‘La Guineueta Astuta’ marks the start of the Liceu season
The Gran Teatre del Liceu raises the curtain of the 2025-2026 season with The cracking fox of Leoš Janáčekan opera that combines story, philosophy and poetry to reflect on the cycle of life and the relationship between humans and nature. The assembly, signed by Barrie Kosky and rested for Andreas Weirichcan be seen from September 22 to 30, with seven functions directed by the teacher Josep Pons In his last season as the director of the theater.
An ideal piece to start in opera
The cast brings together three international reference voices: the Russian soprano Elena Tsallagovaconsidered the great world specialist in the role of Bystrouška, the Astuta fox; the Swedish baritone Peter Mattei and the Irish mezzo -soprano Paula Murrihy. All three agree to emphasize the attractiveness and accessibility of the opera. “ It is not a normal opera, it is sophisticated but accessible, ” says Tsallagova, who debuts at the Liceu: “ The atmosphere breathed is radiant, and although the score is not easy to interpret, it is pleasant to the ear and leaves good taste, like a good needle wine. ” Murrihy, on the other hand, recommends her as an initiation: “If you have never gone to the opera, this is perfect. As a first trip it is fantastic.”
Kosky’s production flees from naturalism and creates a magical and symbolic forest from the light and setting of Michael Levine. Animals do not wear queues or masks – they dress in bright colors, in contrast to humans’ black. The first, amazing scene, shows a funeral that does not appear in the original booklet. “It is not a matter of reproducing nature, but of generating a poetic universe that frames the fable,” says Weirich, a repositor of production.
Josep Pons: “If I had to describe this score with one word, I would say great”
Josep Pons, who directs this score for the first time, emphasizes the originality of Janáček: “ When a music moves in a well-known language it is easy to read it. But Janáček breaks the style and this makes it more complex: it is necessary to search to translate its rhythms. Animal sounds have no naturalistic, but symbolic and even humorous value. ” For the director, the opera is above all a celebration of life: “It talks about life cycles and continuity rather than tragedy. If I had to describe this score with one word, I would say ‘great’.
The seasonal opening also has a community dimension. The Liceu presented the production to the Guineueta Parkin the Nou Barris district, coinciding with the name of the opera and the presence of sculpture of Julià Riu Serra. The theater has offered 200 tickets to neighbors in the neighborhood to attend the general rehearsal, and the function of September 20, within the program Opera between generations.
With this production, the Liceu recovers an opera that had been seen only in the theater in 2001 and for the first time presented it in its original language, the Czech. A twentieth -century masterpiece, as Tsallagova recalls, “is not a children’s opera: it is for everyone, as a story you read as a child in one way and when you grow up.”
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