The pandemic cut short its take-off trajectory, so this is not the time to demand results from Barcelona Obertura, an initiative that seeks to turn the city into the capital of classical and lyrical music and thus attract quality tourism that promotes a change in model. Because only with projects of this type, led by the three fabulous halls –Liceu, the Palau de la Música and L'Auditori– and with a program that contains proposals of global interest, will Barcelona be able to end the problems caused by tourism low cost.
As the Councilor for Tourism, Xavier Marcé, stated yesterday in the presentation of the now fourth edition of the Barcelona Obertura Spring Festival –from March 8 to 31–, “this is a winning program that must be consolidated”. Because on the one hand it draws attention by grouping together a series of musts in a spring festival, but it also warns about what these audiences do throughout the year. And at the same time it is a cry for the socialization of music, which spreads to the rest of the city with free concerts by that enormous young talent that threatens the city: what was known as City and is now called Ciutat de Clàssica It already adds twenty spaces with the addition of the Mirador Torre Glòries, the Palau Güell, the García Márquez and Mercè Rodoreda libraries, and the Born Center Cultural.
And seen from a bird's eye view, both the program of the halls and that of the Ciutat de Clàssica are a good snapshot of the musical spirit of the city. This off that Víctor Medem programs traces itineraries such as Made in Barcelona, which focuses on composers who were inspired here. Liszt, for example, spent a few days at the Hotel Oriente on the Rambla in 1845 and played various works on the piano that will now be heard at the Güell. It will pay homage to the much loved Jordi Cervelló, who died last year, or an Albéniz universe will be proposed with which to celebrate Alicia de Larrocha.
The most music-loving public will be able to start with Vivaldi by Vivica Genaux and the Bach Consort Wien in the Ibercamera Season, and end with the two Bach Passions that the Palau has – San Mateo by Vox Luminis and San Juan by Herreweghe. . The Liceu contributes Marina Abramovic with 7 deaths of Maria Callas, which, as indicated by Víctor García de Gomar, the theater's artistic director, does justice to the diva who once sang in Barcelona and swore never to return given the refractory Tebaldian high school.
And the operatic does not end here: the world premiere of Alexina B coincides, as well as a recital with two new stars –Sara Blanch and Xabier Anduaga–, and that Winterreise with Antonio López in La Modelo that had to be canceled in a pandemic. The Palau proposes, for its part, Mark Padmore in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and Christoph Prégardien in another Schubertian cycle, La bella molinera. While L'Auditori shows off the Latvian Radio Choir twice and an OBC with Ludovic Morlot or Anja Bihlmaier on various fronts, including the solo performance of the pianist Isata Kanneh Mason. And speaking of local orchestras, the Franz Schubert Filharmonia offers Mendelssohn with Joshua Bell on violin.
With the slowdown caused by the pandemic, it is not necessary to expect a large number of foreign visitors in this edition, but the work of internationalization continues. Vera de Frutos, responsible for communication and marketing, has launched a new website that has had 40,000 visitors since October. And yesterday, media such as The Guardian, Le Point, The Good Life or Der Tagesspiegel followed the presentation via streaming.
