Eliza
Eliza (chamber opera), commissioned by Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2024. Stage direction.
(Score: Ferran Cruixent / Libretto: Pau Miró / Oh!pera 2024 edition)
The audience observes, through a sheet of tulle, a room without doors or windows. Inside, a man and a woman engage in a dialogue, in a delicate operatic duet. Based on a rereading of Miró’s libretto and Cruixent’s score, the staging articulates a reflection on surveillance technologies.
At first glance, the space presents a conventional mise-en-scène: a panoramic room, completely enclosed on all four sides, evoking the cinematic image. As the piece progresses, a score of light and movement involving the bodies and objects gradually dismantles and deconstructs this initial image, bringing into play the very idea of realism as a set of codes that simulate their own suspension.
Just as Cruixent’s music for string quartet and two voices questions its own acoustic quality by attempting to reproduce digital sound, the staging questions its own materiality — and performativity — by simulating virtual reality. Ultimately, this pantomime of the digital can be read as an agonised song to the dematerialisation of our perception, and to the beauty of the imperfection of the human gesture.
Cast:
SOPRANO Paula Sánchez-Valverde · TENOR Roger Vicens · CELLO Jordi Pérez Nogué · VIOLIN Dai Mar López / Joana Espar · VIOLA Ainara Quijada
Creative Team:
MUSICAL DIRECTION Irene Delgado-Jiménez · STAGE DIRECTION Pol Roig · SET DESIGN, COSTUMES & AUDIOVISUALS ELISAVA students · LIGHTING DESIGN Sergi Cerdan · REPETITEUR Oriol Sanz Baqués · OH!PERA PROJECT DIRECTOR Àlex Ollé · COORDINATION Anna Llopart / Anna Ponces / Ariana Fernández (Disseny Hub)
Press:
Maricel Chavarría, La Vanguardia, 14 July 2024 — “Un ‘dream team’ de la nueva ópera”. Read the review.
Jaume Radigales, Diari Ara, 12 July 2024 — “Triple PropOHsta de microòperes al Liceu”. Read the review.
Pablo Meléndez-Haddad, Ópera Actual, 13 July 2024 — “Un nuevo paso adelante del proyecto ‘Òh!pera’”. Read the review.
