– The Madrid-born maestro opens the 2026–27 season with Leoš Janáček’s masterpiece before heading to Chile to conduct Carmen, plus a string of engagements in Valencia, Granada, Madrid, Bilbao, Pamplona, Kraków, and Bad Wildbad.
“It is unquestionably one of the most important operas of the twentieth century,” says José Miguel Pérez-Sierra, speaking of Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa, the work that kicks off the new season for A Coruña’s Amigos de la Ópera, where the Spanish conductor serves as principal guest conductor. “The music is thrilling, harrowing, and packs an immense emotional punch,” he continues. “On the one hand it has a Puccini-like quality, yet at the same time it is profoundly Slavic—though less Romantic in feel and firmly rooted in the twentieth century. It also has a uniquely powerful way of conveying human emotions and the intensely dramatic situations the characters go through. It portrays raw, overwhelming reality—for instance, when Jenůfa learns that her baby has died. But in any case, it is also a cry from Janáček himself, since his daughter Olga died while he was composing the opera. Jenůfa is a true challenge for both the soloists and the orchestra, and I am delighted to be conducting it for the first time in A Coruña, with a first-rate cast and the Galicia Symphony Orchestra—an ideal ensemble for tackling all the difficulties of this score,” he confesses.
With performances on 17 and 19 September, Jenůfa will be staged at the Palacio de la Ópera in A Coruña, featuring Vanessa Goikoetxea (Jenůfa), Eliška Weissová (Kostelnička Buryja), Alejandro Roy (Laca Klemen), Joan Laínez (Steva), Cristina Faus (Grandmother Buryja), Gabriel Alonso (Foreman), Javier Agudo (Mayor), Andrea Varela (Mayor’s Wife / Aunt), Belén Vaquero (Shepherdess), and Ruth González (Jano). The production is directed by Emiliano Suarez, who relocates the story to the American Deep South of the 1950s.
Following a gala concert at the Santander Festival with Piotr Beczała and Kathryn Lewek, and after opening the season in A Coruña, José Miguel Pérez-Sierra has a busy schedule ahead: Carmen (Bizet) marks his return to the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile; La verbena de la Paloma (Bretón) at the Palau de Les Arts in Valencia; a gala concert at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada; Guernica (Vidal) at Bilbao’s Palacio Euskalduna; a gala with baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez and the RTVE Orchestra at Madrid’s Teatro Monumental; and a zarzuela gala at the Auditorio Baluarte in Pamplona. Additionally, as Music Director of the Teatro de La Zarzuela, he will conduct Les ballets espagnols de «La Argentina» at the Madrid venue; the New Year’s Concert La Zarzuela y sus Paladines; a tribute to Alfredo Kraus; and new productions of La Bruja (Chapí) and El barberillo de Lavapiés (Barbieri)—the latter a co-production between the Teatro de La Zarzuela, Oviedo’s Festival de Teatro Lírico Español, and Theater Basel in Switzerland, with stage direction by Christof Loy. By summer 2027, Pérez-Sierra will resume his activities as Artistic and Music Director of the Royal Opera Festival in Kraków, as well as at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, with concerts and repertoire yet to be announced.◆