The composer of the opera, Miquel Ortega, will conduct the Symphony of Tenerife, and the director Silvia Paoli opts for a rocky desert.

The Auditorio de Tenerife, a space that depends on the Culture area of ​​the Cabildo, directed by the councilor Enrique Arriaga, opens next week the season 21-22 of Ópera de Tenerife with La casa de Bernarda Alba. The next days 19, 21 and 23, starting at 7:30 p.m., the stage director Silvia Paoli will turn the Symphonic Hall into a rocky desert to receive this opera, inspired by the homonymous drama by Federico García Lorca and composed by Miquel Ortega, who will conduct the Tenerife Symphony. The presentation of this new production took place on Wednesday October 13 with the assistance of the insular director of Culture, Alejandro Krawietz; the composer and musical director, Miquel Ortega; the stage director, Silvia Paoli, and the nine singers that make up the cast.

Alejandro Krawietz assured that “it is a pleasure to open the season offering this own production, which is an opening to the contemporary field of opera, working, in this case, in the tradition of verismo and opening new windows to unusual lyrical languages”. “Last year it was difficult to trace the operatic activity and now, although the situation is more relaxed, there are still many protocols and I thank the team for the effort and involvement to face these new challenges,” said the insular director of Culture.

Miquel Ortega acknowledged that “it is a pleasure to work again with the extraordinary Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and I am very grateful to my musical team for the effort they are carrying out.” The author of this Lorca work acknowledges that “this opera was not a commission, I did it because I wanted to and because Lorca has fascinated me since I was young, so I knew it would take me years to finish it.” As for Paoli’s proposal, he praised its “plastic beauty, Lorca symbolism and resemblance to the great Greek tragedies.”

Silvia Paoli declared that “this staging was not done simply because I wanted to do something different, but because it is what I feel, it is my way of interpreting the work of maestro Ortega and Lorca”. The director pointed out that “this is the first time that I work with a team made up entirely of women and I think this is what Lorca would like: to represent women with women.” Regarding her proposal, she stressed that “we are in the 21st century, in the year 2021, we were not going to simply build a house because I believe that the most important thing in this historical moment is to represent the feelings, what is inside that house”.

On behalf of the singers, Nancy Fabiola Herrera intervened, who recommended “everyone to come to the opera to live again because a show can only be understood live.” “This cast is working in total synchronicity and I think it should be like that because to represent a dysfunctional family like Bernarda Alba’s on stage, we must function as a functional family behind the scenes, and that has been achieved in this production.” The mezzo-soprano, who will play the role of Bernarda, anticipates that “it is a production that will keep you tense from the first to the last minute.”

In addition to Herrera, this show will feature the soprano Carmen Acosta as Adela, Beatriz Lanza as Martirio, the mezzo Marina Rodríguez-Cusí as Amelia, the mezzo Belén Elvira as Magdalena (who also repeats the role) and the soprano Melody Louledjian as Angustias. The baritone Luis Cansino will once again play the role of the housekeeper Poncia, the soprano Carmen Mateo will play one of the maids and the actress Marga Arnau will play María Josefa, Bernarda’s mother.

After long years of work, in 2006 the first Spanish operatic version of this piece was completed, which would be premiered, in its symphonic version, at the Brasov Theater in Romania on December 13, 2007, to be presented for the first time in Spain in 2009, at the Santander and Perelada festivals. The debut at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in 2018 has meant a relaunch of this contemporary opera, which has already passed through the Cervantes Theater in Malaga, where it closed its XXXII lyrical season in July 2021, and at the Villamarta Theater in Jerez de la Frontera, where the 2021-2022 season opened this month of October, as it also does these days at Ópera de Tenerife.

The poet and playwright Federico García Lorca could not see his last dramatic work performed, La casa de Bernarda Alba, which ended in June 1936, two months before his murder. Everything, life and performance, was interrupted by the Civil War and death, and the play would have to wait until 1945 to be premiered at the Avenida Theater in Buenos Aires. Lorca described his work as “a women’s drama.”

This is the story of several women practically imprisoned by an authoritarian and harsh mother, who forces them to follow a rigorous mourning in their youth for eight years for the death of her second husband. The writer used this argument to criticize double standards, suffocating religiosity, hypocrisy, violence, repressed desire, the control of female sexuality, and the relegation of women to a secondary and insignificant plane.

Until the 18th you can purchase pack two for Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday of the first two titles of the season, La casa de Bernarda Alba and Attila (23, 25 and 27 November), with a 20% discount and the possibility to sit in the same chair.

Tickets can be purchased up to one hour before the start of each performance on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com and by phone at 902 317 327 and at the box office from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The user will have to choose between one or two seats previously set and distributed throughout the room. The public is kindly requested to arrive at the venue well in advance to make a staggered entrance to the room.

The purchase of the tickets implies the acceptance of the measures implemented by the Cabildo cultural center to deal with COVID-19, such as the correct use of the mask or assistance only with cohabitants. The complete measures, as well as the contingency plan certified by AENOR, can be consulted on the Auditorium’s website.