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Benet Casablancas is widely acclaimed as one of the leading Spanish composers of his generation, and his first opera, L’enigma di Lea, is the fruit of his close collaboration with award-winning writer Rafael Argullol. Reality and myth intertwine and become one in this story of love, grief and passion, as Lea wanders through time and space, a castaway of existence, and the bearer of immortality and a secret that cannot be revealed. The winner of several awards, L’enigma di Lea was declared ‘a roaring theatrical success… beautifully staged and exquisitely sung’ by Barcelona Metropolitan.
Benet Casablancas is one of today’s leading Catalan composers, one of a very few in his generation whose work is renowned worldwide. Casablancas’s works released on Naxos include the ‘resonant and powerful’ (American Record Guide) The Dark Backward of Time on 8579002.
L’enigma di Lea is Casablancas’s first opera and, working closely together with writer Rafael Argullol, it expresses the ideal that was the last of the Romantic Utopias: the search for beauty as an absolute. Its libretto echoes elements of Goethe’s Faust, while Casablancas’s music has an expressive power comparable with Alban Berg’s blend of Romantic lyricism and modernist tonality-stretching techniques.
Carme Portaceli has directed more than 70 productions in Spain and internationally. Some of these highly successful productions include Genova 01 (2004), What happened after Nora left her husband (2008), They are only women (2015), Jane Eyre (2017), Frankenstein (2018), and Mrs Dalloway (2019). Her many awards include the MAX, ADE, and the BUTACA award for best directing.
Cast:
- Lea: Allison Cook (mezzo-soprano)
- Ram: José Antonio López (baritone)
- Primera dama de la frontera: Sara Blanch (soprano)
- Segunda dama de la frontera: Anaïs Masllorens (mezzo-soprano)
- Tercera dama de la frontera: Marta Infante (mezzo-soprano)
- Milleboche: Sonia de Munck (soprano)
- Milleocchi: Felipe Bou (bass)
- Dr Schicksal: Xavier Sabata (countertenor)
- Michele: David Alegret (tenor)
- Lorenzo: Antonio Lozano (tenor)
- Augusto: Juan Noval-Moro (tenor)
Stage director: Carme Portaceli
Choreographer: Ferran Carvajal
Set designer: Paco Azorín
Costume designer: Antonio Belart
Lighting designer: Ignasi Camprodon
Picture format: HD 16:9
Sound format: PCM stereo
Opera – Language: Italian/Catalan
– Subtitles: Italian/Catalan, English, Castilian, Japanese, Korean
Bonus – Language: Catalan
– Subtitles: English, Castilian, Japanese, Korean
Region code: A, B, C
