Romancero Books with the support of the Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Spanish Embassy in London, AC/E Programme for the Internalisation of Spanish Culture presents the VI London Festival of Queer Spanish Culture
Live podcast
El Vomitorio on the history of castrati with Danielle de Niese
Synopsis
For nine years, King Philip V of Spain would not get out of bed, hold council, or even get dressed unless a man first sang for him, night after night, the same handful of arias. That man was Farinelli, the castrato who effectively ran the musical life of the Spanish Crown for more than two decades without ever singing in public. It's exactly the kind of story that El Vomitorio thrives on, and this time pianist Mario Marzo and countertenor Nacho Castellanos will bring it to London for the sixth edition of the city's Festival of Queer Culture in Spanish, joined on the stage of the Instituto Cervantes by a very special guest whose name will remain a secret until the curtain rises. The rest promises to be just as wide-ranging: trouser roles, from Cherubino to Octavian; composers whose loves were open secrets no one dared say out loud; disguise, desire, camp — three centuries of opera rewriting who gets to sound like what, and who is allowed to fall in love with whom, right up to the countertenors and directors still bending the rules today.
Bios
Mario Marzo
Mario Marzo is a pianist, actor and cultural broadcaster born in Madrid in 1995. He began studying piano at the age of six, coming from a family of musicians, and completed his training at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid and the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he studied under Eldar Nebolsin. He has performed as a soloist with several Spanish orchestras and on stages including the Auditorio Nacional and the Teatro Real.
Alongside his musical career, he has also built a career as an actor and communicator. He first became widely known for playing Lucas in Los protegidos, and has since developed a strong presence on social media and in the world of podcasting. In 2024 he received an Ondas Award for ¿Quieres ser mi amigo?. That same year, together with countertenor Nacho Castellanos, he created El Vomitorio, a podcast dedicated to bringing classical music and art to new audiences through humour, outreach and contemporary culture.
Nacho Castellanos
Nacho Castellanos is a countertenor born in Madrid in 1996, specialising in early music and Baroque repertoire. He began his musical training as a clarinettist at the age of nine, before discovering his vocation for singing. He has trained with performers such as Raquel Andueza, Xavier Sabata, Ruth Iniesta, Marianna Brilla and Lisa Paglin.
He has performed as a soloist with ensembles including the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, the Orquesta Filarmonía and the Orquesta Joven de Zamora, and has appeared at venues such as the Auditorio Nacional de Música, the Teatros del Canal, the Palau de les Arts in Valencia and the Corral de Comedias in Alcalá de Henares. In 2023 he founded the ensemble Gato Murr, focused especially on Baroque repertoire. He has also contributed to the magazine Scherzo. In 2024, together with Mario Marzo, he created El Vomitorio, in which he combines his musical background with a passion for outreach and a light-hearted approach to classical music and culture.
Danielle de Niese
Danielle de Niese has been hailed as “opera’s coolest soprano” (New York Times Magazine). A multi-faceted artist, she is known for her superb stagecraft and powerful communication. She regularly appears on the world’s most prestigious opera and concert stages and is also a prolific recording artist, television personality, and philanthropist. in 2026, de Niese received an Olivier Award in recognition of her Outstanding Contribution to Opera.
In the 2026/27 season, de Niese will return to Glyndebourne as the title role in Bizet’s Carmen alongside a gala performance to open the Český Krumlov International Music Festival celebrating their 35th anniversary, returns to St. Martin-in-the-fields to celebrate their 300th year at the new church and will perform Venus in Jake Heggie’s The Judgement of Paris at Opera Royal de Versailles, a role which de Niese debuted in the world premiere last season at Festival Napa Valley. On the West End, de Niese makes her debut as Persephone in Hadestown at London’s Lyric Theatre. Recent operatic highlights include her return to Opera Australia in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen, her role debut as Jenny in Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny with English National Opera, Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff with Staatsoper Hamburg, Dido in Dido and Aeneas and Anna in Seven Deadly Sins at Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Teatro Valli di Reggio Emilia and Venus in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s The Judgement of Paris at the Napa Valley Festival. Other operatic highlights include a feature film of La Voix Humaine with Sir Antonio Pappano and the Royal Opera House Orchestra, the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice for LA Opera, Cleopatra in Handel Giulio Cesare at Teatro alla Scala,
Musetta in Puccini La bohème at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Norina in Don Pasquale for La Monnaie, Staatsoper Hamburg & the Wiener Staatsoper, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow for Opera Australia, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Semperoper Dresden, Adina in L’elisir d’amore at Opéra national du Rhin, the title roles in Monteverdi L’incoronazione di Poppea at Teatro Real Madrid, Handel in Partenope and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at San Francisco Opera, Semele for Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Cavalli’s La Calisto at Bayerische Staatsoper and Poppea in Handel's Agrippina for Gran Teatre del Liceu. De Niese’s association with Glyndebourne has seen her appear as Hanna Glawari in Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Ciboulette in Offenbach’s In the Market for Love, the title role in Massenet's Cendrillon, Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Concepción in Ravel's L’heure espagnole, L’enfant in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Norina in Donizetti's
Don Pasquale and Adina in L’elisir d’amore.
Event in English.
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