Diàlegs del Cel: Salvador and Alandete deliver a celestial recital in Sant Julià de Lòria

Those who went to hear Diàlegs del Cel, a lyrical recital for soprano, trumpet and instrumental sextet, found stars in the parish church of Sant Julià de Lòria. The programme was a sonorous journey full of contrasts and emotion. Accompanied by a string quintet and piano, soprano Jonaina Salvador and trumpeter Juan Carlos Alandete achieved a near-perfect fusion, exploring the spaces where heaven and earth meet: love and desire, devotion and freedom, light and darkness.

Salvador’s well-known vocal virtues were matched by Alandete’s skill — he is a professor at the Conservatori Superior de València and a soloist with the Spanish National Orchestra. Alessio Coppola, repetiteur at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, was at the piano, and the string quintet came from the Valencian Orfeu Ensemble de Cambra under the direction of Pere Molina.

The recital mixed romantic, baroque and modern repertoire. Highlights included the overture followed by “Dove sono” from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and Kurt Weill’s Youkali, a cabaret-style song composed in 1930s Paris that evokes an imaginary, utopian island of desires and goodness. Salvador made the song her own with a personal, unmistakable interpretation.

Also featured was “Tornami a vagheggiar” (Torno a estar enamorada), one of the most famous arias in opera history, and the aria of Morgana from Handel’s Alcina, with the line “te solo vuol amar quest'anima fedel, caro mio bene” (“my faithful soul only wants to love you, my dear”). The programme included a daring moment with The Prayer of Saint Gregory by Armenian‑born American composer Alan Hovhaness, in which Alandete’s trumpet solo proved luminous and deeply expressive — modern works that spotlight the trumpet as solo instrument are rare, and this performance stood out.

The communion between a full church and the performers was total. A palpable sense of complicity and emotion built through the evening and reached a peak with Franz Lehár’s Meine Lippen from Giuditta, an aria often associated with New Year’s concerts and known for its closing line that “it is written in the stars: you must love and kiss.”

The concert closed with baroque passion and sacred lyricism from Vivaldi and Alessandro Scarlatti, prompting a standing ovation and cries of “bravo!” As the programme noted, it was “a meeting of voices that dialogue with the orchestra like souls that recognize one another,” aided by the venue’s fine acoustics. The celestial dialogues ended up feeling very earthly, offering the fortunate audience a piece of heaven on earth.