- “Around Beethoven’s Ninth” will tour with different orchestras and dance groups in San Juan, San Mateo, Santo Domingo and Santiago.
- More than 240 people will participate in the show
Cáceres 2031 has organized for this Saturday “Around Beethoven’s Ninth: reconstructing humanity”, a great show that will take place in different scenarios of the monumental city and will feature the participation of orchestras, musical groups and dance groups.
The Mayor of Cáceres, Rafa Mateos, and the Scottish theater director Simon Sharkey have presented this morning at a press conference the project, an artistic proposal that will have two passes in different spaces of the historic center (at 13:00 h and 16:20 h). Specifically, this musical tour, which will last about two hours, will begin in San Juan with the first movement and will pass through San Mateo, Santo Domingo and Santiago.
The program is conceived as a contemporary reading of the Ninth Symphony, inviting citizens to reflect on the human condition and the meaning of Europe in an international context marked by uncertainty and conflicts at the continent’s borders.
During the presentation, Mayor Rafa Mateos pointed out that this Saturday “the monumental city of Cáceres will interpret with dance and music the meaning of Europe”. “Cáceres and Extremadura are offered as a place from which to rethink who we are as humanity,” he added. He also stressed the open and participatory nature of the initiative, which will bring together 240 people including musicians, choirs, dancers, artists and volunteers.
For his part, Simon Sharkey, responsible for the dramaturgy and director of The Necessary Space, explained that this proposal stems from the desire to “use art as a place of encounter and opportunity”, an approach that has guided his international career and that he now brings to Cáceres to reimagine the Ninth from a community and contemporary perspective. Sharkey pointed out that Beethoven’s work “continues to be a symbol of brotherhood and hope, fundamental values in today’s turbulent times”.
The project articulates the symphony by movements, distributing them in the different scenarios mentioned above and sharing them with Évora as a gesture of cross-border cultural collaboration. This dialogue between the two cities reinforces the European dimension of the project and symbolizes a desire for cooperation based on culture as a bridge between peoples.
The event will have a large team of volunteers, whose work will be essential to ensure the reception, the accompaniment of the public and the coordination between the different venues. This community component, emphasizes Cáceres 2031, reinforces the idea that the Novena is not just a piece of music but a space for citizen participation.
With this initiative, the candidacy advances its goal of placing culture at the center of public life, using music, European cooperation and collective work as engines for rethinking the present and projecting a shared future.
The detailed program is as follows:
– 12:30 p.m. / 4:20 p.m. – Performance at San Juan Square
– First Movement (San Juan Church)
Arrangement for fourteen wind instruments with musicians from the University of Évora, conducted by Jorge García Cuenllas.
– Performance San Juan to San Mateo
– Second Movement (San Mateo Church)
Dance show under the direction and choreography of Pablo Muñoz Vizcaíno, with the collaboration of Federico Corrales Martín, teachers of the Professional Dance Conservatory “Sagrario Ruiz-Piñero” of Cáceres.
– Performance San Mateo-Santo Domingo
– Third Movement (Santo Domingo Church)
Artistic direction by Laura García Cáceres, with artists from Cáceres in a proposal that fuses music, acting and singing.
– Performance Santo Domingo-Santiago
– Fourth Movement (Santiago Church)
Conducted by Beatriz Fernández Aucejo, with the Orquesta del Romanticismo, the Coro de Cámara de Extremadura and the Coro Contrapunto de la Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca.
