40th Casals Festival follows on heels of symphony season.

A cantata, “Las troyanas” (The Trojan Women), will present a contemporary version of the ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides about women’s resistance after the Trojan War. The piece is to be staged with premier actors by Vicente Castro. (prpop.org)

By PEGGY ANN BLISS

Special to The STAR

The iconic Casals Festival, now heading into its fifth decade, will offer an exciting program honoring the legendary Catalan cellist, composer and conductor Pablo Casals.

The classic work “Las troyanas” (The Trojan Women) directed by Vicente Castro, will highlight a wealth of unique musical presentations across the island.

Named after the world’s most recognized cello virtuoso and educator, whose mother was Puerto Rican, the festival will feature the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) along with actors, dancers, instrumental and vocal soloists and ensembles from across the globe.

This year’s event, in conjunction with the local Spanish Consulate, will also offer several free concerts by a Spanish clarinet virtuoso.

The Spanish cellist behind it

Casals, who was born in the Catalonian region of northern Spain to Pilar Defilló from Mayagüez, spent his last 20 years in San Juan married to his young island student Marta Martínez, dedicating those last years to the development of music education and performance.

The festival, still honoring the greatest European geniuses of the past several centuries, has expanded its scope to include a broad contemporary representation from Africa and the Americas.

The event, now celebrating 40 years of continuous music making, will open Saturday, May 23, with a concert by the PRSO featuring two acclaimed Mexican guests serving up two iconic “Fifths” -- the “Fifth Piano Concerto,” known as “The Emperor,” by Ludwig von Beethoven, and the “Fifth Symphony” by Russian 20th-century composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Charismatic conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, former director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico and the Orchestra of the Americas, will take over the podium. Mexican pianist Jorge Federico Osorio will handle the keyboard gymnastics.

The festival will close on June 6 with an absolute premiere of Roberto Sierra’s “Requiem Isleño,” especially commissioned for this year’s event.

The piece, to be unveiled by the PRSO, will be conducted by Maximiano Valdés, with the Coral Lirica prepared by Jo-Anne Herrero. Soloists are soprano Jessica Rivera and baritone Ricardo José Rivera.

Also on the final program is “Symphony 104” by Joseph Haydn.

The second concert will be the obligatory cello homage to Casals, this time with equal time for the piano. Casals, who died in 1973 at age 96, was an important influence on the island’s musical texture, which continues maturing to this day.

Originally buried on the island, the Catalonian patriot’s remains were transferred to his native Vendrell after Spanish dictator Francisco Franco ceased to be a threat to Spain’s freedom.

The annual de rigueur cello concert honoring Casals’ legacy will be served up this year by German-Swiss virtuoso cellist Emanuel Graf and Swiss-Canadian pianist Teo Gheorghiu. 

Graf, who will perform on his 1690 Stradivarius instrument, has been principal cellist of the Bavarian State Orchestra since 2015.

The Swiss-born (1992) Gheorghiu, a recognized child prodigy since age 12, will interpret Frederic Chopin’s “Polonaise Brilliante.”

The two musicians will play the famous variations on the love duet between Pamina and Papageno from Amadeus Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute,” among the sonatas and variations of compositions recorded by Casals in a supremely successful action to popularize them.

The duo will also interpret the “Sonata for Piano and Cello” by German composer Richard Strauss.

Also on the program are the famous folk works by Robert Schumann, recorded by Casals in 1952 with North American pianist Leopold Mannes, founder of the conservatory which bears his name.

Pablo Casals (Wikipedia)

Greek theater updated

A cantata, “Las troyanas” will present a contemporary version of the ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides about women’s resistance after the Trojan War. The piece is to be staged with premier actors by Vicente Castro.

In a departure from conventional theatre, Jorge Luis Ramos will interpret the female role of Hecuba, former queen of Troy, and Jacqueline Duprey will enact the role of Helen of Troy. Other roles are played by Braulio Castillo, Ana Isabelle, Daniella Paredes and Willie Denton.

The music director is Alberto Rodríguez Ortiz, who arranged and directed the score, combining elements of opera, rock and flamenco.

The Borikén (String) Quartet will provide the music with soprano Natalia González Santaliz.

Both performances will be at 8:30 p.m.

All festival presentations will be held in the Pablo Casals Symphony Hall at Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center, unless another venue is specified. Concert times vary but are at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Boston repays the visit

The Boston City Chamber Players are next on the schedule. With the entire PRSO having made a historic visit to the bustling capital of Massachusetts in November 2025, a little reciprocity seems in order. On Sunday, May 31, at 4 p.m., The Boston Symphony Chamber Players will present a varied program of works by North American contemporary composer Samuel Barber, Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon, who specializes in African-American roots and the great migration. He also occupies the inaugural composer chair at the Boston Symphony.

Tuesday, June 2 will bring the festival debut of Cuarteto Borikén and a change of venue. The string quartet, made up of PRSO members, concert master Omar Velázquez, cellist Solimar Soto, second violin Fermín Segarra and viola player Edgardo Rosaly, will present works by Dvorak, Maurice Ravel and Puerto Rican composer Raymond Torres Santos. The concert will take place on Tuesday, June 2, at 7 p.m. in the Bertita and Guillermo Martínez Theater of the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, at 951 Ponce de León Avenue, Stop 15, Miramar.