The TVE La 2 programme “El palco” will broadcast “Alexina B.”, the opera by Raquel García-Tomás, at 00.30 in the early hours of Sunday to Monday.
TVE’s El palco is not a spoilt programme. Premiered on 21 July 2013 on La 2, with soprano Ainhoa Arteta as presenter, it is broadcast on the first Sunday of the month, specifically in the early hours of Sunday to Monday, at 00:30. However, on this occasion, in the early hours of Sunday 2 July to Monday 3 July – and as a way of closing the special programming that has been offered over the last few days to mark LGTBIQ+ Pride Week – it will be dressed up to broadcast on a deferred basis the opera Alexina B., composed by the Spanish composer Raquel García-Tomás, author of six other chamber operas.
Alexina B. has been one of the great highlights of the 2022-23 opera season at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Its premiere, which took place on 18 March, became a cultural event of the first order, not only because it was the first opera composed by a woman to be premiered at the Liceu in the 21st century (and the second in absolute terms, after Matilde Salvador’s Vinatea, premiered in 1974), but also because of the absolute audience and critical success achieved and the fact of having given a voice to the transsexual community, by showing the real case of Adélaïde Herculine Barbin, also known as Alexina B., an intersex person born in France in 1838.
With a libretto by Irène Gayraud and stage direction by Marta Pazos (who also directed García-Tomás’ previous opera, Je suis narcissiste), the opera is based on the memoirs written by its protagonist. Spanish violinist and mezzo-soprano Lidia Vinyes-Curtis (no relation to the famous Spanish tenor Francesc Vinyes) gives life to the main character of the work, Alexina B., accompanied by sopranos Alicia Amo, Elena Copons and Mar Esteve and countertenor Xavier Sabata. Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica del Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Cor Vivaldi-Petits Cantors de Catalunya.
After its broadcast on TVE, the opera will be available to watch “a la carte” for a month on the RTVE Play website. In this other link you can watch the interview that Tània Sarrias conducted with Raquel García-Tomás on the occasion of the premiere of Alexina B. in the programme Punts de vista on La 2.