Tosca
Orquesta Sinfónica, Coro y el Plan de Formación Teatral de la Universidad de Navarra y AGAO

 Tuesday / 16 Apr / 19:30h
 Wednesday / 17 Apr / 19:30h
 36 y 38€*
MUN Theatre

* Discounts for students and UNAV employees as well as a 5€ discount voucher with youth card.

Tosca, Giacomo Puccini's grand opera, is the new transversal project promoted by the Museo Universidad de Navarra in co-production with the Asociación Gayarre Amigos de la Ópera (AGAO).

Musical direction: Borja Quintas

Stage direction: Liuba Cid

This monumental piece, one of the great masterpieces of Italian verismo, comes to the MUN with the Symphony Orchestra, the Choir and the Theater Training Plan of the University of Navarra, with the participation of great lyric figures such as soprano Ana Lucrecia García, baritone Jorge Carlos Tello and tenor Facundo Muñoz.

The proposal, with Borja Quintas as musical director and Liuba Cid as stage director, is a new challenge for students from different faculties. Young musicians and renowned artists will share the stage in a unique and unprecedented experience.

THE WORK

Tosca, opera by Puccini, is one of the great masterpieces of Italian verismo. Premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in January 1900, it is based on a lyrical adaptation by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa of Victorien Sardou's play of the same name, La Tosca. The theatrical force is imposed throughout the plot, fed by a constant dramatic tension through the political and historical conflict that serves as a pretext for the outcome of the action.

As in all tragedies, the characters do not have an idealistic vision of the world, they are driven by inner strength, the exorbitant passion typical of the great tragic archetypes. Love, jealousy, deceit, betrayal, violence, pity or revenge are fundamental themes in this post-romantic opera of great musical and scenic complexity. Tosca, the heroine of the tragedy, is subjected to confusion and jealousy, unfounded by Baron Scarpia and his desires for her, a dark and violent character who uses his power to destroy everything Tosca loves: her dignity and unconditional love for her beloved, the young painter and revolutionary, Mario Cavaradossi.

Cross-cutting projects

In 2022, the Campus Creativo area set as a priority objective to involve the greatest number of students from different faculties in the programming of the MUN, and thus implement the interdisciplinary collaboration of the University of Navarra in the artistic field.

The Umbrella Zarzuela was the first project developed in this permanent context of training and learning. In addition to the Symphony Orchestra, the Choir and the Theater Training Plan, it incorporated the collaborations of the School of Communication and the School of Architecture. With Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, in 2023, a large participatory choir was added to the usual artistic work, including the Youth Section of the Orfeón Pamplonés and the Youth Choir of the Community of Madrid. The stage concert was presented at the MUN Theater and at the Symphonic Hall of the National Auditorium of Madrid to great critical and public acclaim.

This year's project allows us to take a new step forward with the programming of a major operatic title.

Biographies

Borja Quintas, musical director

The prolific conductor Borja Quintas develops his career in the most diverse projects and places, being his two most active countries Russia and Spain. He has performed in most European capitals and in the Middle East in countries such as Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, conducting some of the best orchestras in the world, such as the London Symphony Orchestra or the New Russia Symphony Orchestra.

He has always combined the symphonic world with the lyric, and cultivated different genres such as theater, flamenco, sacred drama or audiovisual media. He has collaborated with artists as diverse as Roque Baños, Kuzma Bodrov, Dmitry Krymov, Lucas Vidal, Lucero Tena, Valery Sokolov or Ara Malikian and has had the honor of accompanying the most acclaimed voices of the international scene, such as Plácido Domingo, Javier Camarena, María Bayo or Ainhoa Arteta, among many others. He has also made an important immersion in the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with recordings for labels such as Naxos. Strongly committed to young symphonic ensembles as a driving force for artistic and social change, he is currently Artistic Director of the JMJ Symphony Orchestra, Choir and Escolanía JMJ, the Orquesta Sinfónica Universidad de Navarra, the Orquestas Sinfónica y Filarmónica del CSMA and the Orquesta Sinfónica UCAM. He has also conducted the Russkaya Opera Theater of Moscow, the Children's Choir of the Community of Madrid and the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Soria.

He also teaches as Professor of Orchestra Conducting at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón and as Academic Director of the Master of Conducting at the Centro Superior Katarina Gurska, counting among his dozens of students with young people of great current projection. With scholarships from various entities such as the Barrié de la Maza Foundation, he trained entirely as a conductor at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Professor Vladimir Ponkin, obtaining the Red Diploma of excellence.

Liuba Cid, stage director

Born in Havana, Cuba. Doctor cum laude in Arts and Humanities from the URJC of Madrid. Academic of the Performing Arts of Spain. Researcher and interim professor at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC).

Graduated from the University of the Arts of Cuba (ISA) in the specialties of Stage Direction and Interpretation. She has completed her training as a stage director in Italy, Germany, USA and Latin America, with internationally renowned personalities such as the German playwright and director Heiner Müller, among others. She has directed more than 50 theatrical productions, devoting much of her stage work to the contemporary reading of the Classics of the Golden Age, with numerous premieres at major festivals: Almagro International Festival of Classical Theatre, Olmedo Classical, FIT of Cadiz, Festival de Teatro Clásico de Cáceres, Festival Castell de Peralada, Veranos de la Villa de Madrid, etc.. His shows have been staged at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Teatro Calderón in Valladolid, Teatro Romea in Murcia, Palacio de Festivales in Santander, Auditorio Kursaal in San Sebastián, Teatro Apolo in Madrid, Teatro Fernán Gómez in Madrid, Teatro Galileo in Madrid, Teatro Falla in Cádiz, Miami Dade County Auditorium, Cairo Opera House, Opera de Alejandría, among others. In 1994, he won the Award for best staging and best scenic space at the Chicago American Comunity Theatre Festival.

She currently collaborates with the University of Navarra and the University of Granada as a researcher and specialist in matters related to scenography, stage direction and theater training. Since 2009 she is the director of the Mephisto Teatro Company, an Ibero-American theater project that integrates actors, designers and choreographers from all over Europe, Latin America and Spain.

Ana Lucrecia García - soprano

Venezuelan soprano, she studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, with Alfredo Kraus, and with Teresa Berganza. She has impersonated Odabella, from Attila; Abigail, from Nabucco; Floria, from Tosca, in theaters such as La Scala in Milan, La Fenice, Royal Opera House and the Arena in Verona, where she debuted in 2010 with Aida.

In 2001, she was Fiordiligi in Così Fan Tutte, at the Palacio de Festivales in Santander and at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. In 2008, he made his debut at the Seattle Opera with Aida, which he has also sung in Athens, Oman, Qatar and Staatsoper Berlin; in addition to Don Carlo in Frankfurt and at Deutsche Oper Berlin; Mefistofele in Valencia; Attila at La Scala, at Terme di Caracalla in Rome, at the Palace of Arts in Budapest and San Francisco; Nabucco at the Arena di Verona; Norma in Salerno; I masnadieri in Naples; I due Foscari in Palermo.

In recent seasons, she has sung Nabucco, Macbeth and Il Trovatore at La Scala; Un Ballo in Maschera in Frankfurt; Attila at Theater an der Wien, Aida at the Opéra Bastille in Paris and at the San Carlo in Naples. In addition to the roles of Santuzza(Cavalleria Rusticana) at the New National Theatre in Tokyo; Turandot at Semperoper Dresden and Amneris(Aida) at Arena di Verona. She has also sung Verdi's Requiem at the NCPA in Mumbai, Aida (title role) at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia and at Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa, Warsaw.

Jorge Carlos Tello Rodriguez - baritone

Spanish-Peruvian baritone, he studied at the National University of Lima and in Barcelona with tenor Eduard Giménez. Currently he continues his training with Riccardo Serenelli in Recanati, Italy. A multifaceted singer and actor, he has performed in both dramatic and comic roles.

Debuts with Figaro from Il Barbiere di Siviglia in the Temporada de Òpera Catalunya. With Germont from La Traviata he begins his Verdian tour, at the Palau de la Música Catalana and at the Teatro Persiani in Recanati. With Rigoletto he performed from the Teatro Fusco in Taranto, Italy, to the Coliseu dos Recreos, Lisbon. At the Gran Teatro Nacional de Lima-Peru he sings Valentin de Faust and Gusmano de Alzira.

Among his upcoming engagements include Nabucco with Opera de Fuerteventura, Iago from Otello and Leporello from Don Giovanni at the Teatro Principal de Inca. In Italy he will sing Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana in Catanzaro, Calabria.

Facundo Muñoz - tenor

Graduated in Córdoba (Argentina) with a degree as Superior Professor of Singing, he also has a solid acting background.

His opera and zarzuela repertoire includes roles such as Rodolfo (La Bohème), Pinkerton(Madama Butterfly), Alfredo(La Traviata), Don José(Carmen), Turiddu(Cavalleria rusticana), Nemorino(L'elisir d'amore), Tamino(The Magic Flute), Arturo(Lucia di Lammermoor), Beppe/Arlequín(I Pagliacci), Chamaco (Don Gil de Alcalá), Leandro(La tabernera del Puerto), Javier Moreno(Luisa Fernanda), Gustavo(Los Gavilanes), Giuseppini(El dúo de la Africana), Don Luis(El barberillo de Lavapiés), Roberto(Bohemios) or Jesús(Gigantes y cabezudos).

In 2023, she has participated in Wagner's Parsifal, at the Liceu in Barcelona; in Carmen at the Teatro Antiguo de Taormina and in Premiá de Mar; in Il tabarro at the Ópera de Oviedo; and in La Bohème, in Terrassa. During 2024, she will again sing La Traviata and Carmen at the Palau de la Música; in Medellín, Luisa Fernanda and Doña Francisquita; and at the Liceu, Lady Macbeth.

Co-produced by AGAO

With the collaboration of: