Temporada Alta raises the curtain

The Temporada Alta performing arts festival returns to normal for this autumn and will have 107 shows and 193 functions. In addition, 22 of the proposals will be premieres and 8 of them will be seen for the first time in Catalonia and 9 will do so throughout the State. The festival will raise the curtain on October 7 with the production L'adversari' directed by Julio Manrique. On the other hand, the international production will be one of the main pillars of the program with 17 shows from 11 different countries. Among them will be Othello, by the Lithuanian Oskar Koršunovas, in which he will present a version of Shakespeare's work to deal with racism and feminism. The High Season will last until December 12.

With the arrival of September, one of the festivals par excellence returns to the demarcation of Girona: Temporada Alta. The performing arts contest heats engines to recover full normality after two years of health restrictions. Looking ahead to this autumn, the festival has scheduled 107 shows and 193 functions.

The Catalan scene will have a special weight with more than 70 proposals that the public will be able to see on the Girona stages. The director of the contest, Salvador Sunyer, recalled that the festival is designed to show the public "what is done at home" and also to "teach abroad" the contemporary Catalan scene, which is very well valued throughout Europe .

In this sense, this year there will be new proposals from Cabosanroque (Flowers and Travel) or Mal Pelo (The Bluebird Call). Another of the outstanding Catalan production shows is 'La gran farsa', which Sunyer already predicts will be "hooligan" because it is based "on the monarchy and the judicial system", without specifying which country. Even so, the director has remarked that they do not want to "indoctrinate" but "offer different views that make you laugh, anger, reflect or discourage".

Manrique at the head of the inauguration

The inaugural show, however, will be in the hands of Julio Manrique. On this occasion he will adapt Emmanuel Carrère's novel L'adversari, which for the first time will become a theatrical production.

In 'L'adversari', Pere Arquillué and Carles Martínez will show the story based on a real case in which a man pretends to have studied medicine and works at the World Health Organization (WHO) and when the family discovers the lie , kills them and commits suicide.

Sunyer has remarked that the production focuses on "the image of the loser" and has advanced that "it will not be a comedy" and predicts that the production will be "at the same level" as the monologue that closed the previous edition of the festival, ' The most beautiful body that will have ever been found in this place', also starring Pere Arquillué.

International production is back

This autumn, Girona's stages will once again be filled with international companies after the health restrictions have been lifted. That's why Temporada Alta will have 17 international proposals from 11 different countries. The most outstanding is Othello, by the Lithuanian Oskar Koršunovas. The director repeats at Temporada Alta after opening the festival last year with a version of L'oncle Vània and this time he does it with a re-reading of Shakespeare's classic. Koršunovas will deal with issues such as racism, already present in the original text, but changing the gender of the protagonist, who will be a black woman.

Another of the expected returns is the Italian Pippo Delbono who will present 'Amore' to the Girona audience. On this occasion the director shows his vision of love, as melancholic as he sees life himself. Romeo Castellucci also returns to Girona with Il Terzo Reich, an "installation based on noise" of information that lives information daily and how it implies that in the end words lose their original meaning.

An unrepeatable tribute to Sondheim

After the death of American composer Stephen Sondheim, Temporada Alta has decided to pay tribute to him with a unique show that will serve to close this year's festival. He will do it with the help of Mario gas, one of the directors who has directed more Sondheim musicals in Spain (Sweeney Todd, A little night music or Follies).

The show will consist of a gala in which top musical artists such as Àngel Llàcer, Jordi Boixaderas or Vicky Peña will participate and will have a band of ten musicians on stage. Sondheim x Sondheim will be a Temporada Alta production that can only be seen in Girona and will be "difficult to repeat", according to the festival's director. This show can only be seen for two nights at the Teatre Municipal de Girona.

In the musical field, the production of the festival that will unite Ute Lemper & Gio Symphonia also stands out. In this case, the repertoire is made up of music that the Nazis considered degenerate and that Lemper will now recover at the hands of the Girona symphony orchestra. In fact, Sunyer has highlighted that this is one of the festival's lines of action, which seeks to unite international artists with other Catalan artists to achieve a projection outside of Catalonia.

Encourage the attendance of the young public

The festival has proposed to encourage a greater attendance of young audiences. Along these lines, anyone under 30 years of age can register for free in the Arteria community and have a 20% discount on the total programming. In addition, the remaining tickets for each show will go on sale for this audience on the day of the performance at a price of 10 euros.

To collaborate with the Temporada Alta social projects, a voluntary donation of between 1 and 5 euros can be made this year during the purchase of tickets. The contribution will go entirely to the La Ciutat Invisible foundation, which brings performing arts to the schools and institutes of Girona and Salt as part of the festival. In 2023, Temporada Alta plans to expand the projects and create a summer university.