The proposals focus on the relationship between humans and nature, and they will be shown consecutively and itinerantly at the three spaces, offering an artistic and reflective circuit through the Raval.
Micro-operas of Today is an innovative proposal that brings together three key cultural institutions in Barcelona: the CCCB, the MACBA, and the Liceu. This interdisciplinary project gathers artists from various fields to offer a fresh perspective on traditional opera, rethinking it from a contemporary and inclusive viewpoint.
Starting from a shared concern about the climate crisis, interspecies communication, and the acoustics of nature, the program proposes an itinerary through the Raval district. A walk through opera understood as an instrument to generate essential reflections on life, with beauty, contrasts, brilliance, and emotions. With a focus especially aimed at empowering young artists from visual, scenic, and literary disciplines, the project reflects on the boundaries of the genre, exploring the relationship between music, new technologies, and new dramaturgies.
Each institution presents a 20-minute newly created micro-opera commissioned to a different artistic team, and the three resulting pieces will be shown consecutively on the weekend of February 8 and 9: the first act, The sky will not keep the secret, will take place at the CCCB Theatre; it will be followed by Aura, at the Chapel of the Convent of the Angels at MACBA, and will culminate with You will disinherit the earth, at the Foyer Hall of the Liceu.
Tickets can be purchased on the websites of the CCCB, the MACBA, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Each ticket allows you to see the complete work in the selected session.
First act: The sky will not keep the secret at the CCCB Theatre
This piece, which combines elements of opera, installation, and scenic experimentation, reflects on the history of beautiful things and the relationship between art and nature through a dialogue of two anonymous voices that traverse different life stages. With a format that questions the conventions of opera, the work is presented as a testament to the complexity of art in its attempt to capture the beauty of the natural world, while also questioning whether this effort is revealing or futile. In a temporal and scenic journey, musical and luminous, The sky will not keep the secret proposes a dialogue of voices that mutate, crossing the stages of life (from childhood to old age), of relationships (from love to friendship), and of the connection with the world (from skepticism to fusion).
Librettist: Pol Guasch / Composer: Clara Aguilar / Artist: Silvia Delagneau.
Second act: Aura at the Chapel of the Convent of the Angels at MACBA
Set in the 13th century, the protagonist of Aura flees a world devastated by the crusades of Pope Innocent III and takes refuge in a forest in Languedoc. From exile, Aura converses with the Angel of the Waters from the condition of a refugee. Water, in various forms of manifestation, is revealed as “a door and a mirror,” as hope and “grace of thought.” Inspired by the visions of mystics like Hildegard of Bingen, as well as in the representational forms of Romanesque art (hieratism, the breaking of space-time dimension...), Aura is an invocation of melismatic chants and digital resonances, populated by aquatic beings and voices from the beyond. Incorporeal and plasmatic characters, possible creatures of an interspecies future. Aura thus becomes not only a song to nature but also a space of peace and refuge, of imagination, life, and thought, with water as the central element, and a song against the devastations of war.
Librettist: Gabriel Ventura / Composer: Marina Herlop / Artist: Rosa Tharrats / Stage Directors: Gabriel Ventura and Rosa Tharrats.
Third act: You will disinherit the earth at the Foyer Hall of the Liceu
You will disinherit the earth is a work that seeks to evoke our relationship with nature, emphasizing how, over time, this source of life degrades until it loses its capacity to sustain us, to be fertile. At the same time, it offers a profound reflection on our collective responsibility in this process of transformation and destruction, inviting us to rethink our bond with the natural world around us. The set design is a metaphorical and suggestive proposal that amplifies the work's message. In the center, we find an organic floor, with imperfect textures, which becomes a powerful visual metaphor for the fragility and exhaustion of the planet. This surface, almost like a living skin covering the stage, illustrates the progressive degradation of our environment. Accompanying this pictorial floor, large fabrics bring dynamism and transformation. You will disinherit the earth is a work that appeals not only to the senses but also to consciousness, turning the set design into an active voice that challenges us and invites us to reflect on our role in this process of change.
Librettist: Míriam Cano / Composer: Fabià Santcovsky / Visual artist/space design: Carlos Bunga / Stage director: Carla Tovias.
| 
| 
|
