Torrevieja offers numerous attractions for the pleasure of both its permanent and temporary population, as well as the thousands of visitors who come every year to this part of the Mediterranean to be captivated by all its charms. Of all its tourist jewels, the International Competition of Habaneras and Polyphony shines with its own light every July, when the main national and international choirs take the stage to fill the soul and heart of the spectators with light, color and emotion.
This year, the 68th edition of the International Competition of Habaneras and Polyphony will be celebrated from Sunday 17 to Saturday 23 July, in the central Stadstheater-Auditorium, where this choral event takes place for the first time. It has 600 seats and stands out for the adequacy of its acoustics, which is why it has become the perfect replacement for the Eras de la Sal.
Declared of International Tourist Interest, the competition kicks off every day at 10:30 p.m. with TVE journalist Carolina Casado as the presenter, whose face is known in the city for taking the same reins in previous editions.
This year, the Technical Commission of the Municipality of Habaneras has selected four national and five international groups from twenty applications, which have formalized their registration for the 2020 edition and, due to the health crisis, have been left to this stage of choral competition. Because, remember, last year only national choirs participated, both from Torrevieja and from other Spanish communities, and there was no competitive phase due to the evolution of the pandemic, which imposed restrictions on mobility.
Those selected in the competitive stage are the Merida Chamber Choir (Venezuela), the Balta Women’s Choir from Riga (Latvia), the Sopot Continuous Chamber Choir from Poland, the Raniza Girl’s Choir from Belarus, the Regina Coeli Choir from the Philippines, the choir Santiago Apóstol de Grinón (Madrid), the Choral Camerata of the University of Cantabria, the Cor Jove Amic of the Unió de Granollers and the Cor Graos of La Coruña. Likewise, the work to be performed will be ‘Cantamar’ with text and music by maestro Robert Sellés i Camps.
The Municipality of Habaneras, together with the Technical Commission of the International Habaneras and Polyphony Contest, have appointed five big names from the current choral scene for this edition: David Colado Coronas, José Vicente Asensi, Rita Ferrer, Antonio Abreu and Robert Sellés i Kampen.
The program of performances of the 68th International Habanera and Polyphony Contest at the City Theater will begin on Sunday 17 with the opening gala, entitled ‘Between tango and habanera’, in which Nostrum Mare Camerata and the Ad Libitum Chamber Choir, both from Valencia, will participate. The next day, three formations from Torrevieja perform, such as the choir and orchestra Maestro Ricardo Lafuente, the mass choir José Hódar and the choir Francisco Vallejos. On Tuesday 19, it will also be the turn of another local trident, made up of the Manuel Barberá choir group, the Maestro Casanovas choir and the Orfeón de Torrevieja.
The youth choir of the Municipal Choir School will open the gala on Wednesday 20, where the first concerts of the competition will take place, with the Chamber Choir of Mérida (Venezuela) and the Balta Women’s Choir of Riga (Latvia). The competitive phase continues the following evening with performances by the Sopot Chamber Choir Continuo from Poland, the Raniza Girl’s Choir from Belarus and the Regina Coeli Choir from the Philippines. On Friday 22 it will be the turn of the Spanish ensembles: the Santiago Apóstol Choir from Grinón (Madrid), the Camerata Choral from the University of Cantabria, the Cor Jove Amic from the Unió de Granollers and the Cor Graos from La Coruña.
On the last day, on July 23, the choral gala, the award ceremony and the closing gala will take place, by the Unión Musical Torrevejense (UMT) and conducted by Carlos Ramón Pérez.
For the first time in its history, the competition will take place at the Municipal Theater as the Eras de Sal, the official venue par excellence, is under construction. Exactly, this monumental historical complex, restored since 1997, was an old dependency where, from the end of the 18th century until 1958, the salt workers loaded their ships with salt from the local salt extraction and transported it to the boats anchored in the bay. layers .
The first edition of the competition started on August 7, 1955, on a podium located for the occasion in the Paseo Vista Alegre and of national category; polyphony was included in the repertoire in 1964, and in 1989 it was given the international category, inviting American and Hungarian choirs that year. Since then, more than five hundred choirs from the five continents have participated in the competition stage, which have not entered the Torrevieja groups.
As for the recognitions obtained, the most notable are the declaration of International Tourist Interest by the Ministry of Trade and Tourism in 1994, the Prize for Tourism Merit of the Provincial Council of Alicante in 2002 and the award of the Medal of Cultural Merit of the Generalitat Valenciana in 2005. In addition, it has received the Tourism Award from the Association for the Promotion of Business and Tourism Initiatives in 2005 and that of the Alicante Association of Tourism Journalists and Writers in 2008. Likewise, the Torrevieja City Council and the Instituto Cervantes have together to jointly develop as many activities and actions as possible and in particular those that contribute to the dissemination of the Spanish language and culture abroad, with the competition being one of the main signs of identity.
The influence of the competition has also served to establish the Municipal Choir School, the Habaneras International Competition for Children and Young People, the Choral Encounters, the Ricardo Lafuente Monument and the Habaneras International Competition for Soloists. These achievements have been made possible thanks to the Municipality of Habaneras, manager of the competition, whose mission is commendable for passing on the habanera from generation to generation and strengthening bilateral relations with Cuba and other countries.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
