The Majorcan artist Daniel Heredia, artistically known as Rels B, will offer a free concert in Palma on September 11th to mark Mallorca Day and his appointment as Favorite Son of Mallorca. The performance, organized by the Consell de Mallorca, will begin at 9:30 PM in the area between the Parc de la Mar and the Paseo Marítimo of the Balearic capital.

Fabrizio Plessi, one of the great pioneers of video installations, has died at 86. The Italian artist, born in Reggio Emilia on April 3, 1940, died this Sunday in Venice, the city where he trained and which marked a good part of his career. But for three decades he also maintained a particularly close bond with Mallorca, to the point of establishing his residence in Santanyí and developing an important part of his work from the island.

“Speak to me, O Muse, of the man of many turns, who wandered far...”. No one would ever have thought that the Odyssey, a 2,700-year-old classic, would unleash heated controversies on social media, as it is doing, thanks to Christopher Nolan's recent film adaptation. For the islanders, there is still another point of interest in Homer's story: whether its hero, Odysseus – or Ulysses – passed through any of the Balearic Islands, during his decade of journeys across the Mediterranean, after the Trojan War – ten more years – to return to his home island, Ithaca. Perhaps he did?

The keyboard chords of a version of Whitney Houston coming from the Hotel Mariant Park are mixed with the notes, at full volume, of Barbie Girl, a hit from the 90s coming from the surroundings of the Hotel Playamar. The August night is heavy and the hotel terraces are full of tourists looking for the promised entertainment. Right in the middle, immutable and eternal, oblivious to anachronism, remain the millenary stones of the Talayotic settlement of l’Illot.

The ME_MMIX festival, dedicated to contemporary music and experimental and avant-garde arts, and the Red Carpet recording studios have joined forces to organize, on August 20 at 7 p.m., the first of the preview experiences with which this year's edition, the most complete and ambitious in its history, will be presented.

The ‘Viu la Cultura’ program will incorporate 36 new activities in the 2026-2027 academic year with the aim of bringing the heritage, history, and culture of the Archipelago closer to students from the Balearic Islands. The new offer includes visits, workshops, and educational activities related to folk tales, archaeological sites, historical memory, and literature. Among the new proposals are The mystery of the lost folk tales, a visit to the Son Espases sites, an activity on the air-raid shelters of Palma, Pioneer and brave students, Joan Alcover in the Serra, and Filasons.

Kick-off to the 65th edition of the Pollença Festival with the Sant Domingo Cloister packed to the rafters and a few extra chairs. Those responsible for this situation came with names and surnames of proven prestige, Daniel Harding conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniil Trifonov on piano. But for contrasts, those they offered us in the first piece of the program, the "Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15. A monumental and careful musical combat between the soloist and the ensemble of major subtlety and a modest reading, as if wanting to transmit with absolute fidelity all that was going through the composer's mind and heart. It was not spectacular, for the simple reason that it was not the author's purpose or intention – he took five years to finish it – but there was the contained tension to convey a whole series of subtle sensations that Trifonov's piano distilled with such a deep and gigantic Majestic. A first movementthat begins the orchestra with ninety energetic bars, until the solemn entrance of the soloist. Permanent, unfading communion, between the protagonists of a concert more symphonic than anything else, but which in some way draws from the sources of chamber music and with a duration that exceeds that of theEmperor of Beethoven. The collaboration between Trifonov and the Hardings was exemplary, reaching its peak in the exciting and moving Adagio which was so well received by the intended recipient, Clara Schumann. An introspective Trifonov displayed great, meticulous sensitivity, where each touch, each phrase, each silence, opened up a whole spectrum of emotions and numerous interpretations. Nor did the third movement, Allegro non troppo, increased the dose of vehemence, and the Rondo sounded with a more subdued tone than usual. It is a choice that somehow gave even more solidity to the whole. Strange the encore, mournful, gloomy, it can be a bit too much for a summer night. A tu cantem, by Pàvel Txesnokov.

Nobody who attended the concert that on May 23, 2019, the Balearic Islands City Auditorium offered, will forget the voice of the Norwegian soprano who had come to replace the American Lise Lindstrom. The name Lise Davidsen began to be spoken of in earnest, in a dazzling ascent, while she captivated everyone, without exception. Even those responsible for the Wagnerian oracle, where in the same year, two months later, she debuted with the role of Elisabeth in Tannhäuser with a tremendous success. From here, the possibility of a return was not even remote. Once again the predictions that more than a few soothsayers had made were shattered when the Cap Rocat Festival announced that we would have the opportunity to once again enjoy the immeasurable talent of Lise Davidsen, moreover in her Spanish debut as Floria Tosca. This circumstance alone made the semi-staged version of Puccini's opera an event of the highest possible caliber. 

The film Lionel, by Carlos Saiz, has been the big winner of the 16th edition of the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest, which this Sunday lowered the curtain after registering its most massive edition. The festival also honored the French composer Alexandre Desplat, winner of two Oscars and distinguished with the Master of Cinema award for a career that includes soundtracks such as The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Shape of Water.

Javier Bardem defended this Sunday in Palma that people with public projection should express their opinion on major current debates. “Whoever has a loudspeaker, should do it. I don't demand it from anyone, but if you can, it's good to do it”, he stated during the presentation ofThe loved one at the'Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest. The actor has justified this position, in addition to ensuring that “silence always encourages those who perpetrate crimes”.

After a five-year hiatus, the PoésArt poetry festival will return to Artà this October with a new phase driven by the recently established PoésArt association. The project resumes activity with the aim of consolidating itself as a reference space for contemporary poetry and, in this tenth edition, will focus on Mallorcan poets.

Seeing how the environment we feel is ours degrades without having left it can provoke a particular form of longing: grief for a home we still inhabit, but no longer recognize. This is what is known as solastalgia and it is the starting point of the work with which the French Egyptian artist Chirine El Ansary has won the second international creation and artistic residency scholarship from the Llull Laboratory.

After exploring the traditional repertoire from a contemporary perspective in their early works, Tarta Relena delved into tragic thought, oracles, and humanity's relationship with the uncertainty of the future to write and perform És pregunta (2024), an album produced entirely by the duo formed by Helena Ros and Marta Torrella. With the maxim 'less is more' as their banner, Tarta Relena offers a set of songs that narrate impermanence and turn their live performance into a ritual. Voices are the main instrument, and the different languages they sing in bring different "worldviews" to the album. They will present it on July 31st in the garden of Casa Llorenç Villalonga in Binissalem as part of the La Lluna en Vers festival. We spoke with one of them, Marta Torrella.

Fourth and final concert of the Bellver Festival with the Orquestra Simfònica Illes Balears as the protagonist of this now consolidated event. Like an encore of the season, even though it is a different audience, this circumstance arises depending on where the activities take place. In any case, the four concerts by the ensemble at the emblematic castle are already a tradition and the venue is filled day after day. The last one was no exception and, while soloists had been the protagonists until now, for this occasion it was the British conductor Michael Francis who was in charge of putting his stamp on the concert. A British stamp, as was that of the program, made up of three composers of the same nationality and almost the same generation, such as Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The chosen pieces were performed in chronological order, so that one could discern a small evolution of classical music in the former empire in a short period of time.

La Nit de l'Art will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary this year, becoming one of Mallorca's major cultural events. The event, which will open the exhibition season on September 19, will commemorate three decades of history after consolidating itself as a meeting point for artists, gallery owners, collectors, and industry professionals, as well as being one of the main platforms for the dissemination of contemporary art in the Balearic Islands.

They were venues of intense cultural activity and are currently closed, unused. While grandiose projects are announced, such as the transformation of the Gesa building into a major cultural infrastructure, spaces like the Assistència Palmesana, La Protectora, the Catalina Valls theater, the Balear theater, or the old Centre de Sa Nostra, all of them in Palma; the Sala Augusta in Maó; and the Dalt Vila Archaeological Museum, among others, are sleeping the sleep of the just, awaiting recovery.

Forty editions and sold out for many years is a good reason for joy and, of course, to crown the season with a Rigoletto is one of the best ways to do justice to the event. It also carries a certain risk. To achieve a good result, high-level voices are needed. Damiano Salerno as Rigoletto and Génesis Moreno as Gilda were in charge of doing so and solemnizing the anniversary. Undoubtedly, they shone far above the rest of a cast that was not bad at all. But the pivotal moments of the performance were generated when they were the great protagonists. Their duets were anthological. They began their recital with the emotional and delicate Figlia! Mio padre! They continued with the colossal Mio padre!…Tutte la feste al tempio. They elevated the tragedy with the final duet, V’ho ingannato, colpevole fui and Lassú in cielo. These three moments alone would have been enough to satisfy an audience that bid farewell to the protagonists standing, after Rigoletto's desperate lament, 'La maledizione'. This was the title Giuseppe Verdi wanted. A detail of no importance for an impeccable and implacable piece. Structurally perfect, which forces both protagonists into a detailed, meticulous, and, of course, very demanding existential metamorphosis. Both Rigoletto and Gilda, the hunchback and the daughter, evolve, both vocally and dramatically, as circumstances arise and change. Salerno and Moreno more than fulfilled their task. Génesis Moreno, two seasons ago, had already shown many of her virtues at the Teatre Principal, playing Gounod's Juliet. Therefore, her choice to star as Gilda could not have been more fitting. If the entire performance was memorable, a tremendous and colossal display of warmth, expressiveness, coloratura, breath... it left everyone more or less stunned with an unforgettable Caro nome. Nothing to say, but quite the opposite, about the interventions of Damiano Salerno, with a resounding and full voice, who with an emotional and powerful Cortigiani, vil razza dannata, rich in nuances and full of difficulties, did not make us miss any of the great singers who have interpreted the most convoluted and complex character in Verdi's production. His projection, the complicated alliance of virulence and subtlety, and impeccable diction and vocalization stand out.The diction was a small hindrance for Filip Filipovic as Duke of Mantua, considerable in volume, but uneven overall, leaving the canzonetta that has remained as the symbol of the piece, La donna è mobilie, as an anecdote. The complicated piece is, always and much more so, Ella mi fu rapita! Filip Filipovic was correct, although regarding his character, I think he was too angry in the conception of a seducer, as if he were Gualtier Maldé. On another level, but adequate, was the local performance, with Begoña Gómez as Maddalena, Irene Mas as the Duchess's page, and Cristòfol Romaguera as Count Ceprano. On the other hand, Toni Marsol was an efficient and expeditious Monterone, while for Niall Anderson's Sparafucile, one did not need to go so far. The orchestra, conducted by Oliver Díaz, and the male choir of the Teatre Principal performed well, while Elena Barbalich's staging, in the production that arrives from Pavia, Como, Brescia, Cremona, Bergamo, and Toulon, combined period costumes with very contemporary metallic structures, aesthetically effective, but which above all served to delineate with great effectiveness each space where the action takes place at each moment. A great opera evening.

The Lul·lià General Study has opened a new call for an artistic creation scholarship endowed with 4,000 euros to promote projects linked to the popular culture of the Balearic Islands. The initiative is aimed at artists over 18 years of age, without restrictions on discipline, with the aim of fostering new creative perspectives based on the cultural heritage of the Islands.

L’Aljub d'Es Baluard brought together more than 300 people this Monday to celebrate the thirteenth edition of the ARA Balears awards, an event that, year after year, recognizes initiatives, entities, and careers that contribute to a more cohesive society, committed to culture, and rooted in the territory. Institutional, political, economic, social, and cultural representatives attended the event, as well as friends and collaborators of the newspaper, led by the Vice President of the Government, Antoni Costa, and the President of ARA, Ferran Rodés.

The company Mariantònia Oliver has been distinguished with the Toni Catany de Cultura award at the ARA Balears Awards, a recognition of a career of more than thirty-five years that has decisively contributed to growing, understanding, and sharing contemporary dance in the Islands.