-Debussy’s opera is presented for the first time in the Galician city, concluding the 73rd season of Amigos de la Ópera.
The 73rd season of Amigos de la Ópera de A Coruña will conclude on December 5th with Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, a work receiving its premiere in that city under the baton of Madrid-born conductor José Miguel Pérez-Sierra. “We are faced with the pinnacle music-theatrical work of Impressionism and Symbolism, an opera with many layers of depth to explore, not only in Maeterlinck’s text – another giant of Symbolism – but also musically, because it has thousands of references. It is pure magic from beginning to end,” states the principal guest conductor of the Amigos de la Ópera Association.
For Maestro Pérez-Sierra, Pelléas et Mélisande represents “a great difficulty” in terms of assimilating it, “of studying it, because it is constant beauty that is hard to follow as it constantly rushes down various paths characteristic of Debussy’s aesthetic, all colors and atmospheres. I was fortunate to study it as an assistant to Gabriele Ferro in Palermo and I was able to conduct several rehearsals. It is a marvel from beginning to end that has been scheduled almost as a tribute to Alberto Zedda, because it was one of his favorite operas and he always wanted to stage it in A Coruña, but he never could. Now we are paying that debt to Zedda, who did so much for this city musically and operatically.”
For this conclusion of the A Coruña season, José Miguel Pérez-Sierra will conduct the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, the male section of the Coro Gaos under Fernando Briones, and a cast comprising Sabrina Gárdez, Edward Nelson, Jean-Fernand Setti, Igor Durlovski, Mónica Redondo, Belén Vaquero, and Javier Agudo.
Among other engagements, following this return to French lyrical repertoire, the Spanish maestro will make his debut in Vienna conducting Pablo Luna’s Benamor in its premiere at the Theater an der Wien (Austria), Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at the Capitole de Toulouse (France), Verdi’s Requiem at the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz, and new productions of Barbieri’s Jugar con fuego and Penella’s El Gato Montés at the Teatro de La Zarzuela in Madrid.