Opera

A journey through the imaginary of Jaume Plensa in the Macbeth opera

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With Jaume Plensa as artistic director, Verdi’s opera Macbeth premieres on February 16 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

This was already announced by Richard Wagner when he coined the term “Gesamtkunstwerk”, referring to opera as a total work of art that integrates the six arts: painting, sculpture, music, poetry, dance and architecture.

The Wagnerian ideal seeks a fusion between all the participatory elements of opera, as Jaume Plensa, known for his multifaceted artistic vision, has done. The Catalan artist has taken on the challenge of directing the stage production of the opera Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Verdi’s well-known opera premieres this February 16 under the direction of Josep Pons, with a powerful aesthetic and ritual presence of Jaume Plensa. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the artist confesses that “it is one of the most profound and interesting reflections on duality between body and soul, between abstraction and matter“.

Plensa affirms that “it is one of Shakespeare’s most mental plays, because we have all been Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and other characters in the play at one time or another“, which is addressed “to the deepest sense of the human being“. All in all, for Plensa, Macbeth represents a deeply introspective theatrical work that resonates with the universal human experience. He explains that each character in the play is a representation of diverse aspects of the human being, inviting the viewer to explore his or her own psyche through the operatic narrative.

“I wanted to make a completely mental opera, to see in each scene moments that are like us, we have all been characters in the piece at one time or another“. Through the costumes, with most costumes out of his time, working on the choreography with Antonio Ruiz and lighting with Urs Schönebaum, Jaume Plensa aims to bring the viewer a more spiritual vision of the work, capturing in the best possible way the journey through the imaginary characteristic of the sculptor. His goal is to take the viewer on a spiritual journey through the rich imaginary that characterizes his work as a sculptor.

Image of white, black, red and gold colored figurines
Image of white, black, red and silver colored figurines

Macbeth art direction mock-up

The opera has an exquisite cast formed by Luca Salsi, Željko Lučić, Erwin Schrott, Simón Orfila, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Gemma Coma-Alabert, Francesco Pio Galasso, Celso Albelo, Fabian Lara and David Lagares. With special enthusiasm, we will meet again with Sondra Radvanovsky, soprano who plays Lady Macbeth and of whom we remember her visit to ARCO Madrid 2021 on the occasion of the presentation of the poster of the Castell de Peralada Festival.

Photograph of four men and a woman smiling at the camera posing in front of a painting

From left to right, Oriol Aguilà, director of the Festival Castell de Peralada; Joan Matabosch, artistic director of the Teatro Real; Carlos Álvarez, baritone; Sondra Radvanovsky, soprano; and artist Jordi Bernadó, posing with one of his works exhibited at ARCO Madrid 2021.

Image of white, black and red figurines
Photograph of Jaume Plensa seated on a chair with a microphone in hand

Jaume Plensa selected works:

Jaume Plensa – Bartók
Jaume Plensa Tears
Jaume Plensa – SLUMBERLAND III

Yago Hortal presents Opera Season with Amics del Liceu at Lab36

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“Each opera had a color and each title I have treated with a different brushstroke, paying attention to the musical rhythm.”

Yago Hortal

The artist from Barcelona debuts in the world of opera for the 31st edition of the publication of Amics del Liceu and exhibits 26 originals created for the book Temporada d’Opera: “Opera Season” at Lab36.

The link between art and music is one of the objectives of “Temporada d’Opera” and one of the reasons why Yago Hortal was commissioned to create the works for each of the operas that will be performed during the 2022-2023 season.

Opening this Wednesday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. at Lab36. See you there!

“Temporada d’Opera” was born as a preparation tool to attend Liceu performances and as a path for the renewal of operatic iconography with contemporary artists. Every year the Association invites great personalities – writers, politicians, intellectuals, etc. – to present the operas programmed by the Gran Teatre del Liceu with the intention of showing unusual visions and, at the same time, making it clear that there are many and very diverse who love the art of opera. In other chapters, opera critics and musicologists from around the world also analyze the titles.

Yago Hortal
L’incoronazione de Poppea 1, 2022
Acrylic on aluminium
30 x 21 cm
Yago Hortal
Macbeth 2, 2022
Acrylic on aluminium
42 x 30 cm
Yago Hortal
Il trittico, 2022
Acrylic on aluminium
30 x 63 cm

For more information on the work available in this exhibition, please contact by phone +34 934 87 67 59 or via e-mail to: info@galeriasenda.com

Visit our online store here.

The new doors of Jaume Plensa at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona

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“The letter seems to me a beautiful metaphor of society: a single letter is nothing; but together with others it can form words, concepts; this is the power of community.” – Jaume Plensa

The Gran Teatre del Liceu opened the 2022-2023 season yesterday, Monday, with the new doors, or ‘Constellations’, the work of sculptor Jaume Plensa, highlighting the celebration of the 175th anniversary of the historic Barcelona institution.

The artist Jaume Plensa next to Salvador Alemany, president of the Fundació del Gran Teatre del Liceu 

The doors (stainless steel, 4 x 4 m) are inspired by two classics of Catalan culture: the architect Antoni Gaudí, and the painter Joan Miró, with his nearby Pla de la Boquería mosaic, in addition to the close relationship with the name of one of his most original series ‘Constel·lacions (1939)’.

“I think this dialogue between the past and the future gives us the key to the present: the contemporary gesture at the heart of society, embracing music with words and voice with writing.” The artist said yesterday at the opening ceremony at Las Ramblas.

Plensa intends to vindicate the diversity of the promenade with letters from nine alphabets engraved on the railings – intermingling Arabic, Latin or Chinese – that will reflect their moving shadows on the floor of the entrance, when the doors reach the light of the lamps of the portal.

During the presentation of the doors, the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, also expressed the importance of this work for the city: “I want to thank all the members of the Board of Trustees who accepted it so quickly, that they see so lucidly that this proposal would be key for the Liceu, but also for the Ramblas, Barcelona and Catalonia.” And she has added that “having art available to everyone makes it possible for citizens to know and value it. I am sure that these doors will awaken the love for art in many pedestrians, and in the spectators who pass through them to enjoy the opera in this important facility.”

For his part, the Deputy Mayor for Culture, Education, Science and Community of the Barcelona City Council, Jordi Martí, has emphasized above all the commitment of the Liceu to “link to contemporary artists of the city and to do it in a total and determined way, not just with a small gesture. Today we are opening three doors, but we will also be able to see Macbeth with the stage direction of Jaume Plensa.” Martí has ​​insisted that the doors “improve the artistic environment of the Ramblas” and wanted to thank the artist for his “humble and restrained gesture because Constelaciones are integrated into the landscape and do not become an isolated work of art.”

After the institutional parliaments, the act has continued with the first official opening of the doors while the Coro del Gran Teatre del Liceu performed the Wagnerian piece Freudig begrüß en wir die edle Halle (Tannhäuser, act II) on the Rambla, directed by the director of the Choir, Pablo Assante, and accompanied on piano by David-Huy Nguyen-Phung. A piece from the second act of the Tannhäuser that celebrates the entrance of the guests and that wants to be a symbolic and metaphorical gesture of doors that invite the public to enter and enjoy the universal language that is music.

“The alphabet represents a harmony that celebrates the great diversity of the world,” said Plensa. The president of the fundación del Liceo, Salvador Alemany, has stated that the sculptor’s work is “a gift that gives prestige to the Rambla and the Liceo”.

No es la primera vez que el escultor dispone de una obra cerca de un núcleo cultural de la ciudad condal. Carmela, un rostro de cuatro metros, mitad niña y mitad adolescente, preside la fachada del Palau de la Música. El artista, Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas 2012, ha proyectado sus conocidos rostros en otras capitales como Madrid, (Julia) o New York (El alma del agua).

Plensa will maintain his relationship with the Liceo in the new season as the person in charge of the scenery of the Macbeth of Verdi, que se estrenará el próximo febrero.

Technical and operating elements

As for the technical details, these doors weigh around 500 kilograms each and migrate on a single axis that is embedded at the start of the arch just above the capital; of the pilasters. The convexity of the doors does not exceed the outer plane of the pilasters and means that the minimum passage below the open sheepfold is about 3 m high. One of the characteristics of the structure is that the doors do not open laterally, but have an opening movement from bottom to top. In this way, in addition to physical sculpture, we also seek a set of dialogues with spaces, reflections and optical visions of light and shadow. Thus, all those who walk the ground of the Rambla will be able to walk on this carpet of shadows of the installation itself. The work is integrated without affecting any other past element incorporated prior to the facade of Oriol Mestres from 1874 and recovered in 2019.

Bibliography:

https://www.liceubarcelona.cat/es/el-liceu-inaugura-la-obra-constelaciones-de-plensa

https://elpais.com/espana/catalunya/2022-09-05/el-liceo-inaugura-la-temporada-con-las-nuevas-puertas-de-jaume-plensa.html

https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20220906/8504964/plensa-enriquece-fachada-gran-teatre.html

https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20220905/8504963/abren-cierran-levitan.html

The new sculptural doors for the Liceu on its 175th anniversary by Jaume Plensa

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The doors that the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa has designed for the entrance of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in homage to music, Antoni Gaudí, Joan Miró and the “diversity” of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, join the celebration of the 175th anniversary of the inauguration of the Liceu.

Plensa said that with the lobby doors he wanted to pay homage to Gaudí’s grilles and Miró’s constellations, which is why he has named them “Constel·lacions“, as well as to the “artery of diversity” of Barcelona, which for him is Las Ramblas. “Constel·lacions” will be installed in the three arcades of the main entrance of the theater and will be integrated without affecting other elements previously incorporated into the facade of Oriol Mestres of 1874 and recovered in 2019.

Photograph of the facade of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona

Jaume Plensa’s doors to be incorporated at the entrance of the Liceu

Plensa stressed that the doors are a conglomerate of letters that grow, with the color of moonlight, and remarked that humanity is marked by language, and therefore, in his creation, he wanted to show “alphabets of many cultures“.

“You already know my world of texts and alphabets. I like to mix different cultures because I think we are very good when we are together, keeping our individuality and small differences, but how good we are when we are together! And I think these doors are a tribute to diversity, even more so in Las Ramblas, which is the artery of diversity in Barcelona“.

Jaume Plensa

Despite admitting that he hates doors, as well as everything that closes, the artist has remarked that the more he sees the design the more he likes it – the doors will open vertically – and believes that they have been a success. In addition, he has remarked that they will also serve to “dignify the area” in what he has defined as a gift from the Liceu to the city and become the new face of the theater. Asked if he fears that the doors may be damaged, he said that it will provide a finish that supports very well the restoration without complications.

These are “quite light” pieces, in the artist’s words, weighing some 500 kilograms each and with a thickness of 1 centimeter of steel, which gives them rigidity and lightness at the same time. The president of the Liceu, Salvador Alemany, and the theater’s artistic director, Víctor García de Gomar, are confident that the doors will be installed at the start of the 2022-2023 season, towards the end of September. They have cost about 750,000 euros – Plensa has not wanted to collect his fees -, of which 50% is assumed by ACS Foundation, 35% through Feder funds and the remaining 15% by the theater, as reported by Europa Press.

Excerpt from El Mundo

Image of the model of the doors of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona

The model of Plensa’s work for the Liceu | Photograph by FERRAN NADEU

“The doors presented two extraordinary challenges” adds Plensa. “One is the building itself, which everyone says is horrifying, but I think that when horror accumulates, it ends up being wonderful. I wouldn’t touch a comma of this building. I love the chandeliers at the entrance. And the second is that we are looking at an extraordinary work by Miró on Las Ramblas that I think has strongly marked many things in the city, including the tragic moment of the attack in the city, which ended right in front of the building“.

“In these «Constel·lacions» I wanted to pay tribute to the Liceu, to music, but also to think of an architect who has given us many days of glory in the city, Gaudí, and I chose the title precisely because of this world of Miró’s constellations, who is the one I especially want to pay tribute to” he added.

Excerpt from La Vanguardia

Photograph of Jaume Plensa with his model of the doors of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Plensa, with the model of his work for the Liceu | Photograph by FERRAN NADEU

Jaume Plensa – ALCHIMISTES I
Jaume Plensa – SLUMBERLAND II
Jaume Plensa – Verdi