More sand surface and the possibility to deploy pareos and lunch boxes while enjoying the music. This is how one of the great popular and democratic classical events returns in Barcelona: the symphonic event on the beach which, for the first time, is presented under the umbrella of Barcelona Obertura and with the financial contribution of the city council through the tourist tax.
The OBC had this initiative in 2015, although the coronavirus pandemic forced to stop what was beginning to be a tradition. Now the idea returns with more force and for a double game, on the 20th and 21st of June. The Auditorium is no longer alone: it has been joined by the Liceu and the Palau de la Música. Thus, the Liceu Symphony goes out in the open as it does with the opera, and the choirs of the Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música contribute by bringing music closer to those admitted to the Hospital del Mar and to nursing homes in the neighborhood , where the children's choir will sing.
The councilor for Tourism and Creative Industries, Xavier Marcé – who allocates a little more than 40,000 euros from the tourist tax to the activity of Barcelona Obertura – and the deputy general director of the La Caixa Foundation, Elisa Durán – an entity that is a strategic partner in this enterprise of bringing symphonic music closer to a diverse and wide audience to whom perhaps the temples of classical music seem distant and elitist -, were joined yesterday by Valentí Oviedo, Robert Brufau and Joan Oller (the Liceu, L'Auditori and Palau, respectively) to present this musical summer proposal. A double concert that will be broadcast live by BTV, no longer from the Sant Sebastià beach as in previous editions, but from the Bogatell beach, with more space and a capacity for 10,000 attendees. The recording will be available on CaixaForum from 1 September.
An orbital stage 20 meters wide by 16 deep will be installed on the Bogatell breakwater facing the Besòs, with an amplification system that will have repeaters every 200 meters. The public is invited to bring their chair or pareo to sit on the sand, even with their lunch box, as there will be no seats. On the 20th, the Orquestra del Liceu will perform, with Josep Pons at the helm, Ravel's Bolero - a nod to the collaboration he made with La Caixa during the recent and advanced experience with three-dimensional sound - and the Symphony of the New world, by Dvorák. For the next day, Ludovic Morlot, the head of the OBC, prepares a feel good program, a program with tunes from the great repertoire that people recognize and can sing: Slavic dances by Dvorák, the symphonic poem El Moldava by Smetana , Rimsky-Kórsakov's Spanish Capriccio, Bizet's Farandole Suite and Eduard Toldrà's Empúries.
"We are happy to recover a project that we carried out from 2015 to 2019 and which is a logical consequence of Barcelona Obertura. This is an unrepeatable photograph that places the city as the capital of classical music without renouncing its DNA and Mediterraneanness", said Brufau. "Our obligation and desire to understand each other has made us, in a very organic way, put ourselves together at the service of the city and offer a unique experience by the sea, an unparalleled showcase", added Oviedo.
