Opera – «Tristana»
Opera — «Tristana» at the Pérez Galdós Theater, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Tristana. Chamber Opera.
Tristana, a contemporary opera about freedom, desire, and the body, arrives on the stage of the Pérez Galdós Theater. Based on the novel by Benito Pérez Galdós, with a libretto by Jorge Volpi, this adaptation moves the action to present-day Chamberí, in dialogue with the imagery of Luis Buñuel. Tristana, Juan, Horacio, and Saturna traverse a space where love, power, and dependence intertwine.
The music by Miguel Huertas, for piano, cello, and percussion, supports a cast composed of a soprano, a tenor, a baritone, and an actress. The stage design combines an LED screen and live cameras that amplify gestures and tensions, creating an experience close to cinematic language.
This version of Tristana proposes a radically contemporary reading of Benito Pérez Galdós's novel, permeated by the symbolic power of the female body and its right to emancipation. In dialogue with the screenplay by Luis Buñuel and Julio Alejandro, and with a libretto by Jorge Volpi, this adaptation is set in the Chamberí neighborhood in the 21st century, where the echoes of a patriarchal and bourgeois Spain still resonate among modern corridors, lit mobile phones, and silences laden with violence.
The original score, composed by Miguel Huertas, is performed by an ensemble of piano, cello, and percussion, and gives voice to a cast composed of a soprano, a tenor, a baritone, and an actress. On stage, the characters Juan López Garrido, Tristana, Horacio, and Saturna, traverse an intimate, political, and emotional landscape where love, power, dependence, and the need to break free from everything intersect.
The staging is articulated around a large LED screen and live cameras that amplify gestures, decompose intimacy, and reveal essential symbolic details: controlling hands, a breaking gaze, a cracking voice. These resources are not ornamental: they are an essential part of the work's language, translating into a cinematographic and emotionally incisive experience.
But the true rupture comes with the ending: if in the novel Tristana ends up mutilated, here she is the one who decides to leave. There is no amputated leg, but a wounded voice that, despite everything, insists. Faced with submission and defeat, our contemporary, lucid, and contradictory Tristana opts for a path where freedom is possible, even if it hurts. Even if it is sung with a different voice.
Collaboration of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria – Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra in the loan of a Premier 751.3 Octvs Vibraphone.
Artistic credits: TRISTANA. Based on the novel by Benito Pérez Galdós and the screenplay by Luis Buñuel and Julio Alejandro. Music: Miguel Huertas-Camacho. Libretto: Jorge Volpi. Musical direction: Bauti Carmena. Stage direction: Ricardo Campelo Parabavides. Cast: Tristana: Ruth González, soprano. Don Lope: Enrique Sánchez-Ramos, baritone. Horacio: Cesar Arrieta, tenor. Saturna: Luisa Torregrosa, actress. Ensemble: Piano: Miguel Huertas-Camacho. Percussion: Juanjo Guillem. Cello: Irene Celestino. Soundscape and electronic composition: Pedro Frágüela. Stage design and video: Ricardo Campelo. Lighting: Marc Bartoló. Costumes: Rhina. Technical coordination: Gema Rollón. Production: Ruth González. A co-production of Ópera de Tenerife, Comunidad de Madrid, and Teatro Xtremo.
Performance not intended for children. More information in the Box Office and Regulations section of this website.
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