The Royal Theater will inaugurate the next September 23 new season with 19 opera titlesof which there will be a predominance of pieces of George Frideric Handel -up to four operas-, a I paid tribute to the tenor José Carreras and “formulas will be looked at” for a ticket price reduction for next year.
During the presentation of the season, the president of the Teatro Real, Gregorio Marañónhas announced the study of this reduction in the cost of tickets “in some areas” for the year 25/26, also adding that for this next season there will be no increases in tickets, despite the general increase in costs.
“We are one of the theaters with the most affordable prices despite being at the same time one of those that receive the least public subsidies,” said Marañón, noting that these aid represent 31% of the total budget. The president of the Teatro Real has defended that an increase in subsidies would facilitate a greater reduction in ticket prices.
In total, in the 2024/25 season of the Teatro Real there will be an absolute premiere – the opera ‘Green Gables’by Jesús Torres, based on the work of the same name by the Chilean Fermín Cabal and the ‘Songbook and romance book of absences’, by Miguel Hernández -, ten titles that were never presented on this stage and six new co-productions (three of which premiered at the Teatro Real).
Tenor José Carreras will be honored for the 50th anniversary of his performance of ‘Adriana Lecouvreur’ in Madrid, at the Teatro de la Zarzuela (1974), together with Montserrat Caballé. This work of Francisco Cileawho also ‘debuts’ at Real, will be in charge of kicking off the program.
While in the current season premieres from the 20th century have predominated, in the next the two previous centuries will be privileged. Thus, there will be eight baroque works, two Mozart operas assigned to classicism, six operas from the 19th century, two operas from the 20th century and one from the 21st century (plus the two that will be announced in the future, at the Teatro Español and Teatros del Channel).
The most present composer will be Georg Friedrich Handelwith four titles –‘Tamerlane’, ‘Alcina’, ‘Theodora’ y ‘Jephthah’-, one of which, the new co-production of ‘Theodora’, will bring British stage director Katie Mitchell to the Royal Theater for the first time.
The musical direction will be Ivor Boltonwho has already directed three of his operas at the Real -‘Rodelinda’ (2017), ‘Partenope’ (2021) y ‘Orlando’ (2023) – and that he will say goodbye in 24/25 from his position as musical director of the Madrid coliseum.
Within the baroque repertoire, two French operas will be presented: the Spanish premiere of ‘David and Jonathas’by Marc-Antoine Charpentier -with the Ensemble Correspondances and Sébastien Daucé- and ‘Las indias galantes’, by Jean-Philippe Rameau.
It also premieres in Spain ‘The female man’by Baldassare Galuppi and a “forgotten” Spanish opera is recovered, ‘La Merope’by Domènec Terradellas, which will be heard for the first time at the Teatro Real with a new edition of the score.
MOZART IS NEW
Even in the 18th century, already in classicism, two operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart starring kings and separated by eleven years will be offered: ‘Mitridate, re di Ponto’, and ‘Idomeneo, re di Cresta’.
The first is a new production that will return to unite Ivor Bolton and Claus Guth in an opera of Mozart’s youth, after ‘Lucio Silla’, in 2017; the second, a semi-staged historicist version directed by René Jacobs, with staging by Benoît de Leersnyder.
Likewise, from the 19th century, a new production of ‘Maria Stuarda’, by Gaetano Donizetti, will premiere at the Real (which has never been performed on its stage). Three titles by Giuseppe Verdi will be presented: ‘Attila’, ‘I lombardi alla prima crociata’ and ‘La traviata’, the latter in the Willy Decker production that was scheduled for 2020 and had to be postponed due to the pandemic.
Precisely, with ‘La traviata’ the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt will be honored on the 145th anniversary of the addition to its repertoire of the role of Marguerite Gautier from ‘The Lady of the Camellias’, by Alexandre Dumas Jr., on which Giuseppe Verdi’s opera is based.
HOMENAJE A PUSHKIN
Saying goodbye to the 19th century, two Russian operas based on works by Aleksandr Pushkin, whose 225th anniversary of his birth is commemorated. The new production of ‘Eugene Onegin’ by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with stage direction by Christof Loy, and ‘The Tale of Tsar Saltan’, by Rimsky-Kórsakov, which will premiere at the Real with a new production conceived by Dmitri Tcherniakov.
Already at the dawn of the 20th century, in addition to the aforementioned verista opera ‘Adriana Lecouvreur’, there will be a double program that will unite ‘The brief life’by Manuel de Falla – a title that reopened the Teatro Real in 1997 – and the absolute premiere of ‘Green Gables’.
Lastly, the dance programming It will have, as in previous seasons, three guest companies and a choreographed opera production and fifteen concerts will be offered.
