unable to finish this famous opera and so fallowing the composer’s death in 1791, it was completed by his protégé Franz Xaver Süssmayr.  Set in 18^th century Seville, the Teatro Real’s Figaro is directed by Emilio Sagi, staged by Daniel Bianco, choreography including the flamenco numbers by Nuria Castejón and the Goyesque costumes designed by Renata Schussheim.  The Musical Director is the outstanding Ivor Bolton.

Ignacio García-Belenguer, Director General of the Teatro Real; Emilio Sagi, Set Director of Le Marriage de Figaro; Joan Matabosch, resident Artistic Director; Ivor Bolton,  Musical Director, Le Marriage de Figaro; Gregorio Marañón, President of the Teatro Real and the El Greco Foundation 2014

Due to the number of performances, the opera will have two different casts on alternating dates: Luca Pisaroni and Andrei Bondarenko (Count of Almaviva), Sofia Soloviy and Anett Fritsch (Countess of Almaviva), Sylvia Schwartz and Eleonora Buratto (Susanna), Andreas Wolf and David Luciano (Figaro), Elena Tsallagova and Lena Belkina (Cherubino), Helene Schneiderman (Marcellina), Christophoros Stamboglis (Doctor Bartolo) and José Manuel Zapata (Don Basilio), among others.

Ivor Bolton, director of the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg since 2004, will direct both the theatre’s Choir and Orchestra at all the performances.

The Teatro Real seen from Plaza de Oriente

Fernando VII first commissioned the construction of the Teatro Real, in the Plaza de Oriente, in 1817, but the classic structure was not completed until 1850.  It continued to experience a rather troubled history until its last renovations which were completed in 1997, creating an elegant theatre with a capacity for 1,750 spectators and among the most technologically advanced interiors in the world.²

Coinciding with the performances in Madrid’s stately opera house will be the presentation of Mozart’s Requiem, in an extraordinary setting of the Toledo Cathedral, as part of the El Greco 2014 programming.

View of Toledo by El Greco, with the Cathedral and its bell tower, as well as the Alcazar, in the background, right, c. 1604

In a press conference held in the Theatre, Bolton, the new musical director of the “Real” and a great expert on Mozart, expressed his “immense enthusiasm” at the opportunity to direct the Teatro Real Orchestra and Choir in this magnificent venue.

The Teatro Real’s Choir and Orchestra will perform in the Cathedral and featured as the soloists are the Swedish soprano and mezzo-soprano Camilla Tilling and Ann Hallenberg respectively, Spanish tenor David Alegret and English bass Alastair Miles.

For more information: www.teatro–real.com
or Plaza de Oriente, s/n. 28013 Madrid
Tel. 902 24 48 48

1) For a video critique in Spanish of the Figaro on the opening night by musicologist and veteran commentator of classical music and opera on public radio and  national television RTVE, Jose Luis Tellez, click here.

2) A video tour of the Teatro Real: http://www.teatro-real.com/en/tours/guided-tours/

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Images
Ignacio García-Belenguer et al, by Javier del Real
Teatro Real: Luis García (Zaqarbal):  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Zaqarbal . CC-BY-SA 3.0
El Greco’s View of Toledo, uploaded byShakko:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Shakko. PD