Barcelona, November 3rd 2004 . The Gran Teatro del Liceo of Barcelona has presented the much expected opera “ Gaudí ” by virtuoso Joan Guinjoan based on the libretto by the disappeared Josep M. Carandell.

The opera's première takes place 12 years after its assignment and shows us the evolution in the architect's process of creation, without being a mere reconstruction of anecdotes about his life. The Association Gaudí & Barcelona Club, which most important aspiration is to share the work and life of the great architect with the world, has done several attempts to obtain some kind of benefit for its members and people interested in attending the opera. We regret to tell you that all our efforts have been in vain.

Gaudí is incarnated by the North American baritone Robert Bork. The other dramatis personae of the opera don't represent real people but are archetypes: the sponsor, the client, the women, the assistant and the craftsman... they will all interact with the architect and help him to configure his art. The most important challenge of the opera to Bork was the Catalan language, which he has been learning for a year. Bork has already featured several contemporary operas.

The pianist and composer Guinjoan has taken for the very first time the challenge to create opera. The musician, satisfied because his opera finally goes into première, emphasizes the importance of both the music and the scenario of “Gaudí”. Born in Riudoms, Guinjoan has integrated in the opera some popular chants of his native region (which is also Gaudí's land of origin), creating a synthesis of its own particular style.

The opera is developed in two acts, both very different as well regarding the narration as the scenario. Manuel Huerga, art director, explains the first act is more naturalist, more conventional. It illustrates the social and politic atmosphere of the end of the XIX century and Gaudí's first steps as an architect. The scenario represents Gaudí's workshop through a window of which we can see Barcelona of those times. Gaudí's dreams are broken at the culminating point of the act, when a split is discovered, symbol of the political, social, cultural and artistic crisis at the end of the century. In an a capella monologue of 6 minutes we will see how Gaudí questions and identifies himself.

La ópera se desarrolla en dos actos, con evidentes diferencias narrativas y escénicas. Manuel Huerga, director de escena, explica que el primer acto es más naturalista, más convencional. Dibuja el entorno social y político de finales del s. XIX y los inicios de Gaudí como arquitecto, con su taller como escenario, desde el que se aprecia, a través de un ventanal, la Barcelona de la época. Los sueños de Gaudí se rompen en el punto culminante del acto con el descubrimiento de una grieta, símbolo de la crisis política, social, cultural y artística de finales de siglo que llevará a Gaudí a replantearse a sí mismo y autodefinirse, en un monólogo cantado a capella, de 6 minutos de duración.

The second act, more lyrical, conceptual and abstract, “reveals the spiritual world of Gaudí; it's a mystic journey of the architect in which his willpower to transcend is evident”, explains Huerga, who adds that the creator of the Sagrada Familia “feels as if he were an instrument of a higher being”. The tensions of those times reach their most critical point and derive in the fragmentation of the social world, represented by means of the “trencadís ballet”. But Gaudí's enormous creative capacity allows him to recreate harmony in his art and impulses him to realise some of the most important works of his life: the Park Güell, the Crypt of Colonia Güell and the Sagrada Familia Temple. This transformation is reflected in the scenario by means of a kaleidoscope of images, characters and objects, with which Huerga pretends to evoke the private world of the architect: “ Gaudí is not a biography nor a tourist bus for the architects work; it is a psychological approximation, the interior journey through the dreams, drives and fears of a man who never stops being an enigma to me”.

About the “Gaudí & Barcelona Internet Club” association

The Gaudí & Barcelona Internet Club is a non profit organisation created with the purpose to share the life and work of Antoni Gaudí with the world. The association’s starting point was the creation of the Club in 1997, with its website www.gaudiclub.com which today has more than 14.500 members of all nationalities who are constantly informed about everything related to Gaudí. The Gaudí & Barcelona Club website is the most complete existing site about the architect. It has an online shop where you can buy any product related to gaudinist aesthetics, and an active forum where the admirers of the architect have vivid conversations. In its ambition to stimulate the culture and divulge the figure of Gaudí all around the world, the club is in touch with a large number architects, designers and many other people who are passionate about his works. Furthermore, it collaborates with universities, art centres, institutions and cultural associations of different countries, offering its collaboration and experience. Just click on www.gaudiclub.com.