Push!
PERFORMERS
Ferran Albrich_Simon
Laia Frigolé_Simon's sister
Germán de la Riva_Guard
Cor Amics de l’Òpera de Sabadell
Coral Belles Arts de Sabadell
Coral Els Notes
Cor Jove i Cor Ohana de l’Escola Municipal de Música i Conservatori de Sabadell
Institut Ferran Casablancas
Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès
Buia Reixach Choirs coordination
Miquel Villalba / Joan Espuny / Arnau Balcells Repetiteur pianists
Joan Sellent Translation of the libretto
Jordi Cos Coordination and artistic direction
Manel Valdivieso Conductor
Dani Coma Stage direction
Production and organization Fundació Òpera a Catalunya and Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès
PUSH!
Howard Moody (1964) 26/01/2025
One-act opera, with libretto and music by the British composer Howard Moody.
Commissioned by Battle Festival. Produced in partnership with Glyndebourne and the De La Warr Pavilion. Premiered as part of the ROOT 1066 International Festival, 1 October 2016.
On February 1 and 2, the La Faràndula Theatre in Sabadell will once again host the participatory opera Push! , a work by the British composer Howard Moody based on the moving story of Belgian pianist and Holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski.
Push! is a one-act opera, with a libretto and music by British composer Howard Moody, born in Salisbury in 1964. The work tells the story of the escape from the Holocaust of 12-year-old Belgian boy Simon Gronowski, who fled from a train on April 19, 1943. The title refers to the central theme of the opera, as Simon was pushed off the train by his mother, who died three days later in Auschwitz.
Initially commissioned by Battle Festival de Bexhill (United Kingdom) in co-production with Glyndebourne in 2016, Push! has been performed five more times: at the Salisbury International Arts Festival and Chichester Cathedral (United Kingdom) in 2018, at the House of Commons de Londres and La Monnaie de Brussel·les in 2019, and at the Ringsaker Opera (Norway) in June 2024.
Alongside the three solo voices, there will be a choir made up of around forty children and young people from the city’s Conservatory and the Ferran Casablancas Institute, a small professional choir—playing the role of guards—a choir of about eighty adult singers drawn from various choral groups in the city (the Coral Belles Arts de Sabadell, the Els Notes choir, and the Ohana Choir from the Music Conservatory), and sixteen professional musicians from the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès.
Header photo: © Hugo Segers
