Teatro Real, The Royal Opera of Madrid orchestra, is one of Spain’s most respected cultural institutions. It is Spain’s equivalent of the world-renowned Metropolitan Opera orchestra.
Thank you for sponsoring New York Latin Culture Magazine.
America’s 250th Anniversary Gift From Spain
Teatro Real, the Royal Opera of Madrid Orchestra, returns to New York with a Gala concert of Spanish and Spanish-influenced classics, led by conductor Gustavo Gimeno, with guitarist Juan Manuel Cañizares, and Guatemalan soprano Adriana González.
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
Thu, October 15, 2026 | 8:00pm
$30+
This marks Teatro Real’s fifth visit to New York, staged as part of the company’s 2026 US Tour in connection with the commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary. This concert is a gift to America of some of the best of Spain.
The orchestra opens with Falla’s Suite from El amor brujo before flamenco guitarist Cañizares takes the spotlight on Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, a cornerstone of classical guitar repertoire. González lends her voice to Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas in Luciano Berio’s arrangement, and the evening closes with the sweep of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
A gala dinner hosted with the AHCES Foundation precedes the concert, drawing figures from New York and Spanish cultural and civic life.
This concert is a powerful example of how contemporary Spain inspires the world with the seductive power of its artistry. And some of this Spanish music had a big influence on classical music and film scores in the Americas.
Gustavo Gimeno
Gustavo Gimeno leads the podium for Teatro Real’s New York gala, marking his first appearance with the company on US soil. Born in Valencia, Spain in 1976, Gimeno has built his career from an unusual starting point: he spent over a decade as a percussionist with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, rising to principal percussionist, before turning to conducting full time in 2013.
Gimeno is a Spanish conductor from Valencia, and became Music Director of Teatro Real, Madrid’s national opera house, at the start of the 2025/26 season. In March 2025, King Felipe VI appointed him a Commander of the Order of Civil Merit in recognition of his contributions to Spanish music.
Gimeno works across symphonic and operatic repertoire, known for the clarity and precision he brings to composers ranging from Mahler and Bruckner to Stravinsky, alongside a steady commitment to new commissions. He also serves as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 2020.
Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 recording of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, their first release together for harmonia mundi, won the JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble) in 2025. His decade with the Luxembourg Philharmonic produced an extensive Pentatone discography, including a widely praised recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. In February 2025, Gimeno and the TSO followed with a recording of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and Divertimento, again for harmonia mundi.
Juan Manuel Cañizares
Juan Manuel Cañizares brings a rare distinction to Lincoln Center: he’s the only flamenco guitarist ever invited to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic, a program that closed with the very piece he plays at this gala, Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, under Sir Simon Rattle at Teatro Real itself in 2011.
Cañizares made his 2005 New York debut at Carnegie Hall in a recital alongside fellow classical guitarist José María Gallardo del Rey, introducing New York audiences to his blend of flamenco technique and classical repertoire two decades before returning with Teatro Real.
Born in Sabadell, Catalonia, in 1966, to parents from southern Spain, Cañizares began performing alongside his brother Rafael as a child and, in 1989, joined Paco de Lucía’s Solo, Duo, Trío and later the Paco de Lucía Septet, collaborating with the flamenco legend for the next decade. Since 2003, he has held a professorship in flamenco guitar at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona.
He moves fluidly between flamenco and classical guitar repertoire, equally at home interpreting Rodrigo and Albéniz as he is in traditional flamenco forms. That range is what led the Berlin Philharmonic to invite him, uniquely among flamenco guitarists, to perform Concierto de Aranjuez in Madrid. Artists who flow easily between genres are truly fascinating.
His 2007 album Suite Iberia – Albéniz por Cañizares won Spain’s award for Best Classical Music Performance. He followed it with a three-volume tribute to Manuel de Falla, Falla por Cañizares, recorded between 2013 and 2014. In 2023, Cañizares won Spain’s National Music Award in the Performance category, and that same period brought Al-Andalus, his own concerto for guitar and orchestra written as a tribute to Paco de Lucía following his mentor’s death.
Adriana González
Adriana González brings the Americas directly into this Teatro Real gala. Born in Guatemala in 1991 and holding French and Guatemalan citizenship, she is the only performer on this program with roots in the Americas, making her song in Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas a genuine Latin thread inside a European-heritage evening.
González was born in Guatemala and trained at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, graduating in 2012, before continuing her studies at the Atelier Lyrique of the Opéra national de Paris and the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera. She took First Prize and the Zarzuela Prize at the 2019 Operalia Competition, the international voice competition founded by Plácido Domingo, and has also won the Teatro Real Prize in Madrid.
She performs as a lyric soprano across the core opera repertoire, moving between Mozart, Verdi, and Offenbach as easily as the Spanish and Zarzuela repertoire her Operalia prize recognized.
In February 2025, González sang Salud in Falla’s La vida breve at Teatro Real Madrid, the same composer represented on this gala’s program. She has also performed Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello at the Opéra national du Rhin and Antonia in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Zurich Opera.
El amor brujo and Siete canciones populares españoles
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) was one of Spain’s most important composers of the 20th century. He is one of the key figures who blended Andalusian folk traditions, including flamenco, with modern classical music and French Impressionism.
El amor brujo (“Love, the Magician”) is famous ballet suite that includes the famous Ritual Fire Dance movement which is a real spooky piece of music. You can feel the flickering shadows of the darkness almost come to life.
In the story, Candela, a young Romani woman is haunted by the ghost of her unfaithful deceased husband, who prevents her from being with a new love. At midnight, Candela and the women form a circle around a bonfire. Candela beings a frantic, hypnotic dance to summon the ghost of her ex. She spins faster and faster until his ghost enters the flames, destroying him and breaking the spell.
The fire dance ritual is a very old tradition that continues to this day. On La Noche de San Juan (Saint John’s Eve) around the summer solstice or midsummer, people light big bonfires to scare off evil. By tradition, jumping over the flames brings good luck to the coming year. At midnight many people fall backwards into a body of water. The tradition remains popular in parts of Spain and the Americas too.
Concierto de Aranjuez
Composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999) is celebrated for elevating the classical guitar into an international concert instrument. Concierto de Aranjuez (1939) was his breakthrough masterpiece.
This is one of the world’s most famous Spanish orchestral works. The modern guitar was developed in Spain. Imagine, there would be no rock and roll without Spain’s influence on the Americas.
Scheherazade Op. 35
Nikolái Rimski-Kórsakov (1844-1908) was a Russian composer whose most famous works include Scheherazade (1888) and Capriccio Espagnol (1887), a colorful orchestral work inspired by Spanish folk melodies.
Scheherazade is a symphonic suite inspired by the One Thousand and One Nights folk tale from the Arabian Nights. Southern Spain (Al-Andalus) was Moorish and then Arab for almost 800 years. That mix is one of the things that makes Spain Spanish. That’s why this work is included in the concert. It’s a good reminder that we all have roots somewhere else. People have been migrating ever since we grew two legs.
The story is that the sultan, believing all women are unfaithful, killed his wives after their wedding night. The smart and beautiful Scheherazade saved her life by telling the sultan wonderful stories every night, finishing with a cliffhanger so he wanted to hear the next part of the story. After a thousand and one nights of fascinating stories, he spared her. In the piece, the beautiful, winding, and exotic melody played by solo violin accompanied by harp is the voice of Scheherazade. Listen for her.
The work is an example of brilliant orchestration. Rimski-Kórsakov uses the entire orchestra and gives almost every instrument its own shining moment. The work tells a story whose cinematic pacing greatly influenced 20th-century film scoring. It has also become standard ballet repertoire.
Spain: A Secret Ally of the American Revolution
In this chaotic moment in the history of the United States, it’s worth remembering that the principles on which the USA was founded, once inspired the world.
Our founders didn’t get it all right because they didn’t include all Americans, but it was enough to inspire a global movement from monarchies to republics (government of, by, and for the people). We directly inspired the French Revolution, Haitian Revolution, and later the independence of countries in the Americas.
The process we started 250 years ago is ongoing. But just like today, we couldn’t have won our founding war without the support of friends and allies.
Spain was one of those friends. Though France is better known as an ally, Spain’s financial aid, massive weapons shipments, and direct military campaigns forced Great Britain to fight a costly, multi-front global war.
Even before the US Declaration of Independence, Spain kept the American Continental Army alive with a steady stream of supplies funneled through front companies, and much needed cash. The Battle of Saratoga (the war’s turning point) might have been lost without Spanish support.
The Spanish governor of New Orleans allowed Americans to ship badly needed supplies up the Mississippi River. In 1779, Spain declared war on Britain and raised an Army that defeated the British in the Mississippi Valley, the Gulf Coast, and Florida. That and the Spanish Navy’s attacks forced Britain to divert forces away from the young American colonies.
The Battle of Yorktown ended the war, but right before it happened George Washington and our allies ran out of cash to pay and support their troops. A Spanish agent in Cuba quickly raised around 500,000 silver pesos and rushed that “Havana Silver” to Yorktown. With that money, we won the war and Spanish Silver dollars became our first national currency.
This is an important part of our shared history, though it’s generally not taught in the States. Hopefully we have returned the favor. New York City has played important roles in the development of Spanish flamenco, literature, and theater. New York and Madrid are deeply connected.
Teatro Real Plays a Gala Musical Fantasy From Spain Featuring Violinist María Dueñas, Soprano Saioa Hernández, and Conductor David Afkham
Teatro Real, the Royal Opera of Madrid Orchestra, plays a gala musical fantasy of Spain featuring violinist María Dueñas and soprano Saioa Hernández, conducted by David Afkham; on the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in Midtown, Manhattan; on Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 8:30pm. From $26.50. carnegiehall.org
These are world-class artists backed by a world-class orchestra.
María Dueñas is a Spanish violinist and composer from Granada, Spain. The first prize winner at the 2021 Yehudi Menuhin Competition and 2024 Opus Klassik award winner for Young Artist of the Year is already one of the most famous Spanish violinists internationally. Known for her collaborations with Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, she records for Deutsche Grammophon, the renowned classical music label. mariaduenasviolin.com
Soprano Saioa Hernández is a Spanish operatic soprano from Madrid who is making her American debut at Carnegie Hall no less. She became famous internationally for performing Odabella in Verdi’s “Atilla” at La Scala, the renowned Milan opera house in 2018. saioahernandez.com
David Afkham is a conductor from Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. He is the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Spanish National Orchestra and Chorus. davidafkham.com
The program includes:
- TURINA Danzas fantásticas
- KORNGOLD Violin Concerto
- RAVEL Alborada del gracioso
- FALLA “¡Allí está! Riyendo junto a esa mujé” from La vida breve
- FALLA “Danza No. 1” from La vida breve
- PENELLA “Juntos desde chavalillos” from El gato montés PENELLA
- SERRANO “¿Qué te importa que no venga?” from Los claveles
- RAVEL La valse
Teatro Real The Eight Seasons of Vivaldi and Piazzolla
Teatro Real (Royal Opera of Madrid) led by award-winning violinist Leticia Moreno and renowned soloists from the Teatro Real Orchestra, pairs Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” with Astor Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” for an elegant night of classical music and tango jazz; at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in Midtown, Manhattan; on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 6:30pm. From $39 + fees. carnegiehall.org
A VIP Rooftop Reception with the artists is available as a limited availability add-on to the concert ticket. It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet Leticia Moreno and soloists from the orchestra.
This is a clever pairing because both Vivaldi and Piazzolla changed their respective musical forms, and we all respond to the changing of the seasons.
Seasons mark the passing of time, and each has a unique emotional tone. Spring is warm and full of birdsong that reminds us life is full of possibility. Summer is hot and when it rains it pours. After the Autumn harvest, people have more time for festivals, and hunters look to fill their storerooms with meat. Winter cold seems to draw the life out of us, so we huddle indoors to wait its passing. You can hear all of these emotions in both compositions.
The Four Seasons
Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” (“Le Quattro Stagioni,” 1723-25) is one of classical music’s most recognizable works. The four violin concertos marked a transition from baroque to classical tradition (as in Baroque > Classical > Romantic > Modern).
Vivaldi is considered the inventor of the solo concerto. This entirely new orchestral format with solo violin, string quartet, and a harpsichord or organ; offered a call and response between the soloist and orchestra.
The work also marked a transition into “program music,” or music that tells a story. In a way it was film music, long before film even existed. That may be one of the reasons “The Four Seasons” is so popular. It takes you on a journey.
The piece has become associated with four sonnets. It’s not clear whether Vivaldi wrote them, or wrote the music to the sonnets, or someone wrote the sonnets to the music, but there it is, a narrative. The music and sonnets go together really well. To really enjoy this concert, it’s worth reading the sonnets on wikipedia.org (Español ~ English). Do you hear the same story the author did?
The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
Piazzolla composed “Cuatros Estaciones Porteños” (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) in 1969. “Porteños” are the people of Buenos Aires, Argentina’s main port city. The composition is a clear reference to Vivaldi’s work.
Astor Piazzolla changed Argentine tango forever with his “nuevo tango” (new tango), when he infused Argentine tango with classical and jazz traditions. Piazzolla actually started playing the bandoneon as a young man in New York City when his father found one in a pawn shop. Jazz Age New York was where Astor was exposed to American jazz. The connection actually makes sense because both tango and jazz are creations of the African Diaspora in the Americas.
Genius often shows early and Piazzolla’s natural talent was quickly obvious. Carlos Gardel, the iconic tango singer, heard the young man play and invited him on tour. Astor’s father wouldn’t let him go. It’s a good thing because Gardel died when his plane from New York crashed while landing in Medellín, Colombia.
In Buenos Aires, at Arthur Rubenstein’s suggestion no less, Piazzolla studied with Alberto Ginastera, one of the great classical composers of the Americas. In Paris, he studied with Nadia Boulanger, one of the most influential women in classical music. She was the master teacher of many renowned artists. Astor kept leaning into classical music, but his teachers kept pushing him back towards the tango.
When Piazzolla started performing his tango nuevo in Argentina in the 1950s, Argentines didn’t like it at all. They said it wasn’t tango. Today, Piazzolla’s nuevo tango style is the dominant form. It’s what most people think of when they think of tango. Even modern club tango builds on Piazzolla’s nuevo tango. Astor composed his seminal work “Adios Nonino” as an adult while back in New York City in 1959. In several ways, Piazzolla’s work is New York City music too.
Leticia Moreno
Leticia Moreno is a Spanish violinist of Peruvian descent. The child prodigy is now a soloist with symphony orchestras around the world.
Greatness in classical music doesn’t come from just playing the music correctly as written or in a period style. Many artists do that, but great ones like Leticia Moreno make their audience feel the music. She is a very passionate violinist who will make you feel each of the eight seasons.
The Eight Seasons
Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” plus Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” makes eight. Four seasons from the old world and four from the new. Four seasons from the north and four from the south. Separated by time and distance, this program ultimately shows how we are all connected in this incredible journey called life.
Teatro Real Gala Concert: From Spain to New York Plays Falla, Dvořák, Ginastera, and Ravel at Lincoln Center
Teatro Real, The Royal Opera of Madrid, returns to New York with a symphonic and vocal Gala Concert: from Spain to New York. Juanjo Mena conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera of Madrid in Falla’s “El amor brujo” with flamenco singer Esperanza Fernández, Dvořák’s “Cello Concerto” with soloist Pablo Ferrández, and works by Argentine composer Ginastera and French composer Ravel; in the Wu Tsai Theater at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center; on Monday, October 16, 2023 at 8pm. From $30. lincolncenter.org
If you like Spain, grand symphony orchestras, and opera, you will love this concert.
The Artists
Juanjo Mena
The Spaniard is a principal guest conductor with the Orquesta Nacional de España.
Esperanza Fernández
“The Voice of Flamenco,” is a renowned flamenco singer from Seville, Spain, the capital of the flamenco heartland. Her 2008 album “Recuerdos” was nominated for the “Best Flamenco Album” Latin Grammy. @esperanzafernandez_oficial
Pablo Ferrández
The cellist was the first Spaniard to win at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. pabloferrandez.com | @pabloferrandez.cellist
The Music
This is largely a concert of the work of Spanish composer Manuel de Falla and composers that he influenced.
Manuel de Falla “El Amor Brujo”
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) was an Andalusian Spanish pianist and composer. He was one of the most important Spanish composers of the 20th century. He spent part of his working years in Paris and Buenos Aires, where he influenced other composers.
“El amor Brujo” (The Love Magician, 1915) is a ballet that is one of Falla’s most important works. This dramatic piece reflects Spain’s multicultural roots in the Spanish Romani people who breathed life into flamenco.
The work’s story is that an Andalusian woman Candela couldn’t be with her young love Carmelo because she was promised as a child to another. Her husband eventually died, but continued to haunt her every night. After talking with the village women, she realized that her husband was unfaithful with Lucía. So she invited Lucía to a hookup with her Carmelo, but instead her husband’s ghost took Lucía away, freeing Candela and Carmelo to be in love.
The most popular section is “Danza ritual del fuego” (Ritual Fire Dance). It was probably inspired in part by the Night of San Juan, a Spanish summer solstice tradition of jumping over bonfires three times to cleanse yourself.
Antonín Dvořák Cello Concerto
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was a Czech romantic music composer who was inspired by the folk melodies of his native Bohemia (Eastern Czech Republic). He was the national master of Bohemian tradition.
Dvořák wrote his Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 in New York while he was director of the National Conservatory of Music in America in 1892-93. He was probably homesick because it is filled with bohemian feeling. The piece is one of the most beloved cello concerti.
Alberto Ginastera “Suite Panambi”
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) was an Argentine classical music composer, one of the most important Latin American composers of the 20th century. He studied briefly with Aaron Copland, and taught Ástor Piazzola. Ginastera is famed for his use of Argentine folk themes from gaucho culture.
“Suite From Panambi” Op. 1a (1937), is an orchestral work based on a ballet he wrote in 1935. Panambí is a small town on the Uruguay River, along the border with Brazil.
Maurice Ravel “Daphnis et Chloé”
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a French composer and pianist composer famed for his impressionist style. He was one of France’s greatest composers of the early 20th century. Though French, he was born in a Basque town near the Spanish border. Ravel is best known for his “Bolero” (1928).
Daphnis et Chloé, Suites No1 and No2M (1912) is a complex orchestral ballet. It was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the dance company that popularized ballet in the modern period. The story of the love between goatherd Daphnis and sheperdess Chloé, is considered Ravel’s orchestral masterpiece.
This is a truly regal Spanish concert.
Get tickets at from $30
Teatro Real, The Royal Opera of Madrid
The Royal Opera of Madrid was founded at Teatro Real (the Royal Theatre) in 1818. Opera Real at Teatro Real is like the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at the Metropolitan Opera House. Both are their respective country’s leading symphony orchestras and classical music organizations.
The Teatro Real Foundation is led by the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.
More Information
teatroreal.es
Instagram @teatro_real
Facebook @TeatroReal
X @Teatro_Real
TikTok @teatroreal
YouTube @TeatroRealOperaMadrid