Festival Castell de Peralada - Easter edition 2023
Festival Castell de Peralada - Easter edition 2023
The mediaeval Castell de Peralada is the setting for the Castell de Peralada Festival during the months of July and August. Set in the Castle Park gardens, the Auditorium is the ideal venue for concerts on a summer night. The Church and the Cloister, by contrast, hosts recitals, chamber concerts and small-format operas. History and prestige identify the Festival which, both for its artistic events and for the exceptional nature of the setting in which it is staged, place this mediaeval town at the cultural and leisure heart of the summer nights of the Costa Brava.
This year will see the first chapter in the history of an event that is here to stay - the Easter edition of the Castell de Peralada Festival. From 6 to 8 April, the Carmel Church at the Castell de Peralada will be the setting for a programme that comprises four concerts chosen to appeal both to the summer Festival’s faithful, loyal audience and to new audiences who want to enjoy excellent music on the Costa Brava in the week before Easter.
The Easter event will start on 6 April with a concert featuring social media star, countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński accompanied by orchestra Il Giardino d’Amore. Born in Warsaw in 1990, this young singer is not just a star of the stage but is also a member of breakdancing collective Skill Fanatikz Crew and a proficient skateboarder, he has modelled for leading brands and found an unmatchable way of advancing his career on social media where, for example, the YouTube video of his rendition of Vivaldi’s Vedrò amb mio diletto has amassed 10 million views. Considered by many as a phenomenon who transcends music, Orliński will perform at the Castell de Peralada Festival for the first time just days after appearing at the Palace of Versailles in a programme that interweaves arias by Handel and Vivaldi.
The following day, Good Friday, Carmel Church will host two shows. The first, featuring Baroque ensemble Arnadi’s Vespers under the musical direction of Dani Espasa, will be the first performance at the Festival of Scarlatti’s La Giuditta. Considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera, the Palermo-born composer composed this oratorio for three voices (also known as the Cambridge Giuditta in reference to the place where the handwritten score is kept) with libretto by Antonio Ottoboni, father of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and author of the first oratorio of the same name but for five voices and also based on the Bible's Book of Judith. For this performance, the Castell de Peralada brings together a stellar vocal offering formed by multi-prize-winning Barcelona soprano Serena Sáenz (winner of the 16th Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition and the Castell de Peralada Festival Special Prize and undoubted protagonist of the most recent Operalia, where she won several of the prizes for which she was nominated, such as Best Zarzuela Singer, the Brigit Nilsson award, and the second prize for Best Female Voice at the competition) who will sing the part of Giuditta, the Jewish hero who liberated the besieged city of Bethulia after seducing and decapitating Assyrian general Holofernes.
Countertenor Xavier Sabata, well-known to the Festival, together with Arnadi’s Vespers, will be Nutrice and charged with interpreting the beautiful Dormi o fulmine di guerra, one of the most moving cradle songs ever written. The final member of the cast is British tenor Thomas Walker, who last year took part in the new production of Purcell’s opera The Fairy Queen at the Castell de Peralada Festival.
That same Friday, at 11 pm, emerging vocal quartet Cantoría will sing at the Festival for the first time with the Good Friday Tenebrae service. A spectacle interpreted by eight voices where the ensemble will explore the spiritual depths of this Catholic service that combines liturgical polyphony and Gregorian chant. As the concert progresses, the candles will be extinguished as the works in the programme are sung to end in complete darkness as required by the most traditional form of the rite. Specialists in a capella works of the Iberian Renaissance, the young ensemble's trajectory is trending notably upward with their participation in international festivals such as Anvers, Bruges, Utrecht and REMA (Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne), as well as Early Music Day 2021 where they were invited to take part thanks to the recent discovery of the unpublished manuscript of Totana, recovered by the group.
The final act of the Easter stage of the Castell de Peralada Festival 2023 will be one of the most anticipated debuts at the Festival, with young tenor Freddie De Tommaso. Winner of First Prize, the Placido Domingo Prize for Best Tenor and the Verdi Prize at the Viñas International Singing Contest in 2018, in 2021 he hit the headlines once more when he played the part of Cavaradossi in the Royal Opera's production of Tosca, becoming the youngest tenor ever to interpret the role on that iconic stage and the first British tenor to do so since 1963. Contracted to Decca Classics and the first tenor to sign with Jonas Kaufmann’s label, his debut album Passione reached the top of the classical charts and he recently won BBC Music Magazine’s Newcomer Award.
About the Festival Castell de Peralada
Founded in 1987, the Festival is regarded as one of the major arts events of the summer. Patronage of the Festival is part of the Peralada Group's corporate social responsibility policy, in line with the international spirit of active contribution to culture and the promotion of music. It is a unique initiative in terms of the support and promotion of music and a clear commitment to the excellence of the artistic proposals in lyric and dance. The local production, the commitment to new creators, the support for composers and the invitations to major artists and companies have contributed to the cultural enrichment of the country.
The festival devotes its attention to recitals by great voices, symphonic-choral concerts, operas, interdisciplinary music and theater shows, dance, jazz, pop music, chamber concerts and family shows.
In 1992 the Festival became part of the selective European Association of Festivals (EFA), thus consolidating itself as a prestigious Festival alongside important names such as Bayreuth, Berlin, Florence or Salzburg. Later, in 2006 it became part of the Spanish Association of Theatres, Festivals and Seasons of Opera XXI. Since 2007 he has also been a member of the Spanish Association of Classical Music Festivals (FestClàssica) and since the end of 2010 he has been a member of Opera Europa.
The festival takes place in Peralada, a small town of about 1,500 inhabitants located in Alt Empordà, between Figueres and the Costa Brava, about 150 kilometers from Barcelona. It enjoys good access by motorway and by train and is less than 30 minutes from two airports: Girona and Perpignan and 15 minutes from the Figueres-Vilafant AVE station. The Castle of Peralada, seat of the Festival, dates from the late Middle Ages. The complex was acquired by Miquel Mateu i Pla in 1923 and currently houses the Peralada Casino; the Museum of Glass; the Wine Museum; the great library, which consists of 80,000 volumes of old books and 1,000 copies of Don Quixote; the wineries and the Church and Cloister of the Carmel, in Gothic style.
