The Festival Peralada concluded its 40th edition with a 96.4% occupancy rate and 11 sold-out performances, according to festival organizers.
Attendance and High-Demand Performances
Festival director Oriol Aguilà reported that 11 performances reached total capacity, driving the overall occupancy to 96.4%. The closing night performance showcased works by Tomaso Albinoni, Giovanni Battista Ferrandini, Antonio Vivaldi, Francesco Geminiani, and George Frideric Handel. Lina Tur Bonet led the ensemble as concertmaster through Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in D major (RV 208) and Albinoni’s Violin Concerto in A major, while Núria Rial delivered vocal performances in Ferrandini’s Il pianto di Maria and Handel’s aria V’adoro pupille from Giulio Cesare in Egitto, which served as an encore.
Focus on New Creation and Public Broadcasts
Throughout its anniversary season, the festival prioritized proprietary productions, commissions, and artistic continuity rather than nostalgia. Aguilà emphasized that the artistic valuation depends on whether commissioned works enter standard repertoires and secure future staging. Notable commissions from this milestone year include Alberto García Demestres’s Diario di una madre, the project NIU featuring students from the Campus Peralada, and Francesc Prat’s Ronde performed by the Trio Fortuny.
Public broadcasters documented a significant portion of the lineup. RTVE recorded Diario di una madre, while Catalunya Música recorded Estética y masacre, the Trio Fortuny concert, the recital of Montserrat Torrent, and Jordi Savall’s closing Baroque program.
International Partnerships and Future Outlook
The festival’s international reach expanded this season through preliminary talks with representatives from the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb—General and Artistic Director Iva Haste and Director of the Creation and Production Office Mario Gigović—aimed at establishing a Mediterranean festival alliance. Meanwhile, the third generation of the founding family reaffirmed its commitment to the event, ensuring structural stability for upcoming cycles.
The 40th anniversary celebrations will officially conclude on August 29 with a performance by the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra at the Palau de la Música Catalana. Looking ahead to the fifth Easter cycle in 2027, the festival commissioned a new work by Catalan composer Raquel García-Tomás based on lessons of darkness, alongside a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion directed by Lina Tur Bonet and her ensemble MUSIca ALcheMIca.