Òh!pera takes another step in its commitment to renewing the operatic genre. The project promoted by the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Disseny Hub Barcelona and the Department of Culture and Creative Industries of the Barcelona City Council celebrates its fifth edition this year with a notable novelty: for the first time, it leaves the Liceu spaces and moves its activity to Fabra i Coats. From July 2 to 5, this space in Sant Andreu will host three new micro-operas of contemporary creation with a clear aim: to decentralize culture and bring opera closer to new audiences.
"The change of location is made to break the idea that opera is an art far removed or reserved for a specific audience," explains Àlex Ollé, artistic director of the initiative, resident artist of the Liceu and founding member of La Fura dels Baus.
A unique laboratory to imagine 21st century opera
In just five editions, Òh!pera has become a unique creative space worldwide. "I travel a lot for my job and there is no other project like this in the world," assures Ollé. For the director, the particularity of the initiative is that it is not limited to programming shows, but accompanies the entire process of an opera's birth.
The project functions as a laboratory of ideas where creators can experiment with new languages and take artistic risks. Each production involves all the elements that are part of a professional opera: musical composition, libretto, stage direction, interpretation, set design, costumes, lighting and audiovisual creation.
"We want to reflect on opera in the 21st century," summarizes Ollé. And under this premise, they update the genre without losing its essence: the fusion between music, dramaturgy and staging.
Three micro-operas to talk about the present
The program of this fifth edition consists of three newly created operas, each lasting about thirty minutes, which can be seen consecutively and invite the public to discover different ways of understanding and rethinking contemporary opera.
"We present three proposals with a more current language, more adapted to contemporary games and exploring new forms of relationship between music, the stage and new narratives," explains Ollé. The pieces start from themes and tools of the present, such as artificial intelligence, which will be one of the axes of this edition. In this line, there is, for example, a work that will fuse opera with flamenco, a completely risky combination.
The three works that can be seen this year are: Jo, núvol, by Sergi Puig Serna, with libretto by Alicia Kopf, stage direction by Lucia del Greco and musical direction by Miquel Massana; La vida por los cuernos, with music by the composer Anna Colom and libretto by Pablo Macho Otero, under the musical direction of Exequiel Coria and the stage direction of Alexandre Rodríguez i Fons; and Opereta, with music by Arnau Brichs, musical direction by Marcel Ortega i Martí, libretto by Pol Guasch and stage direction by Marc Salicrú.
A gateway for new creators
Beyond the final result, Ollé insists that the most important thing about this cycle is the creation process. In this sense, he explains that, over these five years, they have developed an important task of professionalizing the sector. The project has generated 17 productions, has involved the participation of 90 professionals and more than 350 students have passed through it. A network of creators that includes composers, librettists, stage directors, performers and specialists from all disciplines linked to the performing arts. For Ollé, this transversality is essential: "The performing arts are like that, they work all disciplines together."
And it doesn't end there, it's a hotbed of new talents and professionals, as they offer young creators the opportunity to learn how a real production works and take on responsibilities that are often difficult to obtain in professional circuits.
From micro-opera to professional career
Beyond the programming at Òh!pera, they also want these newly created pieces not to die with the festival and to be able to reach other stages. An example is Estètica i massacre, created last year by Carlota Gurt and Oriol Pla, which this year will be performed outside the framework of Òh!pera, with functions planned in Madrid and at the Castell de Peralada Festival. For Ollé, this continuity is a fundamental part of the initiative: it is not just about creating new works, but about accompanying them so that they can begin their own journey.
Five years after its birth, Òh!pera has become much more than a festival that comes out of the Liceu; it is already a key piece in the opera creation machinery in our country. A machinery that this year changes its stage, adds new actors, and will conquer new audiences, all while answering a key question: what should 21st-century opera be like?
