19/06/2013
David Alegret pays homage to Britten and Wagner at Peralada
June 2013 After performing in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia in the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and participating in the homage to the great Teresa Berganza at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the tenor David Alegret, who hails from Barcelona, is preparing himself for a real challenge: to sing Richard Wagner’s early opera Das Liebesverbot (The ban on love) and give a solo recital dedicated to Benjamin Britten’s chamber music, on which occasion he will be accompanied by Iain Burnside (piano) and Àlex Garrobé (guitar). Both engagements are part of the programme of the 2013 Festival Castell Peralada, an event which is counting on Alegret’s musical and stage experience to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Wagner with the Spanish première of the above-mentioned and very little known Wagnerian opera (3rd and 4th August) and also Britten’s centenary (15th August). “My voice and temperament are very well suited to the music of Britten, who composed and arranged a great deal of songs for tenors,” David Alegret explains. “The recital in Peralada is the ideal occasion to explore these compositions, especially as I have the chance to do so alongside Iain Burnside, a great specialist in the British composer’s work.” In regard to the Wagner opera Alegret notes that “this is one of the operas that he disowned, with a style heavily influenced by Italian and French “grand opera”. It has very beautiful melodies, but it is a far cry from the Wagner operas that we know now, for this reason it suits my voice.” David Alegret’s upcoming engagements will take him to Metz with Rossini’s La Cenerentola (September), Barcelona (Palau de la Música) and Sabadell (Teatre La Faràndula) with Beethoven’s Mass in C major and Barcelona once again, returning to the Liceu to take part in the staged cantata Atlántida, by Manuel de Falla, Toulon with La Cenerentola and Hamburg with Il turco in Italia.