The Gran Teatre del Liceu commemorates the centenary of 'Cançó d’amor i de guerra' with an emotional concert version
“Art changes nothing; art changes you”
David Lynch
In the season in which we would celebrate 100 years since the creation of the score, the Gran Teatre del Liceu presents in concert version the extraordinary Cançó d’amor i de guerra within the 2027 season, a score that has become one of the most intense and evocative testimonies of 20th-century Catalan lyric theatre.
With music by Rafael Martínez Valls and a libretto by Lluís Capdevila and Víctor Mora, and premiered in 1926, the work immediately connected with audiences thanks to an extraordinary balance between lyricism, direct emotion and collective awareness, and became a true popular phenomenon without renouncing artistic ambition.
Martínez Valls constructs a musical language of remarkable dramatic effectiveness, heir to the European operatic tradition, yet deeply rooted in Mediterranean sensibility. The melodies, broad and memorable, engage in dialogue with choral moments of great expressive power, in which music becomes the voice of a people shaken by conflict, yet faithful to hope. Love — intimate, vulnerable — and war — collective, inexorable — intertwine in a score that knows how to move without artifice.
The concert version, featuring the beloved voices of Serena Sáenz, Josep Bros and Carles Pachon, will allow us to rediscover the work in all its musical purity and will highlight its orchestral richness, vocal solidity, and dramatic intelligence. In the setting of the Liceu, Cançó d’amor i de guerra is presented not only as a tribute to our lyrical heritage, but as an invitation to listen, today, to a music that continues to speak with emotion and truth about who we are.
Zarzuela in two acts
Libretto by Lluís Capdevila and Víctor Mora
- World premiere: 16 April 1926 at the Teatre Nou in Barcelona
- Premiere at the Gran Teatre del Liceu: 30/09/1983
- Total performances: 4
With the support of:
Dates and tickets
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General public sale on Monday 15 June 2026 at 10h.
Artistic profile
- Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
- Conductor Pablo Assante
- Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
- Conductor Manel Valdivieso
