Soprano Jonaina Salvador Captivates Andorra Lírica Season Finale with Berlioz and Debussy

Soprano Jonaina Salvador delivered a captivating performance of Berlioz's *Les nuits d'été* and Debussy's *La damoiselle élue* on Saturday evening, closing Andorra Lírica's 11th opera season at the Church of Sant Julià i Sant Germà.

Dressed in white to evoke the ethereal *Damoiselle élue*, Salvador welcomed the audience despite strong winds battering the village. She then brought to life the two works, united by themes of love, desire, nostalgia, and mystery, though performed independently.

The first half featured Berlioz's cycle of six songs—*Villanelle*, *Le spectre de la rose*, *Sur les lagunes*, *L’absence*, *L’ile inconnue*, and *Au cimetière*—accompanied by the Francesc Valls women's choir from Barcelona Cathedral and the Orquestra Filharmònica de la Manxa. Salvador's singing shone with natural emotion and elegant phrasing, adapting seamlessly to the Romantic lieder's poetic narration. Highlights included the exceptional poignancy of *Sur les lagunes*, the dramatic frustration in *L’ile inconnue*—portraying a search for eternal love—and the fleeting petal imagery in *Le spectre de la rose*. Salvador noted the songs' variety: *L’absence* captures youthful infatuation, *L’ile inconnue* questions love's origins, and *Au cimetière* demands meditative control with its extended lines.

The second half presented Debussy's cantata *La damoiselle élue*, a dialogue drawn from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem. Salvador as soprano and mezzo-soprano Assumpta Cumí portrayed a woman on heaven's golden balcony, yearning for her earthly lover in a sensual, mystical ascent. Wagnerian shadows lingered in the orchestration and leitmotifs, blended with Debussy's modal scales, whole tones, and static harmonic progressions. The soundscape—perfumed light from delicate women's voices, choir, and orchestra—created an intimate, transformative experience.

The church's meditative acoustics amplified the programme's introspective demands, favouring subtlety over operatic force. As Salvador intended, the evening made death and love audible, with Berlioz's contained fervour yielding to refined interiority. Winds had eased by the close, mirroring the music's gentle resolution.

Andorra Lírica, founded by Salvador in 2016, has now staged around 36 events in formats from opera to zarzuela.