If there is a current problem in today's society, it is the environmental crisis. Drought, heat waves, deforestation and the destruction of the ozone layer are recurring themes, and their consequences are felt every day. The Palau de la Música Catalana Chamber Choir is aware of this. That's why he opens his new choral season with Un cant a la natura. A cry from the earth, a multi-sensory proposal that premiered yesterday at Premià de Mar and that arrives tomorrow at the Palau, the home of the choir that devised the work that calls for the preservation of the environment, and that promises to transport the viewer to nature through smell and listening, in the season that the Palau takes environmentalism as its artistic motto.
A song to nature. A cry from the earth wants, through music and songs inspired by nature, to raise awareness about its care, with a work divided into four blocks, each of which represents an element of nature: the sea, the forest, the flowers and the roses, and the earth. Before the function, attendees will receive four olfactory strips, which they must sniff at the start of each block. These fragrances stimulate other senses in an innovative way and recall nature. "We have the idea of reinventing ourselves in the choral concert format. We present a production that encourages and stimulates the non-visual senses", says Xavier Puig, director of the Palau Chamber Choir since 2018. "The care of nature is a cross-cutting and current issue. Environmentalism is the great challenge of the 21st century and we also want to put an ethical factor, not just an aesthetic one, in the work", adds the man born in Cervera, who will also direct Una Schubertiada, a presentation that promises to take the public to the artistic and political environment of early 19th century Vienna.
And among the novelties of the season, two international tours are included. Internationally renowned conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Marc Minkowski will bring the Chamber Choir to the Teatro Real in Madrid (9 November) and the Teatre des Champs Elysées in Paris (13 December), where they will present Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, with musicians from the Louvre and by Minkowski. The Venezuelan director will collaborate with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where they will present a semi-staged version of Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera, on the stage of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (May 16 and 17), at the Gran Teatre Liceu (May 26 and 27), the Paris Philharmonic (May 31) and the Barbican Center in London (June 3), the latter with the Liceu choir.
