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At 7:00 pm on Sunday in Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala Sinfónica, the Festival de Artes Escénicas Telón Tenerife presents the premiere of the new double programme by Lava Compañía de Danza, that includes two original creations by choreographers of international scope: Hush, by Israeli Roy Assaf, and Yalacha, by Korean Dongkyu Kim.

Both creators were invited by the company’s artistic director, Daniel Abreu (Premio Nacional de Danza 2014), to work with the dancers who currently make up Lava’s dance troupe: Emiliana Battista Marino, Fabiana Mangialardi, Virgina Martín, Paula Parra, Alicia Pirez and Amanda Rubio, who were selected through public notice. These pieces have been expressly created for the group resident at Auditorio de Tenerife.

Tickets can be purchased at Auditorio de Tenerife’s box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm Monday to Saturday except on holidays; via the websites www.auditoriodetenerife.com and www.telontenerife.com or calling 902 317 327. On the day of the show, the box office will be opened two hours before the event starts.

This programme displays the versatility and strength of creation for international dance. Israel and South Korea are the countries currently leading the international arena of contemporary dance thanks to their great creativity and command. Daniel Abreu explains that "turning to these places led us to Roy Assaf’s talent, with his peculiar use of body gestures and the deep clear message conveyed; on the other hand, Dongkyu Kim, who is accurate regarding the body and shows quality in movement; his works convey strength, impetus and an interesting questioning of everything human".

Roy Assaf’s advice is that “while seeing Hush I encourage you to ignore the unswerving temptation of seeking for the plot; refuse the stubborn need to understand, trust your instinct -being honest and sincere about it- and follow your tender heart, that has a great capacity for imagination”.

Dongkyu Kim, who has worked on the island with his assistants Nara Yoon and Jiho Jang, also a composer, says that “we all make our own sound”. That’s why in Yalacha “sound doesn’t come from the mouth but from life: I live my own life and I make my own sound through the sound of others but, what sound do you make? he wonders. The piece is part of the Jisoo Gook Laboratory Dance Project.

All the information about circus, theatre, dance and family shows of the Telón programme, tickets and discounts available in each venue can be checked on www.telontenerife.com and on their social networks.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony nº 1 leads Winter Daydreams, Sinfónica de Tenerife’s fourth concert in the 2019-2020 season to take place on Friday the 29th at 7:30 pm in the Auditorio de Tenerife. The orchestra will play under the baton of Gergely Madaras, in his first time leading the Cabildo’s ensemble.

In this new show the Sinfónica de Tenerife is shrouded in a post-Romantic halo that looks to classicism and European nationalisms to perform, in addition to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony nº 1, The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana and the Flute Concerto in D Major op.283 by Carl Reinecke. 

Bedrich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride is a forerunner in exploring the Czech character and it set the path for other authors like Antonín Dvórak. Smetana’s second opera is a comic piece about a love trio in a rural Czeck area; its initial strains develop into a frantic melody that goes through different voices in the orchestra, slightly recalling Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. With this music, the author portrays the fun in a village on a holiday, including its chatter and bustle. Although this work got a cold reception due to the threat of a Prussian invasion and because the audience did not quite see themselves portrayed in those rural characters, it gradually became one of the fundamental pieces of Czech music.

The Flute Concerto in D Major op.283 by Carl Reinecke will be played in Tenerife for the first time. Written in 1908, the piece has a Romantic touch despite being contemporary with the first vanguards, and it includes a combination of proposals and languages. A very brief choral creates the atmosphere that marks the movement and after a false flute entry, it is the violas and the clarinets the ones that present the main theme. The growing rhythm gradually turns the simple initial melody into a powerful ending that leads to the last movement, in which Felix Mendelssohn’s influence can be appreciated.

Symphony nº 1 in G minor Op. 13, by Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, also known as Winter Daydreams, was the first project the Russian maestro embarked on when he obtained the chair of harmony at Moscow’s Conservatoire in 1866. In the score the author tackles his admiration for the European composition principle, fundamentally German, and his interest for his country’s folklore.

Inspired by a night journey across Russia and by his oneiric world, the vast landscapes, the snow and the stars are the images that frame the first movement. His composition has a circular structure therefore, the elements of the introduction are repeated at the end. This piece concludes with a bright, triumphant tutti, based on popular musical airs. Tchaikovsky wanted to show his technical command to his master; hence the energetic, exaggerated end which is an ironic gesture about the difficulty of finishing any creative process, especially when what is expected from a young composer is at stake.

Gergely Madaras is the current musical director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal of Liège and principal conductor of the Savaria Symphony Orchestra. He has been guest conductor of prestigious orchestras including the BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé, Philharmonia, Filarmonica della Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Filarmónicas de Copenhague y Oslo, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, among others.

He is also an established conductor of opera repertoires having led the English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Hungarian State Opera and Grand Théâtre de Genève. Gergely keeps a close relationship with new music and has approached more than one hundred works composed after 1970. He has also collaborated closely with composers Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin, György Kurtág and Péter Eötvös.

The versatile Swiss artist Sébastian Jacot is one of the most brilliant flute players of his generation. This is the first time Jacot, who was dubbed “flute rock star’ on his appointment as Solo Flutist at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra - is playing on the island. His outstanding work took him to Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra when he was 18. Sébastian has received first prizes at major international competitions such as the Kobe International Flute Competition (2013), the Carl Nielsen International Flute Competition (2014) or the Munich ARD Music Competition (2015). 

His solo engagements have taken him across Europe and Japan to perform at top concert halls. His skills have also made him an outstanding saxophonist and an ice-skating champion. He is currently taking part as a dancer, acrobat and musician in the Project 1001 Lives by choreographer Juliette Rahon, in addition to preparing a circus and musical show with his five siblings.

Tickets for this subscription concert can be purchased at the box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm Monday to Saturday; by phone on 902 317 327; or via the internet on www.sinfonicadetenerife.es and www.auditoriodetenerife.com.

El Auditorio de Tenerife recibe mañana [sábado 23], a las 16:00 horas, la fase autonómica de Canarias del 18º Intercentros Melómano en la categoría de Grado Profesional. El primer clasificado que surja de esta jornada será el representante de Canarias en la fase final, que tendrá lugar el 8 de diciembre en el Auditorio de la Diputación de Alicante. La entrada es libre hasta completar aforo.

En estas audiciones participarán nueve alumnos de los conservatorios profesionales de Santa Cruz de Tenerife y Las Palmas de Gran Canaria de diversas especialidades instrumentales: flauta travesera, guitarra, oboe, violonchelo, percusión, violín y clarinete. Las intervenciones de los músicos tendrán una duración máxima de 15 minutos y el repertorio que ejecuten será de libre elección. Tras las actuaciones, el jurado se retirará a deliberar y, posteriormente, se hará público su fallo para conocer al representante canario de este certamen.

En la fase final de Alicante participarán los diecisiete representantes autonómicos que tratarán de hacerse con el premio: una gira de conciertos por toda la geografía española, que incluye recitales solistas y conciertos con orquesta sinfónica, como el ofrecido por la Orquesta Metropolitana de Madrid o la Orquesta Filarmonía Granada.

El Intercentros Melómano es una iniciativa de la Fundación Orfeo creada en el año 2002 con el objetivo de fomentar la participación activa de los alumnos de los conservatorios de música en concursos de carácter profesional. La idea es servir como experiencia práctica a los músicos, que puedan enfrentarse a un público y a un jurado que valora su interpretación, no únicamente su destreza técnica.

Lava is travelling to Pamplona to perform at Navarra University’s Teatro del Museo. The group resident at the Auditorio de Tenerife is putting on a double programme at 7:30 pm on Friday the 22nd. Their show includes the pieces Bending the Walls, by choreographer Fernando Hernando Magadan, and Beyond, by La intrusa’s Virginia García and Damián Muñoz. At 12:00 noon on the same day, the company’s artistic director, Daniel Abreu, will have a meeting with the audience.

This double programme, which was the first show the company put on a year ago, reaches Navarra as part of the section Museo en Danza of the university’s cultural centre. In the morning, the same venue is hosting a meeting with Daniel Abreu, Premio Nacional de Danza 2014 [National Dance Award], to talk about the Tenerife dancer’s career and his work with the company, which started in 2018.

Bending the Walls is an exploration of the world of restrictions and limitations in the search for happiness, freedom and understanding. Through the piece, the physical and psychological limits of the individual and the surrounding world are explored. It is a metaphor about the psychological, physical and emotional forces human beings can approach in order to reach beyond palpable reality, overcome sorrow and escape into the world of the imagination.

Beyond deals with the experience of searching through the emotional landscapes of memory, presenting a scenario full of uncertainties, which forces us to create or reflect on our own life and on the landscape every individual shapes for themselves either consciously or unconsciously.

Lava’s calendar continues on 1 December, at the Auditorio de Tenerife where at 7:00 pm they will premiere their new double programme, created by two choreographers, Hush, by Israeli Roy Assaf, and Yalacha, by Korean Dong Kyu Kim, to be presented at the Festival de Artes Escénicas Telón Tenerife. Also, on 5 December the dance company is travelling to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to perform their new repertoire at Teatro Pérez Galdós.

Tickets for Lava’s premiere on 1 December are available through Auditorio de Tenerife’s usual sale channels: at the box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm Monday to Saturday except holidays; via the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com  or calling 902 317 327. On the day of the performance, the box office will open two hours before the show starts.

At 7:30 pm on Friday the 22nd Quantum Ensemble, group resident at Auditorio de Tenerife, will give their second season concert at the Sala de Cámara. The programme offers a striking contrast in its four pieces by 20^th century composers: Britten, Birtwistle, Cage and Copland. Fricciones  also features Canarian dancer Carmen Macías, the British Elias String Quartet, clarinettist Cristo Barrios and pianist Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, who are both founding members of the Quantum Ensemble.

This repertoire, which combines tradition and the avant-garde, will be put in context by Miguel Ángel Marín, Fundación Juan March’s music programme director, in a talk taking place the same day of the concert at 6:30 pm in Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala de Cámara. Admission to the talk is free.

Violinists Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant along with viola player Simone van der Giessen and cellist Marie Bitlloch make up the Elias String Quartet, which was set up in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of Music, in Manchester, where they worked with the late Dr Christopher Rowland.

Fricciones, following a well-established tradition in the programmes of the Quantum Ensemble, allows us to contrast the styles and creative personalities of two pairs of composers whose biographies overlap in space and time.

The concert starts with a mature and profound work by Benjamin Britten, namely, his String Quartet No 3. The contrast here is established with his compatriot, the English composer Harrison Birtwistle, who belongs to a later generation that broke in a radical fashion with the past.

Víctor Durà-Vilà, lecturer at the University of Leeds, explains that “Birtwistle creates with Linoi a very singular work for clarinet, piano, and dancer”.

Next, we will have the opportunity to perceive the differences between the two US composers. “In spite of their being contemporaries and the premieres of their works close in time, John Cage and Aaron Copland belong to two very distant aesthetic universes”, Durà-Vilà says, to then conclude with “what is shown by the pairing of these four compositions, similar as regards to nationality and time-frame, but provoking very different aesthetic experiences, is that audience members should cultivate an attitude of flexibility and curiosity—one devoid of preconceptions—when attending concerts that showcase the amazing wealth of 20th century music”. 

Tickets can be bought through Auditorio de Tenerife usual sale channels: t the box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm, Monday to Saturday except holidays; via www.auditoriodetenerife.com  or calling 902 317 327.

Quantum Ensemble’s public activity this week starts on Thursday the 21st at 11:00 am at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias with a master class for Donald Grant’s students. Grant is one of the Elias String Quartet’s violinists and he also teaches chamber music at the Royal Northern College of Music. The ensemble’s outreach concert is taking place at 5:00 pm and will be attended by people who have been diagnosed with the Asperger syndrome. There will be volunteers of Obra Social “la Caixa” collaborating in the event.

Also on Friday the pedagogic concert will take place at 11:00 am for school children taking part in this programme. It will also work as the practical session for the first Taller de Comunicación Didáctica para la Música [Workshop on Didactic Communication for Music], organised by Auditorio de Tenerife’s Social and Educational Area. This learning session includes teaching resources, a talk and a presentation by musicologist Marina Hervás. This concert, to take place at Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala de Cámara, will be attended by 370 Secondary School children coming from 10 different schools in Güímar, La Laguna, San Miguel de Abona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Tacoronte.

Organised by Auditorio de Tenerife’s Education and Social Area, the first session of  Taller de Comunicación Didáctica para la Música [Workshop on Didactic Communication for Music] is starting on Thursday, the 21st. In this meeting, musicologist Marina Hervás will deliver a theoretical session with the paper Educating (musically) beyond the canon: towards inclusive communication and show programming which will be followed the next day by a practical class with school children at 10:00 am, during the Quantum Ensemble’s concert Fricciones.

This is the first time the meeting is taking place. It includes three experts who will give talks and practical sessions dealing with the different situations concert pedagogical presenters have to deal with. Learning resources have been previously prepared for them. The initiative comes in answer to the need of providing for increasingly active audiences who require this type of figure to explain the contents in an amusing way. There is currently no formal education of this field on the island.

These workshops are open to students of music and journalism, conservatoire and primary school teachers, pedagogues, actors, narrators, dancers, artists, etc. You can enrol for free by sending an email with your personal details and CV to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The workshop aims to give participants tools to address different kinds of audiences like learners, the elderly and groups at risk of social exclusion. People who do the workshop will be included in a list of music didactic communicators and they will go on with their training through other concerts included in Auditorio de Tenerife’s programme.

After this first experience, the next workshop will be with Belén Otxotorena, actor, narrator and dramatization teacher, who will read her paper Narración y música, ¡qué buena pareja!, [Narrating and Music, what a good match!] on 12 February. The following day there will be an event with school children attending the Espejos pre-concert talk by Quantum Ensemble. Finally, Eva Sandoval, piano teacher, musicologist and an Environmental Science graduate, will be on the island to read a paper on classical music on 13 May. The practical activity will take place on the 14^th before the Prisma concert by the same ensemble.  

In her paper, Tenerife expert Marina Hervás, who teaches at the Master in Cultural Industries of the Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes and at the Escuela de Cinematografía y audiovisuales de Madrid (ECAM), will talk about the responsibility cultural institutions and their programmers have when they decide to either support or question a certain musical canon in their pedagogical programmes. She will also share her thoughts on what it means “to be pedagogical” in a concert.

The main goal is to learn the tools to develop one’s own voice and stance, getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of the proposals of leading cultural venues; it also aims to build communication skills and to learn to program pedagogical projects that cater for a wider range of audiences, ages, circumstances and contexts.

Hervás has a PhD in Philosophy from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and has a degree in Philosophy (Universidad de La Laguna), in Musicology (Universidad de La Rioja) and a Master in the Theory of Art and Cultural Management (Universidad de La Laguna). She has a professional degree in violin and is an active member of Barcelona young orchestras. In 2011 she won the first prize in the MECD’s Social Science and Humanities at the Certamen Nacional de Investigación ‘Arquímedes’ [National Research Competition]. She usually takes part in national and international conventions. She has written cultural reviews for Scherzo, Codalario, Culturamas, Núvol, ABC, La Opinión de Tenerife, Sul Ponticello, etc. and for her own project Cultural Resuena.

The Cabildo organised today, Friday the 15^th, the fourth Tenerife Artes Escénicas event that brings together the companies, distributors, plus public and private programmers  that make up the network of venues and shows. Cabildo de Tenerife’s island director of Culture, Leopoldo Santos, and the artistic director of the Auditorio de Tenerife, José Luis Rivero, welcomed those present at the meeting.

Leopoldo Santos said that the Office he leads intends to go on holding these meetings in order to “listen to and make decisions by consensus and based on the evidence rather than just on good intentions”. “Our concepts may be different but through intellectual humbleness we’ll seek common ideas to understand the other’s reality. These meeting will only be successful when people not only come to them but also share their doubts and build common paths to follow”, the island’s head of culture stated.

José Luis Rivero specified that “these meeting were set up following the changes that took place in the circuit, which is more like a network” and said clearly that “the Cabildo acts as a mediator of this meeting between the different parties with the agreement of the sector’s professional associations, Réplica and PiedeBase, with whom we have agreed to find the right formula to communicate in a way that is useful to everyone”.

The meeting was attended by some fifteen town councils and tens of companies and programmers. The call is still open for town councils to forward their applications to Tenerife Artes Escénicas 2020. Please see all the information on the website www.tenerifeartesescenicas.com.

Tenerife Artes Escénicas is a Cabildo de Tenerife’s programme which is carried out jointly through the Auditorio de Tenerife, Town Councils and public and private venues across the island with the aim to develop administrative, financial and technical coordination strategies in order to offer a quality artistic programme. It functions as a mechanism that coordinates and manages the programme of activities to encourage people in general to join stage and musical events.

The meeting is part of the professional activities organised by the Festival de Artes Escénicas Telón Tenerife that have taken place at the Auditorio de Tenerife with different public and private institutions.

The outreach scheme Danza en Comunidad will put on stage a performance that includes more than 200 people of the different groups that take part in this initiative. Today, Friday the 15th, project coordinator Laura Marrero announced that the show titled La gran cita a ciegas [The Great Blind Date] will be performed on 7 June 2020.

The event was announced during the annual meeting of all the Danza en Comunidad groups, where they reviewed the activities carried out throughout the year. They have participated in quite a large number of festivals and events including the Mercado de las Artes Performativas del Atlántico Sur MAPAS, Muestra Internacional de Arte en la Calle Mueca, Festival de las Artes del Movimiento FAM, Festival de Artes Escénicas Telón Tenerife and the Despacio Market.

Next, the participants shared their perceptions with the Danza en Comunidad team, explaining how the group they belong to fits in the project, what the scheme has meant to them at an artistic level and the personal relationships they have built during these activities. “We’ll take into account all the opinions and draw conclusions of their experiences to seek ways to improve”, Laura Marrero revealed.

Those invited to the event are the heads of the different groups, artistic collaborators, festival and project programmers, people from the open call, participants of the Danza en Comunidad programme and the Auditorio de Tenerife team.

In these meetings they jointly develop the basis for the Auditorio de Tenerife to plan its activities throughout the year: programmes, the Creadores en Comunidad project, continuity activities, etc. This is a place to reflect, act, share, communicate; it is where dialogue, connections, interests come up.

Auditorio de Tenerife and the Asociación Canario Polaca ARKA [Polish Spanish Association] present Leszek Możdżer on Sunday the 17th at 7:30 pm. Możdżer  is a distinguished Polish pianist, composer and producer who is bringing his show From Chopin to Komeda via jazz to the island. He is regarded as the greatest revelation in Polish jazz of the last decade. Thanks to his thorough classical training he feels free to improvise and so creates new musical landscapes to which he contributes timbre, eloquence and harmony of his own. The result is a subtle, often mystic atmosphere.

This concert has been organised by the Fundación Proyecto Perfecto and the Asociación ARKA and it is sponsored by Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Spain with funding from the Polish Foreign Affairs Ministry. Alliance Group, Cofila Asesores, and Memento Group collaborate with the show.

Dionizy Piątkowski, author of the Polish Jazz Encyclopaedia, says that "Leszek Możdżer [is] a distinguished pianist and composer who has managed to unleash a mental and stylistic revolution in Polish jazz that no other jazz player had ever achieved before ".

Tickets can be purchased at Auditorio de Tenerife box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm Monday to Saturday, and two hours before the concert; via the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com or by phone on 902 317 327.

Born on 23 March 1971 in Gdansk, Leszek followed and successfully completed formal musical education until he graduated at the Gdansk Music Academy, to then start applying his classical skills in a new way by playing in jazz bands. As a member of the Milosc band in the 90s, Leszek helped instigate a "yass" revolution in Polish music. At the time, he won every possible musical award in his native country.

Leszek has often recorded with Zbigniew Preisner (Requiem for my friend, 10 easy pieces for piano). He has also collaborated with Jan A. P. Kaczmarek (recordings for the Oscar – original score winner for "Finding Neverland" and the album "Kaczmarek by Możdżer"). In addition, Leszek has performed with the most talented and renowned Polish jazz musicians including Tomasz Stańko, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Anna Maria Jopek and Michał Urbaniak. He has also played and recorded with many internationally renowned artists including Arthur Blythe, Buster Williams, Billy Harper, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, David Gilmour, Marcus Miller, Archie Shepp, Eddie Daniels, Charles Fox, Nana Vasconcelos, Lars Danielsson, Zohar Fresco, John Scofield, Steve Swallow, Tan Dun.

Leszek Możdżer also writes film scores, and music for theatre plays and operas.
In 2012 he was president of the jury at the Montreux Jazz Piano Competition and he is the artistic director of the Jazz nad Odrą Festival and the Enter Music Festival.

Cuentos, cámara… acción es la propuesta educativa de Sinfónica de Tenerife para el público más joven de la isla que ha comenzado hoy [miércoles 13] en la Sala de Cámara del Auditorio y que reunirá 2.300 escolares de Educación Infantil, Primaria y Especial en seis sesiones, que proceden de 33 centros educativos. La actividad concluirá el sábado [día 16] con dos conciertos en familia, que comenzará a las 11:00 horas para menores de 3 años y a partir de las 12:30 horas para mayores de 3 años. En ambos casos, las entradas ya están agotadas.

Este nuevo concierto didáctico evocará cinco historias musicales interpretadas por sus respectivos solistas, el ensamble musical estará formado por Irina Peña (violín), Sviatoslav Belonogov (viola), Raúl Mirás (violonchelo), Iker Sánchez (contrabajo) y Victoria Carlisle (arpa).

A excepción del cuento musical El toro Ferdinando de Alan Ridout para violín, las otras cuatro narraciones se han creado especialmente para este programa a partir de piezas seleccionadas por los propios solistas de la Sinfónica de Tenerife. Así, el programa contempla las partituras Pastorale und Gavotte de H. Ritter para viola, Alone de G. Sollima para violonchelo, Motivy de E. Tabakov para contrabajo y Fire Dance de D. Watkins para arpa.

La voz de Ana Hernández Sanchíz y de Francisco Javier Burón hilvanarán esta propuesta en donde se irán presentando estos instrumentos a través de las historias que van surgiendo desde unos animales muy peculiares vinculados al carácter de los propios útiles musicales: serpiente, hormiga, delfín, tigre y toro.

Los intérpretes no estarán solos, ya que el público infantil podrá participar desde sus butacas en las melodías a través de canciones, ritmo o danza, convirtiéndose en un evento cultural interactivo.

Ópera de Tenerife presents Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, to be performed on the 19, 21 and 23 November at Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala Sinfónica. The details of this production were revealed today, Wednesday the 13th by the Cabildo’s Director of Culture, Leopoldo Santos; Auditorio de Tenerife’s artistic director, José Luis Rivero; stage director Mario Pontiggia; musical director Giuseppe Finzi, and the singers Luis Cansino and Leonor Bonilla on behalf of the cast.

Leopoldo Santos pointed out that this Ópera de Tenerife’s production “is valid today”; he highlighted the work done by all the people involved in staging Rigoletto and said that “bringing together the Sinfónica de Tenerife and Ópera de Tenerife is always a pleasant cooperation”.  José Luis Rivero said that “the three performances will pay tribute to Alfredo Kraus, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of his decease”.

Mario Pontiggia, who is also artistic director at the Fundación Alfredo Kraus, stated that the president of the foundation was grateful for the homage paid to the Canarian tenor. “Kraus kept a great relationship with this island since the 1960s and one of his last activities was a recording with the Sinfónica de Tenerife in 1998”, the maestro explained. “Verdi managed to grasp Victor Hugo’s concept, which is about the relationship of a father with his daughter, who loved him out of compassion in a monstrous context”, concluded Pontiggia, who is the stage director of this Rigoletto.

For his part, Giuseppe Finzi, who is making his debut with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, believes that this opera “is the most modern and interesting of Verdi’s trilogy, and it harshly criticizes power and vice”; “these are current issues for which Verdi created wonderful music, nearly expressionist”, the musical director added.

Luis Cansino disclosed that "I’ll offer my view on Rigoletto supported by Finzi’s view"; the part, in his opinion, “is one of the most wonderful roles for a baritone”. The singer also admitted that "I’m really happy to work again with someone who’s very dear to me, Mario Pontiggia.; he gave me my first opportunity to perform a first-rate role in this country”; and also being able to work with Leonor Bonilla, “who I worked with when she was a child and I’m thrilled with her successful career”.

Leonor Bonilla admitted that "gratitude is an understatement whenever I come to Tenerife". Regarding the phrase "chicharrera de adopción" [native of Santa Cruz by adoption] used by José Luis Rivero to refer to her at this press conference, the soprano explained that "it delights me because ever since I took part at the 2014Opera (e)Studio, coming here has always been a pleasure". Regarding her role as Gilda, she shared her personal satisfaction at having Luis Cansino as her father in fiction because she regards him as her father on the stage.

Rigoletto is a drama in three acts with music by Giuseppe Verdi and libretto in Italian by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the theatre play Le roi s’amuse (The King has Fun) by Victor Hugo. In this opera, Verdi portrays all the deep-rooted passions characteristic of man’s nature. Until it was premiered on 11 March 1851 at Teatro de La Fenice in Venice, the composer suffered agonies as he saw it clash against the censorship walls of the Lombardy-Venice state authorities [Austrian Empire], as it deals with topics which were far too thorny in Italian society before unification. After making some changes, which did not distort the characters or the colour of the work, it was finally premiered to great success.

Rigoletto is the first title of the famous “popular trilogy” by the Busseto maestro. Like the heroes in Il trovatore and La traviata, Rigoletto is a social outcast, a hunchbacked jester who worked at the corrupt court of Mantua in the late 16^th century, ruled by the beautiful and young Duke of Mantua, a morbid seducer. When his efforts to safeguard the innocence of his daughter Gilda are shattered by the Duke’s lust, the jester will attempt an impossible revenge.

Giuseppe Finzi is the musical director of the production that features the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, and the voices of Luis Cansino (baritone); Leonor Bonilla (soprano); Yijie Shi (tenor); Simón Orfila (bass); Guadalupe Barrientos (contralto); Sophie Burns (mezzo soprano); Aleksandr Utkin (bass); Silvia Zorita (mezzo soprano); Jorge Franco (tenor); Matteo Mollica (baritone); Gianni Giuga (baritone) and Beatriz de Sousa (soprano).

The performances on Tuesday, the 19th, Thursday the 21^st, and Saturday, the 23^rd are taking place at 7:30 pm at Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala Sinfónica. Tickets for this Ópera de Tenerife show are available through Auditorio de Tenerife usual sale channels, the box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm Monday to Saturday; via www.auditoriodetenerife.com or calling 902 317 327.

This weekend Auditorio de Tenerife’s Coro Juvenil  is taking part in the IV Semana Canaria de la Música Coral [4th Choral Music Week] with two concerts in Gran Canaria.  Forty-two choirs are taking part in the festival, which also features eighteen shows that started in Agüimes on 1 November and end on Sunday, the 17th with a closing concert in which eight groups will premiere works that received awards at the 2^nd Concurso de composición coral de Canarias [Canary Islands Choral Composition Competition]. The Tenerife choir, conducted by Roxana Schmunk, will perform Arrorró, newly arranged by Beatriz Corona.

Prior to their participation in the closing concert, the Coro Juvenil will participate in an event that is taking place on Saturday, the 16^th in Santa Lucía de Tirajana. The venue is Casa de la Cultura de Sardina del Sur and the show, that also features Coro Infantil de la Escuela de Música de Santa Lucía and Coral Flor de Oroval, will start at 8:00 pm.  The repertoire chosen for the occasion includes some of the pieces that received awards at the European Choir Games last August, like The Music’s always there with you by John Rutter, O Love by Eliane Hagenberg and A Song For You de Leon Russell. The Seal Lullaby by Eric Whitacre and Rudyard Kypling plus Huddy Ledbetter’s Bring Me Little Water Sylvi to round off the repertoire.

At the final concert, which is taking place at the Teatro Pérez Galdós at 12:00 noon, the Choir will be singing Beatriz Corona’s arrangement of Arrorró and A Song for You. This event also includes the performance of two groups that obtained national and international awards this year: the Coro de Voces Blancas of the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Tenerife and the Coro de Cámara Ainur. The Coro de Cámara COMCANTO, the Coro de la Escuela Menvus, Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria’s Coro Juvenil, Súbito Koral and Cantares Estudio Coral are also joining this special event where, according to Javier Toledo, coordinator of the Semana Canaria de la Música Coral, “some of the best island choirs’ performances will take place”.