La Seu Vella is the most important monument of Lleida. It is situated in the middle of the city, on top of a high rock, and as a result you can see it from far away. La Seu Vella consists of an old cathedral and an old fortress. Yesterday the cathedral served as the perfect housing for a baroque opera.
‘Los elementos’ was written by Antoni Lliteres (I also never heard about him) in 1704. It describes the relation between the four elements fire, water, earth and air, together with dawn, harmony, the time and the dead. But in fact the opera is about the political situation of Spain at that moment, where Felip d’Anjou (fire) and Carles de Habsbourg (water) were fighting for the Spanish throne. Fortunately, everybody received the whole explanation on beforehand so that it was easy to follow.
The old cathedral had a beautiful atmosphere, but for the acoustics it was way too big. Also the chairs were really uncomfortable, but what disturbed me the most was the fact that the musicians had to stop in the middle of the opera to adjust their instruments.
Fortunately, the quality of the artists was high, the costumes expressed the right atmosphere and the opera was entertaining. All this made it 5 quarters of listening and viewing pleasure.
