The Orchestrated Version of 'La Batalla de los Clásicos' Debuts at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music

San Juan, Puerto Rico – On November 16, 2025, the Olga Iglesias Project (OIP) presented the debut of the **orchestrated version of La Batalla de los Clásicos at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, a key step in the development of the commissioned Puerto Rican opera.

First premiered in 2024 for piano and four voices, the work returned in an expanded form: a chamber orchestration that — for now — adds flute, violin, and cello to the original piano and voices, giving the score new color and depth. The evening also marked the debut of the opera in both Spanish and English, broadening the reach of a work rooted in Puerto Rico's nineteenth-century classical tradition.

The four roles were sung by Christian García, Martín Alicea, Carlos Ortiz, and Angélica Sastre. The opera is composed by Johanny Navarro, with a libretto by Paloma Sierra.

What set the evening apart was its purpose. Rather than a finished premiere, the work was performed before a live audience whose feedback was gathered through the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process — a structured method for responding to work still in development. That feedback now returns to the creative team, Navarro and Sierra, to shape the next stage of the orchestration.

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"This performance closes our first cycle of creating opera, from commissioning a new Puerto Rican work to hearing it orchestrated and tested before a live audience. We don't intend to stop here. In the foreseeable future we will begin creating more opera, continuing the story of La Batalla de los Clásicos and writing the next chapters of Puerto Rico's operatic tradition."

Anthony Cheney Guzmán, Founder and Executive Director of OIP