The series, which begins on Saturday, will feature performances at Espacio La Granja, Teatro Leal and the Auditorio de Tenerife
Four small-scale productions make up the third edition of Ópera en minúscula. Two will take place at Espacio La Granja, one at Teatro Leal and another in the Chamber Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife. Details of Ópera de Tenerife’s pre-season programme were presented by the Tenerife Island Council’s Councillor for Cultural Affairs, José Carlos Acha; the Artistic Director of the Auditorio de Tenerife, José Luis Rivero; the Performing Arts Coordinator at the Canary Islands Institute for Cultural Development, Lorena Matute; and the stage director of La clausura del amor, Ricardo Campelo.
José Carlos Acha highlighted the “undoubted freshness and contemporary appeal of these four productions, which feature modern operas with highly engaging music and stories”. The Councillor for Cultural Affairs emphasised that “these are operas that bring something new to the classical repertoire”. “We are presenting this third edition following the undeniable success of the previous two, whose formats allow us to venture beyond the Auditorio.” Acha also stressed that “one of our objectives is to democratise culture; that is why we are expanding the range of venues and why tickets – already on sale at all three venues and through the usual channels – are available for €10”.
José Luis Rivero explained that “we are offering smaller-scale formats, but there is nothing small about the ambition we bring to these projects or what they mean to us”. The Auditorio’s Artistic Director added that “it has become a pre-season programme in which we have launched co-production initiatives and partnerships with organisations and professionals who share the same vision”. “From the outset, this collaboration has included a project by the Community of Madrid in partnership with Teatro Xtremo, with whom we co-produce an opera for each edition – in this case, La clausura del amor.” For Rivero, Ópera en minúscula is “a space for experimentation and for breaking down the barriers many people associate with opera; we explore different sounds, research processes and ways of engaging with audiences, hence the importance of presenting the programme at different venues”. He also highlighted that three of the four productions are by female composers: Gabriela Ortiz, Ana Sokolović and Reyes Oteo.
Ricardo Campelo, who co-directs Teatro Xtremo with Ruth González, acknowledged that “it is very satisfying to see how this project continues to grow”. “Ópera a quemarropa in Madrid has grown alongside Ópera en minúscula – a highly enriching two-way journey,” he said. “In this edition, we have focused on the human scale: we bring to the stage what happens to individuals, telling stories about things that may seem small.” As examples, Campelo cited the breakdown in communication between a couple separating in La clausura del amor, the unusual hen party in Svadba, the hopes of a student poet in Luciérnaga and the life of an immigrant in The Golden Dragon. As stage director of La clausura del amor, he described the experience as “delightful musically, painful because of the content of the play, and cathartic in terms of how I have been able to direct it”.
Lorena Matute, Performing Arts Coordinator at the Canary Islands Institute for Cultural Development, stated that “Ópera en minúscula offers enormous artistic richness, and witnessing a project like this is genuinely transformative because it offers a different approach to opera. It is highly innovative and also attracts new audiences, which is very positive for everyone”. The head of Espacio La Granja expressed her gratitude for “continuing to be part of this programme, as we have been since its first edition, because the Canary Islands Government believes that collaboration between institutions is essential in order to bring culture to the public”. “We appreciate the trust placed in us and hope that these collaborations between venues will continue,” Matute said.
This series forms part of the Ópera de Tenerife programme, an initiative of the Tenerife Island Council, through the Auditorio de Tenerife, sponsored by the Canary Islands Institute for Cultural Development of the Canary Islands Government and the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM) of the Spanish Government. This third edition of Ópera en minúscula also has the support of La Laguna City Council.
The first performance will take place this Saturday, 12 September, at 7.00 pm at Espacio La Granja, with Luciérnaga, by Gabriela Ortiz, with a libretto by Silvia Peláez. Ludwig Carrasco is the musical director and César Martín the stage director; costume design is by Yaiza Pinillos, set design by Felipe Cabezas and lighting design by Natalia Ramos.
Soprano Carmen Acosta, actor Javier Santos and the Classical Laguna Experience Orchestra make up the cast of a work based on a true story from the 1968 student movement in Mexico, centred on the Uruguayan poet Alcira Soust Scaffo. Following the military occupation of UNAM, Alcira remained hidden in a toilet for 12 days without food, surviving on water from the washbasins and poetry. The work explores her confinement through an interior monologue addressing resistance, art and historical memory, and pays tribute to the victims of repression.
On 19 September, also at 7.00 pm, Espacio La Granja will host the second production in Ópera en minúscula: Svadba (The Wedding), by Ana Sokolović, with stage direction and choreography by Aixa Guerra and musical direction by Juan Jurado. Lighting design is by Ernest Fuster, costume design by Olivier Grau and set design by Joan Jorba.
Composed by Ana Sokolović, Svadba is a journey for six a cappella singers. Sung in Serbian, the action takes place on the night before a wedding, when the bride spends the evening celebrating with her closest friends. The women gather for a hen party, invoking pagan rituals as they celebrate their friend’s last night before marriage and prepare her for the wedding. Singers Adriana Aranda, Anaïs Masllorens, Joana Estebanell, Mar Esteve, Milica Jovičić and Violeta Alarcón perform using Balkan folk vocal techniques, including ornamentation, extreme chest voice, high nasal voice, whispers and rhythmic patterns.
The new Auditorio de Tenerife production, The Golden Dragon by Péter Eötvös, will be performed at Teatro Leal in La Laguna on 25 and 26 September at 7.00 pm. Jordi Francés is the musical director and Bárbara Lluch the stage director; set design is by David Pizarro and Rober del Campo, lighting design by Marc Gonzalo, costume design by Clara Peluffo and choreography by Mercè Grané. The cast comprises soprano Natalia Labourdette, mezzo-soprano Anna Gomà, tenors Pablo García-López and Santiago Bürgi, and baritone Toni Marsol.
The opera is based on the play of the same name by German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig, a contemporary tragedy with a grotesque, performative tone, set over the course of a single night in a multi-storey building. In the kitchen of the Thai-Chinese-Vietnamese fast-food restaurant The Golden Dragon, a young Chinese woman is suffering from severe toothache. She has no residence permit, no money and cannot go to a dentist. Nor can she find her missing sister. Her colleagues decide to extract the tooth themselves. The young woman’s story is interwoven with those of the building’s many other residents.
Ópera en minúscula concludes on 3 October in the Chamber Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife with La clausura del amor, by Reyes Oteo, with a libretto by Pascal Rambert. It is a co-production by the Auditorio de Tenerife, the Community of Madrid and Teatro Xtremo. Ricardo Campelo is responsible for stage direction, set design and video, while lighting and costume design are by Alicia Soriano and Rhina, respectively. Soprano Ruth González and baritone Enrique Sánchez-Ramos make up the cast.
The relationship between a man and a woman has come to an end. Now they find themselves face to face. He speaks first while she listens attentively. Then she speaks, and he receives her words in silence. The dissection of a shared story. These are the essential elements of La clausura del amor. Originally a play by French playwright Pascal Rambert, the work now comes to the stage as a chamber opera by the Spanish company Teatro Xtremo, in co-production with the Auditorio de Tenerife.
Music, singing and experimental staging shape this piece, which places the audience at the heart of a romantic struggle – between voice and body, heartbreak and beauty. In this version, Rambert’s text is transformed into musical material, performed live by a quartet and accompanied by striking staging elements, including a camera that projects live close-ups of the two singers’ expressions onto the backdrop as they face one another.