The production, directed by Paco Azorín, is shortlisted for Best Rediscovered Work, having already received two Talía Awards
Auditorio de Tenerife’s production of Yerma is a finalist in the International Opera Awards, in the Rediscovered Work category. The shortlist was announced today by the organisers of the awards, which were founded in 2012 by Harry Hyman and celebrate excellence in opera worldwide each year. Heitor Villa-Lobos’s opera, based on Federico García Lorca’s play of the same name, was staged by Paco Azorín and received its European premiere in October 2025 in the Symphony Hall at Auditorio de Tenerife. The production used a new critical edition of the score revised by Luiz Fernando Malheiro, marking the work’s first modern revival.
The awards ceremony, at which the winners will be announced, will take place at the MusikTheater an der Wien in Austria on 21 November. This production of Yerma has already received two 2026 Talía Awards from the Spanish Academy of Performing Arts: Best Opera Production and Best Costume Design.
José Carlos Acha, Councillor for Cultural Affairs, Museums and Sport at the Tenerife Island Council, says he is ‘very proud of the success achieved by Ópera de Tenerife as a whole, and by this production in particular, through recognition from the sector and the support of audiences’. Acha, who is also president of Auditorio de Tenerife, adds: ‘The hard work carried out locally, but informed by international experience and a global outlook, is rewarded by news such as this. I would therefore like to congratulate all the technical and administrative teams at Auditorio de Tenerife who made the production of Yerma possible.’
‘I wish all the finalists the very best of luck, because I know first-hand the effort required by an artistic discipline as comprehensive and complex as opera,’ said the councillor, who also acknowledged the production’s co-producers, the Festival Amazonas de Ópera in Manaus, Brazil, and Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid.
The opera has rarely been staged. Composed in 1956, it did not receive its premiere until 1971 at Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico, United States, twelve years after Villa-Lobos’s death. On that occasion, the role of Yerma was performed by Catalan soprano Mirna Lacambra, now in her nineties and a leading figure in the opera world, who attended the Tenerife premiere.
For the European premiere and revival, musical director Luiz Fernando Malheiro conducted the Sinfónica de Tenerife. Paco Azorín was responsible for stage direction, dramaturgy and set design; Riccardo Benfatto was assistant stage director; Carlos Martos de la Vega was responsible for dramaturgy and stage movement; Pedro Chamizo designed the video; Pedro Yagüe the lighting; and Blanca Torres Cazallas provided historical and psychological consultancy.
The Tenerife cast, under the musical direction of Luiz Fernando Malheiro for three performances and Pablo Urbina for one, featured two sopranos in the title role: Berna Perles, who sang three performances, and María Miró. They were joined by tenor Alejandro Roy as Juan, baritone Javier Castañeda as Víctor, mezzo-soprano Anna Gomà as María and mezzo-soprano María José Montiel as Dolores. Other roles—including old women, young women, sisters-in-law and washerwomen—were performed by mezzo-sopranos Belén Elvira, Guadalupe Barrientos and Alexandra Urquiola, and sopranos Zayra Ruiz, Marga Cloquell and Carmen Mateo. Tenor Alberto Ballesta performed the role of El Macho.
Ópera de Tenerife is an initiative organised by the Island Council through the Auditorio de Tenerife with the sponsorship of the ICDC (Regional Institute of Cultural Development) and the INAEM (Spanish National Institute of Performing Arts and Music).