GOLDEN SEAMS A

fter 176 years, and now more than ever, the opera showcased on the Liceu stage is a mirror of the world; a reflection that is expressed in artistic allegories and metaphors from which beauty, emotion and living thought emanate.

The 2023/24 season presents a series of titles that announce times of moral confusion and oppression, exaggerated gestures and, above all, instruments of manipulation against the weakest. Environmental destruction, poverty, racism, global inequalities, social violence and the asymmetrical distribution of resources, are all unmistakable signs that we have not achieved a ‘common world’. We are in an overlapping of ‘many worlds’ that are not fair or equitable, coexisting without harmony and crashing into each other.

These existential fables and initiatory journeys replete with cruelty lead individuals and the collective to their own debasement and ruin. This infinite gallery of characters reveals their golden seams and – paradoxically – from this point of view, this is where we can discover that alongside our incredible vulnerability, we also have extraordinary strength. Turandot, Oneguin, Cleopatra, Don José, Adriana Lecouvreur and Renato, with their tragic fates, perfectly exemplify a fragility born of these deep fissures.

Art is undoubtedly a powerful vehicle for rethinking the dominant narratives and a stage on which to construct criteria based on distrusting those who blindly embrace their own certainties without even considering the questions, and the Liceu is a place of creation but, in parallel, a place where meaning is created.

The guest artist (and author of the photographs in the book you hold in your hands), Joan Font- cuberta, presents part of his extensive work on the amnesia of images; sublimating his idea, the Liceu itself erases and reconstructs itself, making room for new messages.

Opera, as a living art, is the most fascinating discipline of all. Contributing to the rich tradition of the Gran Teatre del Liceu will be the best voices in the world (Jonas Kaufmann, Sondra Radvanovsky, Javier Camarena, Lise Davidsen, Nadine Sierra, Sonya Yoncheva, Maria Agresta, Freddie De Tomasso, Julia Lezhneva, Michael Fabiano and Aušrinė Stundytė, among others), with the most stimulating stage directors (Christof Loy, Calixto Bieito, Graham Vick, Robert Wilson, Emma Dante, David McVicar and Núria Espert) and the greatest conductors (Josep Pons, John Adams, Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Giovanni Antonini, Jordi Savall, René Jacobs and Alondra de la Parra) showing us some of the deepest mysteries of the human soul.

The world lays bare certain conditions of life and forces us to understand humans not as separate entities driven by self-interest, but as fully interdependent beings bound to a living world that requires our collective determination to fight against its destruction. Opera, as a permanent laboratory, cannot turn its back on this thinking.

Dear audiences, artists, teams, theatre staff and myself, we are delighted to invite you this season to discover messages, to recognise the golden seams and to dream that knowledge, art and opera help us to alleviate the burdens of our lives.

Víctor Garcia de Gomar Artistic Director Gran Teatre del Liceu