Juan Carlos Matellanes

“There is no great city without an opera season”

Auditor Juan Carlos Matellanes has been at the helm of the association that promotes opera in Bilbao for more than two decades.

He says that the next opera season “will feature great voices and will program representative titles from the history of opera, as well as some premieres and lesser-known titles”

The president of ABAO Bilbao Opera emphasizes that “there is no important city without a good opera season. And Bilbao is a great city”. He is proud of the means of transport that the entity organizes so that people from all over the Territory can attend the concerts, in addition to those who come from Burgos, Santander, Logroño, Pamplona, Vitoria-Gasteiz or San Sebastián and even further afield.

And it boasts of the ‘Tutto Verdi’ project, a major initiative that was developed over 16 years, from 2006 to 2022, and which managed to represent in Bilbao 30 operas by Giuseppe Verdi over 124 performances, including 13 premieres.

Matellanes explains that it is difficult to make it understood elsewhere that membership cards are issued annually before the season program is known. A sign of confidence in an association with more than seventy years of commitment to opera.

What does ABAO bring to Bilbao?

We are a rare breed: a private association that runs an opera season without its own theater or orchestra and with a budget of less than 8 million euros.

We bring the pride of having something of our own in the cultural aspect, along with other identifying elements of the city.

How do you evaluate these 21 years at the helm of the ABAO Bilbao Opera?

The balance is very positive. We have had some very memorable times, we have faced some problems, but we have continued to develop new projects. When you have been there for so long, there is a project that you want to develop and finish.

And, of course, there is more than enough capacity and a great team dedicated to the project.

How has ABAO evolved over the past two decades?

It has undergone a radical change. Moving to the Euskalduna Palace allowed us to produce our own shows, which was impossible in the old Coliseo, as well as being able to put tickets on sale for each performance.

In addition, we have created new projects such as ABAO Txiki, strengthened the didactic program and developed cultural activities with conferences and publications. It is very important to emphasize that we are not an elitist association or an association for experts: we are an open cultural association.