Isabel Leonard and Malcolm Martineau open the new LIFE Victoria season with a programme dedicated to Falla and Montsalvatge
Barcelona, 17 September 2026
- The Barcelona Lied Cycle opens its edition dedicated to exile on Thursday, 1 October, at 8:00 pm at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site.
- American mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, a three-time Grammy Award winner, makes her debut at the Cycle alongside pianist Malcolm Martineau.
- The opening programme explores the transformations of Hispanic cultural identity through the works of Falla and Montsalvatge.
The LIFE Victoria season raises the curtain with a recital of major international significance: the eagerly awaited debut of mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, Carnegie Hall Artist-in-Residence and one of the most acclaimed voices at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. She will be accompanied on piano by Malcolm Martineau, a leading pianist and regular collaborator of the Cycle.
The programme opening the Cycle is entitled 1898: The Loss of the Colonies, a conceptual proposal that invites audiences to explore the world of Manuel de Falla, Xavier Montsalvatge, Frederic Mompou, Federico García Lorca and other composers who, from distinctive perspectives, reflected on Hispanic cultural identity at a time of profound historical transformation. Their writing resonates with a renewed interest in popular roots and the search for an individual musical language.
The loss of the last vestiges of Spain’s colonial empire in 1898 triggered a period of profound crisis and intellectual reassessment that decisively altered the country’s trajectory, leading chronologically to the tragic events of Tragic Week in 1909 and, later, to the rupture brought about by the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).
Within this framework of memory, the first half of the programme will focus on folk song and Spanish roots, with Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas — also marking the 150th anniversary of his birth —, Lorca’s Canciones españolas antiguas and Mompou’s Damunt de tu només les flors.
The second half will explore loss, Cuba and exile through Montsalvatge’s Cinco canciones negras and three Latin American popular songs that have become universal: Alfonsina y el mar by Ariel Ramírez; El día que me quieras by Carlos Gardel; and Granada by Agustín Lara.
This opening recital thus sets the tone for a profoundly symbolic edition centred on exile, seeking to create a space for reflection through music and art.
As a prelude, two new artists from the LIFE New Artists programme will open the recital: soprano Maria Patak and pianist Isaac Grau, who will perform a programme devoted entirely to Francis Poulenc, featuring the cycle Banalités, based on poems by Guillaume Apollinaire; C, a nostalgic song setting texts by Louis Aragon that reflects the desolation of the Second World War; and La dame de Monte-Carlo, a dramatic monologue about a desperate woman in Monaco, with a text by Jean Cocteau.
The programme opening the Cycle is entitled 1898: The Loss of the Colonies, a conceptual proposal that invites audiences to explore the world of Manuel de Falla, Xavier Montsalvatge, Frederic Mompou, Federico García Lorca and other composers who, from distinctive perspectives, reflected on Hispanic cultural identity at a time of profound historical transformation. Their writing resonates with a renewed interest in popular roots and the search for an individual musical language.
The loss of the last vestiges of Spain’s colonial empire in 1898 triggered a period of profound crisis and intellectual reassessment that decisively altered the country’s trajectory, leading chronologically to the tragic events of Tragic Week in 1909 and, later, to the rupture brought about by the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).
Within this framework of memory, the first half of the programme will focus on folk song and Spanish roots, with Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas — also marking the 150th anniversary of his birth —, Lorca’s Canciones españolas antiguas and Mompou’s Damunt de tu només les flors.
The second half will explore loss, Cuba and exile through Montsalvatge’s Cinco canciones negras and three Latin American popular songs that have become universal: Alfonsina y el mar by Ariel Ramírez; El día que me quieras by Carlos Gardel; and Granada by Agustín Lara.
This opening recital thus sets the tone for a profoundly symbolic edition centred on exile, seeking to create a space for reflection through music and art.
As a prelude, two new artists from the LIFE New Artists programme will open the recital: soprano Maria Patak and pianist Isaac Grau, who will perform a programme devoted entirely to Francis Poulenc, featuring the cycle Banalités, based on poems by Guillaume Apollinaire; C, a nostalgic song setting texts by Louis Aragon that reflects the desolation of the Second World War; and La dame de Monte-Carlo, a dramatic monologue about a desperate woman in Monaco, with a text by Jean Cocteau.
Upcoming Recitals
Mar Compte & Helena Resurreição
In collaboration with the Palau de la Música Catalana, we present this recital celebrating and promoting the talent nurtured by the Foundation. On this occasion, the spotlight falls on two artists closely associated with the Foundation: pianist Mar Compte and mezzo-soprano Helena Ressurreição, both of whom trained on the Victoria de los Ángeles Lied Master’s Programme at ESMUC.
