Andorra will premiere next month Clàssicand, the country's first classical and performing arts festival that will also mark the start of the international classical festival season. From June 2 to 11, the event, directed by the operatic director Joan Anton Rechi, will beautify the most emblematic places in the country with local talent and international artists in classical music, dance and performing arts.
Among the outstanding artists of this first edition are the powerful mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili (June 9), the actress Ariadna Gil (June 3), who will star in the Viure/Morir show, inspired by the writer's essay Viure en nosre morts French Delphine Horvilleur, and the Ukrainian tenor Valentin Dityuk (June 8), who will recite classics such as Puccini or Verdi in a peace concert.
"Anita Rachvelishvili is one of the voices that have impressed me the most when you hear her live." This is how Rechi defined, during the festival presentation, the voice of the great mezzo-soprano, recognized worldwide for her interpretations of Verdi's. On June 9, she will debut for the first time in the Pyrenean country with a selection of the best areas of the French repertoire at the national auditorium, located in Ordino.
The actress Ariadna Gil, awarded the Goya for Best Actress in Belle Époque, will also premiere in Andorra with Vivir/Morir (June 3), a concert and performance where she will recite fragments of Vivir con nuestras muertes, by Delphine Horvilleur. A musical proposal accompanied by a piano solo by Lise de la Salle, and by the elite French soloist Xavier de Maistre, who will elevate the audience with the harmonic sweetness of the harp.
Clàssicand is a completely different proposal from the large-format shows that are being prepared in the country, offering a tasty live musical delight with proposals that range from baroque to contemporary classical music, all of them in the most emblematic exteriors of Andorra. "We are a country where nature is lived intensely, and we wanted to reflect that reality in the festival", explained the artistic director.
A large part of the performances will take place outdoors to give visibility to the emblematic outdoor spaces of the country. Among them, the recital by the Ukrainian tenor Valentin Dityuk (June 8), which will fuse the works of Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti and Rachmaninov, will open the beautiful new gardens of the legendary Ràdio Andorra building.
Local talent also takes on great prominence on the poster for the first edition, marking the beginning and end of the festival. On Friday, June 2, the Orquestra Nacional Clàssica d'Andorra (ONCA) will give an inaugural concert with the interpretation of the famous Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, under the baton of Dani Espasa in the Plaza del Consell General, the seat of the Andorran parliament. “I know the orchestra well, I carry it in my heart. It is a good group to play this repertoire, since many of the musicians know the baroque well”, Espasa has expressed.
On the first Sunday of the festival there will be a performance by the pianist Míriam Manubens at 12 noon at the Església d'Ordino, with pieces by Debussy, Granados and Chopin. The festival will close with a Sunday full of proposals, including two free performances by the Jove Companyia Nacional de danza de Andorra, Jo Dansa, which will offer a tasting of the show La Jove Revolució from twelve noon to five in the afternoon at the intersection of Meritxell avenue and Riberaygua avenue.
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary since Steven Spielberg premiered Jurassic Park, and the festival has dedicated a space on its lineup to screen the film live with the original soundtrack by John Williams, performed by the Kingdom of Aragon Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Josep Caballé Domènech. The screening, with free access, will take place on June 4 at the Parc Central d'Andorra la Vella.
On Saturday, June 10, two dance proposals will take place. On the one hand, the Vertigo Dance Company, one of the most acclaimed contemporary dance companies of the moment, will talk about roots and land with their latest work, Makom, while Yoann Bourgeois will perform her viral dance show, Opening, with various sessions that will take place at the intersection of Avenida Meritxell and Riberaygua.
The last date of the festival will rescue the Juliet Letters by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet, a composition inspired by the letters that those in love - or out of love - left on the mythical balcony of Juliet in Verona.
The show will be performed by the Ulysses quartet together with the singer and trumpeter, Benny Benack III, an emerging American jazz star nominated for the Emmy Awards, which will take place on June 11 in the Consell de Andorra la Vella square.
Tickets are already on sale with prices ranging between 30 and 80 euros depending on each show, as well as performances open to the public.
