From June 13 to July 10, the city of Granada, Spain will host the Granada International Music and Dance Festival, one of the most emblematic cultural events in Spain. The Festival, launched in 1952, takes place in the palaces of the Alhambra and the main monuments and corners of the city. 

The Granada Festival has become known for the extraordinary venues for its shows and the presence of the great performers of the day.

"It is incomprehensible that people miss not only its magnificent proposals but the fact of experiencing them in the unique monuments in which they take place,” Antonio Moral, artistic director of the Festival, told the press after tickets went on sale this week. “It is a unique sensation to listen to music in the Alhambra, with water in between.”

This year, the event, which celebrates its 71st edition, includes 96 music and dance shows to be held over 28 days, highlighting the traditional concert of the Orquesta y Coros Nacionales de España featuring A German Requiem sang by Katarina Conradi and Peter Mattei.

It will also host the London Symphony, which will perform under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner and with Maria Joao Pires on the piano. Its performance will also feature the debut of The Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, with Berlioz's Les nuits d'été and soprano Véronique Gens. The symphony will also give a second concert with Charles Dutoit conducting Tchaikovsky's 4th, which premiered in Granada a century ago as part of the famous Corpus Christi concerts, in the same Palace of Charles V. Dutoit will have a special soloist for Ravel's Concerto in G, pianist Martha Argerich. 

The list of top names is endless — there will be two stars of the Russian piano from two different generations: Daniil Trifonov and Grigory Sokolov. Both have also been cleared of being sympathizers towards Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

However, Moral announced that the Slovenian National Ballet will replace the Russian Mariinsky Ballet — canceled immediately after the invasion of Ukraine — to perform El Corsario, a ballet never performed at the Generalife Theater. 

The International Festival of Music and Dance sold out a third of its capacity on its first day of sales. There are 41,000 tickets available, which means almost doubling the 22,000 that were put on sale last year.

For more information about the Festival and ticket sales, visit the festival's website here.