This evening, the new opera of the composer Raquel García-Tomás will be premiered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, a newly created opera with a libretto by Irène Gayraud and artistic direction by Marta Pazos, inspired by the memoirs of Herculine Barbin, known as Alexina B., one of the first intersex people to achieve recognition in 19th-century France.
From Digital Films we are producing a documentary feature film focusing on the creative process of the composer Raquel García-Tomás’s (1984), National Prize for Music 2020, new opera from the moment she decides to rescue the story of Alexina Barbin until its premiere at the Grand Theatre of the Liceu.
Raquel García-Tomás, a young, working-class woman from the Besòs district, will today become the second woman composer in history to premiere an opera in the grand hall of the emblematic Grand Theatre of the Liceu. In addition, she will do so with a contemporary theme that breaks taboos and helps to visibilize the intersex collective reality and their struggle.
The production company team feel very lucky to be able to experience such an exceptional and historic event and to have the opportunity to document it thanks to the confidence that Raquel has placed in us, having collaborated on the documentary Rere el mirall, la música (Digital Films, Acadèmia Catalana de la Música, TVC, 2020) and thanks to the close collaboration with the Liceu, whom we also want to thank for the treatment received.
The opera features the musical direction of Ernest Martínez Izquierdo, at the head of the Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the performance of the mezzo-soprano Lídia Vinyes-Curtis in the leading role, as well as Alicia Amo, Elena Copons, Xavier Sabata, Mar Esteve and the Vivaldi-Petits Cantors de Catalunya Choir, conducted by Òscar Boada, in the cast and with the following artistic and technical team:
Scene direction: Marta Pazos
Scenography: Max Glaenzel
Costume: Silvia Delagneau
Lighting: Nuno Meira
Choreography: María Cabeza de Vaca
Video: Raquel García-Tomás
Sound: Sixto Cámara
Support for musical direction: Lorenzo Ferrandiz
Production: Gran Teatre del Liceu
Toi toi toi!
