Columns linked to Patrick Summers

Adriana Lecouvreur at the Liceu: Less Sincere is the Truth

Xavier Pujol

Adriana Lecouvreur has returned to the Liceu, a title that is an authentic operone, with a great vocal score and an orchestration of high level and full of details; a very great drama, with four acts, ballet, three imposing characters and an intense dramatic conflict on a libretto with no special poetic relevance. A work with a very rare aesthetic situation given that, ascribed by the time of composition (it was premiered in 1902) to verismo, it is not about screams and stabbings...


A recycled Favorite Closes the Liceu season

Xavier Pujol

The Liceu closes its season with the slightly surprising restaging of its own setting (co-production with the Teatro Real de Madrid) of La Favorite’s original French version by Donizetti. This opera had been very popular at the Liceu during the 19th and 20th centuries, with over 200 accumulated performances, although only 10 of which were of the French version and these took place in the early 21st century.  The restaging appears surprising as 16 years ago it was...