The Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife will once again participate in the programming of the 2024-2025 season of Ópera de Tenerife.
The Cabildo de Tenerife hosted on Thursday, April 25, the presentation of this new edition in which five high-level subscription titles are maintained, with traditional and newly created titles. The bets for Family Opera and Chamber Opera are maintained. In addition, new outreach projects such as Ópera barroca or the Ópera en minúscula festival will be launched to take opera to other parts of the island, to approach different formats and to open collaborations with other institutions.
The details of this new series were announced by the island's Minister of Culture, José Carlos Acha, the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Horacio Umpiérrez, and the artistic director of the Auditorio de Tenerife, José Luis Rivero.
José Carlos Acha stressed that "this year five high-level titles and we have moved towards baroque opera and some small-format models in other spaces, closer to the viewer, with the collaboration of the Government of the Canary Islands and INAEM". "This information reflects months and months of work by the whole Auditorium team," said the island's Minister of Culture.
Horacio Umpiérrez highlighted the volume of support from the Government of the Canary Islands since the time of Socaem and highlighted the moment when "the Cabildo de Tenerife and Auditorio de Tenerife took the bull by the horns when it was necessary to move towards a different management model that could develop the discipline itself. That model has marked how the rest of the institutions have been working and now two models subsist naturally in the Canary Islands".
José Luis Rivero considered that "this moment is a celebration because it is the start of many months of work and to be able to kick off with the sale of season tickets", he pointed out as one of the objectives "to catalyze creative developments both in our territory and in relations abroad" and said that "the legacy of Ópera de Tenerife for the future is our commitment to contemporary creations". The artistic director of the Tenerife Auditorium stressed that "this season is the cheapest in Spain".
The five titles included in the subscription are the opera produced in-house. Ariadne auf Naxosby Richard Strauss (October); Madama Butterflyby Giacomo Puccini (November), a production of the Teatro Comunale di Modena; The beautiful Susonaby Alberto Carretero (December), a contemporary proposal co-produced by Tenerife and the Teatro de la Maestranza; Giovanna d'Arcoby Giusepppe Verdi (March), a co-production of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía; and Parsifal, a symphonic-choral synthesis in three acts by Pedro Halffter (June), an adaptation of Wagner's work for choir and orchestra.
All these titles include the participation of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife. The Ópera de Tenerife-Intermezzo choir will be part of all the productions, except the one that opens the season. The performances begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Symphonic Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife.
Rivero pointed out that this season "ends the tetralogy that we have dedicated to the history of music to women and in this fourth year we offer another point of view of women" and considered that "the aesthetics of Tenerife opera moves in the traditional, the contemporary and we expand towards the baroque aesthetics and towards the romantic lied with other formats and in some programs such as Ópera en minúscula with the important help of the Government of the Canary Islands".
The season begins on October 15, 17 and 19 with a production of the opera Ariadne auf Naxos, by Richard Strauss, in a prologue and one act. This metatheater is based on the mythological story of Ariadne, abandoned by her lover Theseus on the Greek island of Naxos, shortly after helping him defeat the Minotaur. Commedia dell'arte characters led by Zerbinetta, played by soprano Serena Saenz, will be in charge of cheering up the princess, a leading role played by soprano Irina Churilova, who ends up meeting the god Bacchus, played by tenor Michal König. The role of the composer will be played by mezzo-soprano Na'ama Goldman. The musical direction is by Diego Martín-Etxebarría and the stage direction is by Nicola Berloffa.
One of the most performed operas in the world, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, comes to the Auditorio de Tenerife on November 19, 21 and 23 to thrill with the tragic story of Cio-Cio-San. This geisha, played by soprano Kristine Opolais, turns to her marriage to Pinkerton, an American military man played by tenor Giorgi Sturua, who takes her more as a hobby during his stay in Japan than as a real couple. The servant Susuki and the consul Sharpless, will be played by mezzo-soprano Alisa Kolosova and baritone Fernando Campero, respectively. The three acts of Puccini's 120th anniversary tale mix love, betrayal and sacrifice. Ramón Tebar is in charge of the musical direction, while Stefano Monti is in charge of the stage.
La bella Susona, which will be performed on December 7, tells the story of a young Sevillian Jewess of the 15th century, brought to life by soprano Daisy Press, who betrayed her father, baritone Luis Cansino, by revealing to her beloved, a Christian knight played by tenor José Luis Sola, the existence of a plot of which he was the ringleader. The members of the conspiratorial group were arrested and executed. La Susona, repudiated and dejected, retired to a convent and ordered that, upon her death, her head be hung over the door of her house. Nacho de Paz will be the musical director, while Carlos Wagner is in charge of the stage and dramaturgy.
On March 25, 27 and 29, 2025, Giovanna d'Arco, Verdi's seventh opera, will be performed at the Tenerife Auditorium. This work tells the story of Joan of Arc, a young French peasant girl of the 15th century who helped to establish Charles VII as king in his fight against the English invasion during the Hundred Years' War. The archangel Michael and two martyrs spoke to the young woman through visions that gave her the keys to lead the battles. Leading the cast in this production are two Canarian singers with successful international careers: Yolanda Auyanet as Joan of Arc and Airam Hernández as the monarch. The shepherd Giacomo will be played by baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez. Lukasz Borowicz's musical direction will be complemented by Davide Livermore's stage direction.
The last of the season's subscription titles is Parsifal, Pedro Halffter's symphonic-choral synthesis in three acts, which will take place on June 28. After the symphonic poem Tannhäuser in 2023, the conductor from Madrid returns to Ópera de Tenerife to present a reduced version, with chorus and orchestra, of a work by his admired Richard Wagner. This time it is Parsifal, the great opera by the German composer about the life of the knight of King Arthur's court and his quest for the Holy Grail.
Completing the season are these proposals, not included in the subscription: Ópera en minúscula (September), to be held at the Espacio La Granja, a production of Auditorio de Tenerife, Teatro Extremo and the Comunidad de Madrid; Die Fledermaus(The Bat) by Johann Strauss (December), in collaboration with the Festival de Música de Canarias and the Teatro Pérez Galdós; the chamber opera Trouble in Tahiti, by Leonard Bernstein (January), a revival of the production of Auditorio de Tenerife; a baroque opera in collaboration with the Teatro Guimerá (January-February), which will be accompanied by baroque recitals; the family opera El retablo de maese Pedro, by Manuel de Falla (April), a production with puppets by Compañía Etcétera, Teatro Real and Festival de Música y Danza de Granada; and several lyric recitals with the soprano Raquel Lojendio.
