He who loves beauty

Staged opera directed by Rafael R. Villalobos at the Teatro Real in Madrid, combining singing, performance and artistic installation, based on Benjamin Britten's sonnets on John Donne and Michelangelo.

The production, directed on stage by Rafael R. Villalobos, sits at the border between lyric singing, performance and installation. Rather than following a linear plot, the staging moves through fragmented scenes rich in symbolism, in which the body, the lighting and the stage space itself act as narrative elements.

The score brings together the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, op. 35, and the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, op. 22, by Benjamin Britten, alongside pieces by Henry Purcell and John Dowland. The central theme is an aesthetic reflection on beauty, longing and personal identity, with references to the thought of Oscar Wilde and to the question of how far appearance coincides with truth.

The piece belongs to a current that reviews European opera from a contemporary language and brings the genre closer to other artistic disciplines. Their work combines the conceptual reinterpretation of classic titles with the creation of shows that unite music, theatre and image. On stage, the audience finds a visual and conceptual proposal that dispenses with the conventional storyline.