Image: Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid is presenting a concert dedicated to Spanish lyrical heritage, using vocal music to chart a line from Francisco Asenjo Barbieri to composers of the 20th century. The performance, scheduled for 30 June at 12:00 in the academy’s Salón de actos, is offered with free tickets reserved online until capacity is reached.
The institution frames the event as a tribute to the richness and evolution of Spanish lyrical repertoire, a field shaped above all by 19th-century zarzuela and the 20th-century concert song. In the academy’s own presentation, the program is also tied to the broader historical role of composers who were connected to the institution itself, making the concert not only a recital but a reflection on the academy’s musical memory.
The program opens with Barbieri, whose place in Spanish music history is underscored by the academy’s note that he entered as an academician in 1887. From there, the recital moves through works by Manuel Fernández Caballero, Salvador Codina, Amadeo Vives and Manuel de Falla, then into popular and regional songs by Federico García Lorca and Eduard Toldrà. The selection continues with pieces by Emiliana de Zubeldía and María Rodrigo, followed by works by Óscar Esplá, Federico Mompou and Antón García-Abril.
The final section broadens the historical and geographic range further, with songs by Carlos Guastavino, Rodolfo Halffter and Jesús Guridi, before closing with zarzuela by Pablo Sorozábal and Federico Moreno-Torroba. The academy highlights Moreno-Torroba’s long association with the institution and notes his role as president of the Real Academia from 1978. Taken together, the repertoire spans zarzuela, concert song, regional idioms and opera-inflected vocal writing.
The concert is being led by Prof. Dr. Elisa Belmonte Useros, with performances by soprano Miriam Bedoya, sopranos Nerea González, Paula Márquez, Tania Romero and Catalina Ribas, mezzo-soprano Robysell González, baritone Fernando Di Bella and bass Augusto García. Belmonte also appears among the performers, alongside pianists Irene Alfageme and J. López Blanco. The program list indicates a sequence of duets, solos and accompanied songs, with the academy giving individual attributions for each item.
For the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, the event sits squarely within its wider cultural programming, where concerts, exhibitions, lectures and research activities all reinforce its public-facing role as a guardian of artistic heritage. In this case, the significance extends beyond the concert itself: by placing Barbieri, Falla, García Lorca, Mompou and others in one chronological arc, the academy is presenting Spanish vocal music as a living tradition rather than a closed canon.
At a moment when institutions across Europe are reassessing how they present national repertories, the academy’s concert offers a concise but pointed reminder that Spanish lyrical culture has depth, variety and institutional history. The free public format also opens that history to a wider audience, turning a single Sunday morning event into a small-scale but symbolically important act of musical preservation.
