If it’s high culture you’re looking for, then Bilbao is a pretty good place to be, as provincial cities go. There’s plenty of ‘world class’ art, music, dance, theatre and cinema of many kinds, and some great venues to go and watch / listen to it in. We had some good experiences during the year.
There is a beautiful state-of-the-art orchestral concert hall – the Euskalduna Palace, home of the professional Bilbao Symphony Orchestra (Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa), and one of the homes of the Basque National Orchestra (Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa):
There is a beautiful state-of-the-art orchestral concert hall – the Euskalduna Palace, home of the professional Bilbao Symphony Orchestra (Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa), and one of the homes of the Basque National Orchestra (Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa):
The BSO lays on a season of about 20 orchestral and 10 chamber concerts between October and June, whilst the Basque National Orchestra contributes another 10 concerts in Bilbao. That’s at least one concert a week during the season. That’s impressive – though it’s counter-balanced by the fact that, apart from those concerts, the wonderful hall is woefully under-used, and does not appear to be on the international orchestral tour circuit at all. The hall contains a spectacular organ, but we saw no sign that it was played at all during the year.
Still, the two home orchestras play very well (the Basque National Orchestra more consistently excellent than the BSO), and there is some interesting programming. A particular highlight was a fair amount of Russian music during the year – especially Shostakovich. The orchestras themselves are very international: only about half the players in each are Basque; quite a few of the others are from Eastern Europe and there are even some from Britain.
There’s also a nice three-day festival of orchestral music in the winter, for which a number of Spanish orchestras and chamber orchestras congregate. Each day there are several concerts in each of three venues within the Euskalduna Palace – the large concert hall and two smaller ones. Each concert lasts an hour and costs between 5 and 9 Euros. You can dot around between halls and orchestras, seeing several one-hour concerts in a day. This year the theme was Spanish and French music. The day we went we saw quite a lot of Ravel and Rodrigo.
There’s no full-time opera company in Bilbao, but the ABAO (Asociation Bilbaina de Amigos de l’Opera) lays on several full-scale professional opera productions in the concert hall each year. Again, there’s some quite adventurous programming – this year, for instance, a couple of less well-known Verdi operas and Bellini’s ‘I Puritani’.
There’s a small early music festival in Bilbao too, and a very impressive season of contemporary chamber concerts. We saw, for instance, Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ and pieces by like Ligeti and Xenakis, and so on.
Still, the two home orchestras play very well (the Basque National Orchestra more consistently excellent than the BSO), and there is some interesting programming. A particular highlight was a fair amount of Russian music during the year – especially Shostakovich. The orchestras themselves are very international: only about half the players in each are Basque; quite a few of the others are from Eastern Europe and there are even some from Britain.
There’s also a nice three-day festival of orchestral music in the winter, for which a number of Spanish orchestras and chamber orchestras congregate. Each day there are several concerts in each of three venues within the Euskalduna Palace – the large concert hall and two smaller ones. Each concert lasts an hour and costs between 5 and 9 Euros. You can dot around between halls and orchestras, seeing several one-hour concerts in a day. This year the theme was Spanish and French music. The day we went we saw quite a lot of Ravel and Rodrigo.
There’s no full-time opera company in Bilbao, but the ABAO (Asociation Bilbaina de Amigos de l’Opera) lays on several full-scale professional opera productions in the concert hall each year. Again, there’s some quite adventurous programming – this year, for instance, a couple of less well-known Verdi operas and Bellini’s ‘I Puritani’.
There’s a small early music festival in Bilbao too, and a very impressive season of contemporary chamber concerts. We saw, for instance, Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ and pieces by like Ligeti and Xenakis, and so on.
There’s plenty of international jazz too, some international folk concerts, and a series of international rock concerts.
The beautiful early 20th century opera house / theatre, the Teatro Arriaga, just round the corner from our flat, offers a variety of cultural experiences, and we’ve been there quite often. It’s a great building which is a city landmark with civic functions beyond that of a theatre, standing as it does by the river in the most popular public space in the city centre, the Arenal. It´s where political demonstrations often gather, and it´s where the tumultuous opening of the summer fiesta is held:
The beautiful early 20th century opera house / theatre, the Teatro Arriaga, just round the corner from our flat, offers a variety of cultural experiences, and we’ve been there quite often. It’s a great building which is a city landmark with civic functions beyond that of a theatre, standing as it does by the river in the most popular public space in the city centre, the Arenal. It´s where political demonstrations often gather, and it´s where the tumultuous opening of the summer fiesta is held:
Here, we saw some drama, some music and some dance. Highlights included a great production of Lorca’s Yerma (in Spanish, of course: I read the play in English the day before we went, so I knew what was going on…): (Photo from the internet).
... and another great production of the popular early 20th century ‘zarzuela’, El Caserio (The Farmhouse). (Zarzuela is a Spanish form of operetta, a bit like Gilbert and Sullivan.) The house was packed for El Caserio because not only is it one of the most popular of zarzuelas, but also it is by a Basque composer (Jesus Guridi), set in the Basque country, and includes a lot of Basque country dancing. (Photos below from the internet.)
Concerts at the Arriaga included a fantastic recital of 19th century piano classics by the renowned 80-year-old Basque pianist Joaquin Achucarro, who was born in Bilbao; a concert by Italian minimalist composer Ludovico Einaudi and his ensemble (which was nice for about 5 minutes and then incredibly boring for the remaining time); and the Bilbao Choral Society´s performance of Carmina Burana (pretty good). Dance we saw included a local, very good contemporary dance company which incorporated elements of Basque country dancing into contemporary dance forms, and a similarly good performance of contemporary dance by the Dance Theatre of Wiesbaden; a recreation of a medieval Basque religious ‘masque’ by the Basque traditional dance company Euskal Dantzari Taldea; and a Flamenco ballet (‘La Pepa’, starring one of the great Flamenco dancers Sara Baras) set in Cadiz and celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Spanish constitution of 1812. (Photos below from the internet)
We saw three stunning flamenco shows in all during the year – and were completely bowled over by this incredibly exciting art form with its raw energy, both in the music and dance
Quite a variety of stuff – and we missed many other interesting performances, such as a recital by Monserrat Caballe, a performance by the Dutch National Ballet, and a production of Hamlet in Spanish….
I’ve written elsewhere about the two great art galleries, the Guggenheim and the Bellas Artes, and their permanent collections. Both also have an excellent series of exhibitions. At the Guggenheim, major international touring exhibitions take place. We saw for instance the David Hockney exhibition which had been in London the previous year, an exhibition of Klimt, and an exceptionally interesting exhibition of Picasso and other French art before, during and after the second world war. At the Bellas Artes, there were three wonderful exhibitions – Goya’s amazing series of engravings, all owned by the museum; a superb show of the paintings of wonderful Colombian artist Botero; and works by the Basque sculptor Nestor Basterretxea. (See previous post on Basque Art for details about Basterretxea).
We particularly loved the Botero, with his almost magic realist paintings of Colombian life, his exuberant portrayal of short fat South American people (challenging conventional European notions of aesthetic beauty – including figures of Christ and the virgin Mary), his exquisitely painted visual jokes (such as his ‘fat’ versions of Renaissance portraits) and satires (such as his paintings of bishops and cardinals), and his sometimes shocking political paintings (including a series of works inspired by Abu Ghraib).
I’ve written elsewhere about the two great art galleries, the Guggenheim and the Bellas Artes, and their permanent collections. Both also have an excellent series of exhibitions. At the Guggenheim, major international touring exhibitions take place. We saw for instance the David Hockney exhibition which had been in London the previous year, an exhibition of Klimt, and an exceptionally interesting exhibition of Picasso and other French art before, during and after the second world war. At the Bellas Artes, there were three wonderful exhibitions – Goya’s amazing series of engravings, all owned by the museum; a superb show of the paintings of wonderful Colombian artist Botero; and works by the Basque sculptor Nestor Basterretxea. (See previous post on Basque Art for details about Basterretxea).
We particularly loved the Botero, with his almost magic realist paintings of Colombian life, his exuberant portrayal of short fat South American people (challenging conventional European notions of aesthetic beauty – including figures of Christ and the virgin Mary), his exquisitely painted visual jokes (such as his ‘fat’ versions of Renaissance portraits) and satires (such as his paintings of bishops and cardinals), and his sometimes shocking political paintings (including a series of works inspired by Abu Ghraib).
The Goya engravings were also superb - and beautifully displayed - including works by artists who inspired Goya (including Hogarth) and who were in turn inspired by him (e.g. Francis Bacon):
An interesting factor in all this is the very major role that the banks play in funding and laying on culture. It’s a quite different set-up from the UK. The banks (especially the two big ones in Bilbao, the BBK and the BBVA) sponsor absolutely everything – art, music, dance, theatre, festivals, etc. They also sell the tickets for these events. And they even sometimes put concerts and exhibitions on themselves. For instance both the BBVA and the BBK have their own small concert halls where they run concert series. (The BBVA, for instance, are responsible for the contemporary music series: the concerts take place in the handsome 19th century hall at the bank itself, and are entirely free to attend. You just have to write to the bank and ask for a ticket!)
Finally, this was not a year for going to the cinema. My Spanish was not up to it – and almost all English language films were dubbed into Spanish rather than shown with the English soundtrack and Spanish subtitles. The one exception was that we went to see the new film of Great Expectations (‘Grandes Esperanzas’), a story I know so well that it didn’t matter that it was dubbed into Spanish!
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