Image: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid
Madrid’s 42nd Veranos de la Villa festival continues from 17 to 23 August with a week of programming that moves between jazz, flamenco, theatre and film across the city, including events at the Instituto San Isidro and Conde Duque. According to the municipality’s announcement, the seventh week brings together a jam session led by Iván ‘Melón’ Lewis, an Opera Garage production about a young Romani aspiring opera singer, a pair of theatre works, and screenings from the festival’s inclusive cinema strand.
The festival is organized by the Área de Cultura, Turismo y Deporte of Madrid City Council. This week’s line-up is presented as part of Veranos de la Villa’s broader summer offer, with the notice emphasizing a range of artistic languages rather than a single theme or genre. The main cluster of events is centered on the Instituto San Isidro, which hosts several of the musical and theatrical dates listed for the week.
The music programme opens on 18 August with ‘Jazz Jam’, led by the Latin Grammy-winning pianist Iván ‘Melón’ Lewis. The city’s announcement says Lewis, who had already appeared at Veranos de la Villa earlier in the summer in ‘Gigantes del Piano. Los Valdés’, will direct a jam session in which his group and invited musicians create an improvised collective performance. The same venue also hosts the concert ‘Noche de Zarzuela en San Isidro’, though the notice places that event in the weekend agenda rather than in the week’s main sequence.
On 19 August, Opera Garage presents ‘Gitana’, described as a story of inclusion, understanding and freedom. The production follows Naima, a Romani woman who wants to become a lyric singer, and traces her route through opera, zarzuela and popular song fused with flamenco. The announcement presents the work as a meeting point between Spanish lyrical traditions and flamenco, without adding further production details.
The theatre section of the week arrives at the cloister of the Instituto San Isidro with ‘Dos Tronos Dos Reinas’ on 20 and 21 August. The text is by Pepe Cibrián and focuses on the struggle for the throne between Elizabeth I of England and Mary Stuart, performed by Nacho Guerreros and Nicolás Pérez Costa. The same space then hosts ‘El Profesor’ on 22 and 23 August, a musical work by Aleix Martel, who is identified in the notice as a creator, actor, musician and composer.
Cinema remains part of the schedule through Veranos de la Villa’s inclusive film programme and its ‘Cine Caliente’ cycle. On 20 August, the Auditorium of Conde Duque hosts a new session organized with the Colegio Profesional de Terapeutas Ocupacionales de la Comunidad de Madrid (COPTOCAM), beginning with an introductory talk before a screening of ‘The Notebook’. The final session of that cycle is set for 22 August with a screening of ‘Intouchables’. The city says the encounters will be interpreted in sign language, and that the films will also be subtitled, with magnetic loop equipment and amplified sound provided.
The week also includes weekend concerts and film events already listed by the city, among them a fado performance by Portuguese artist Teresinha Landeiro at the Instituto San Isidro on 14 August and a tribute concert to Billie Holiday by the North American vocalist T.J. Jazz on 16 August. The announcement places all of these events within the current edition of Veranos de la Villa and identifies the week’s main programme window as 17 to 23 August.
