Annual Report 2020

Fundación Banco Santander is one of the main sponsors of the musical season at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

Following the period of lockdown in Spain, a health and safety protocol was designed by the theatre’s medical committee and it reopened in July after adapting its performances to the new circumstances. The first opera performed following the theatre’s reopening was La traviata, in a semistaged concert format. In September, another opera by Verdi, Un ballo in maschera, opened the 2020-2021 season with decorations, props, costumes and stage direction adapted from the original production at Teatro La Fenice. In November, there was a performance of Rusalka by Dvořák, which was co-produced with opera theatres in Dresden, Bologna, Barcelona and Valencia. The 2020 programme ended in December with the premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, with a mise-en-scene from the Salzburg Festival.

In addition, the Teatro Real made a large part of its content available for free via its audiovisual platform MyOperaPlayer. Throughout 2020, the operas performed on the theatre’s stage were livestreamed and the virtual catalogue was supplemented with recordings of operas, concerts and dance shows.