Sant Andreu de Palomar is already celebrating a new edition of its Calisdoscopi Cultural cycle, this year focused on bringing opera closer to the seven neighborhoods of the Sant Andreu district. Until June 6, this event will deploy eighteen activities that will take opera out of the spaces that have historically defined it.
The program, curated by Luís Tabuenca, and created with the participation of about thirty facilities and Sant Andreu entities, is designed for all audiences and focuses on shared creation.
When the opera comes out to the street
The project explores community opera as an artistic practice that directly involves the citizenry in the creation processes, converting neighbors into active participants of the shows, while discovering a universe, often distant from the Barcelona neighborhoods of La Trinitat Vella, El Bon Pastor, El Baró de Viver, El Congrés-Indians, Navas, Sant Andreu and La Sagrera.
Each neighborhood will approach the operatic language from its own perspective: choral, technological, narrative, contemporary or festive. And it will do so, with opera as a kaleidoscope that will transform for a few days various municipal facilities into spaces of operatic creation.
All in all, it will translate into a program suitable for all audiences, which is already underway. The inaugural event, last Thursday at CC Baró Viver, kicked off the cycle, with a community show by the scenic creator Roger Bernat.
The opera of the everyday fact
There is a marriage argument, a mother and a daughter who don't understand each other and three ladies who know everything about the neighborhood. It could be any building in Trinitat Vella. And in fact, it is, as can be seen in L’òpera d’allò quotidià, a gestural theater show with Mozart arias created with a group of people from the neighborhood: elderly women from the Casal de Gent Gran, young dancers from Àrtic in residence at the Centre Cívic and neighbors linked to other creative processes in the district. It will be presented to the public on May 21 at the Centre Cívic Trinitat Vella at 7 p.m. followed by an open colloquium with the participants.
The Rumba of Bon Pastor reinvents itself
Primary school students from Institut-Escola El Til·ler created a few years ago a rumba dedicated to Bon Pastor within the framework of Fluxos. A song made from the neighborhood that now, for Calidoscopi 2026, returns transformed. Now those students are already in ESO and have wanted to return to the song to make it grow. Now, it incorporates reggaeton, electronic bases and live instrumentation, exploring how far a neighborhood rumba can go when looked at from the perspective of community opera. It will be on June 2 at 5 p.m., at the Centre Cívic Bon Pastor.
La Desfilada: the opera as a collective action
On June 6 at 6 p.m., the multi-purpose hall of Fabra i Coats will host the closing of the cycle and will transform into a catwalk. It will do so with The Parade, the most choral project of Calidoscopi 2026, where the costumes will be highlighted, as an scenic language proper to opera. Neighbors from the neighborhood will act as models and will parade down the red carpet with the pieces created by the sewing groups of Casals Bascònia, Can Portabella and Can Galta. The sound ambiance will be created by choral and musical groups linked to facilities and collectives from across the district. The closing moment will be shared: all groups will perform together The Brindisi from La Traviata by Verdi.
The festival, also includes family workshops, film screenings, colloquiums and different actions to explore all the faces of the operatic fact, where all the activities are free and open to the public.
Calidoscopi, more than a decade of culture in the neighborhoods
The Calidoscopi Cultural cycle was born from the civic facilities of the Sant Andreu district with the aim of enhancing the creative and artistic richness of the neighborhoods with a monographic program worked communally. The first experience was held in 2014. Since then, it has focused on topics as diverse as literature and territory, performing arts and social transformation, or women, humor and feminism, among others. This year it is the turn of opera, which will revolutionize for a few days all the neighborhoods of Sant Andreu, with Tabuenca as director and the special collaboration of the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
You can consult the entire complete program here.
