– The Madrid maestro establishes for the second consecutive year the collaboration between the Royal Opera Festival in Krakow, of which he is the artistic director, and the Jan Kiepura Festival in Krynica-Zdrój, which this August 13 announces La tabernera del puerto under the baton of Julio César Picos.
José Miguel Pérez-Sierra, artistic director of the Royal Opera Festival in Krakow (Poland) since 2024, will bring the zarzuela La tabernera del puerto, by Sorozábal, to the 58th Jan Kiepura Festival in Krynica-Zdrój (Polonia) next Wednesday, August 13. The Madrid maestro, also musical director of the Teatro de La Zarzuela in Madrid, has for some years been undertaking work to disseminate and expand the Spanish lyric genre throughout half of Europe. In this sense, the Royal Opera Festival, one of the three European summer festivals focused on the work of Gioachino Rossini, twinned, through collaborations and programming, with the Rossini in Wildbad Festival (Germany), has raised its curtain for a few seasons now with a zarzuela title during the “Days of Spanish Music” programmed by the Krakow Philharmonic with the support of the Cervantes Institute. Last year the collaboration with the Krynica-Zdrój festival began with Luisa Fernanda, after its stop in Krakow, and this year the link is resumed with La tabernera del puerto. In Krynica-Zdrój, the Spanish maestro Julio César Picos will conduct this popular zarzuela title with the Krakow Philharmonic and Hispanic artists such as Luis López Navarro (Simpson), Pancho Corujo (Leandro), Emmanuel Franco (Juan de Eguía), alongside the Polish singers Katarzyna Duran (Marola), Lidia Sosnowska (Abel), Dobromiła Lebiecka (Antigua), Bartłomiej Chorąży (Chinchorro), Michał Barański (Ripalda) and Patryk Wyborski (Verdier).
On the other hand, and always in this realm, maestro Pérez-Sierra has recently established a close collaboration with the zarzuela company Los Paladines, created by stage director Christof Loy in the 2024/2025 season, which seeks to give international visibility to the Hispanic genre. In addition to several operatic and symphonic commitments, the Madrid conductor will lead various zarzuela titles promoted by this company at a national and international level, such as a zarzuela gala and El barberillo de Lavapiés (Barbieri) at the Theater Basel (Basel, Switzerland), Benamor (Luna) at the Theater an der Wien (Vienna, Austria), El gato montés (Penella) at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid (where he will also conduct Jugar con fuego by Barbieri) and another Zarzuela Gala at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Germany).