It is impossible to find the ideal adjective to qualify the monumental spectacle offered by the Gran Teatre del Liceu with such a spectacular Requiem by Verdi. Seeing the great orchestra and the chorus on stage was already a clear omen of the dimensions of what was to come. An impression that increased exponentially when Lise Davidsen, Aigul Akhmetshina, Freddie de Tomasso, and Christian Van Horn appeared, together with the conductor of this great and exquisite multitude, Nicola Luissoti, a Verdian specialist who in some way and undoubtedly became another of the great protagonists of the apotheotic evening. Absolute control, millimetric tempos, precision in every indication, but, above all, passion, which he conveyed from the first moment and maintained throughout such an explosive and gigantic score, this “opera in ecclesiastical robes,” as Hans von Bülow defined it, not precisely as a compliment, although today it certainly is.

Until July 23, and over eighteen performances, the Teatro Real in Madrid has scheduled the production of La Traviata which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2005 with stage direction by Willy Decker. Twenty years after those first performances, starring Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, and Thomas Hampson, the show maintains its solidity thanks to a dramaturgy that contemporizes the story of the Lady of the Camellias, without betraying the essence of the work but reinforcing and highlighting certain aspects that traditional interpretations do not.