Josep Carreras moves his fans in Peralada

A Catalan lyrical legend and a festival born to bring a piece of Liceu to the Empordà.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
03 August 2022 Wednesday 18:00
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Josep Carreras moves his fans in Peralada

A Catalan lyrical legend and a festival born to bring a piece of Liceu to the Empordà. The Josep Carreras-Castell de Peralada Festival binomial, represented by its president, Isabel Suqué, appeared last night on the stage of the Auditori del Parc as a powerful evocation of the past that went back to those eighties when Carmen Mateu planned with Montserrat Caballé to raise a bullring open-air opera.

The emotion was felt by both parties when Carreras received the Medal of Honor of the contest. For the singer it was a double source of pride: his art was recognized and it was recognized in his land, but also in the context of this appointment with the performing arts that one day opted for opera and dance and maintains his bet.

The first time the tenor from Barcelona performed at Peralada was in 1985, with Vincenzo Scalera at the Casinos Catalunya galas. Three years later he made his debut at the festival, in the presence of Queen Sofia, Lady Di, the princesses of Greece and Montserrat Caballé.

And now that it is the daughter of the patron who gives continuity to the passion for opera, Carreras goes to this square for the sixth time. It was a night with farewell echoes, dedicated to his figure and his career. His own family was in the audience; that of the Caballé; the Minister of Education, Josep González-Cambray; the soul of Ópera Sabadell, Mirna Lacambra, and the president of the Liceu, Salvador Alemany, with its artistic director, Víctor García de Gomar.

David Giménez, his musical director wherever he goes, opened fire at the head of the high school symphony with the Navarraise suite from the opera Le Cid, by Massenet, and then the tenor came on stage with a song by Tosti that was hard to get started, well, like usually happens in historical evenings, the applause was closed and persistent. A microphone feedback made it clear that “something is wrong”, as a lady in row six commented. The Croatian-Slovenian soprano Martina Zadro, the other voice of the evening, with whom the tenor would do a couple of duets, came out to sing the bolero of I vespri siciliani, which would give rise to the Catalan repertoire...

With Cançó d'amor i de guerra followed by Les neus de les muntanyes (both by Martínez Valls) the knots began in the throat in a stall full of fans of the septuagenarian tenor. And let's not even mention in T'estimo , original by Edvard Grieg, before the duo Je te veux, by Satie, arrived. At the edge of the middle part, the tenor would tackle Mitch Leigh's Impossible dream...

But the apotheosis would come after the break, once the medal was received. Carreras looked for charm in Gardel... The day you love me. To then form an unexpected duo with Mariona Escoda, the young winner of the TV3 talent show Eufòria. In intergenerational harmony, they sang the exciting Un núvol blanc, by Llach. Carreras would not leave without offering Core'n grato and, already in the encores, he would give his faithful audience the infallible Paraules d'amor with the talented Escoda.