Almost seventy concerts in twenty-five days are planned. They focus on Santiago de Compostela as the main venue, with twenty concerts, but take in dozens of other locations throughout Galicia, in towns along the historic routes leading to the shrine at Santiago. Here are just some of the outstanding concerts on offer in Santiago de Compostela.

The Festival opens with a concert by the Real Filharmonía de Santiago, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini, and the soprano Simone Kermes in a programme featuring Mozart arias, entitled “Mozart enamorado de las sopranos”. On 4 July, Vincent Dumestre and his ensemble Le Poeme Harmonique will perform a concert version of Orfeo Dolente, a Florentine opera by Doménico Belli (1616). On Saturday 7 July, a special programme devoted to the Galician composer Octavio Vázquez presents the Spanish premiere of his Piano Trio, with the composer himself at the piano.

On Thursday 12 July, John Eliot Gardiner will conduct the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists in a performance of André Campra’s Requiem. On the 13th, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, conducted by Víctor Pablo Pérez, will perform Bruckner’s 7th Symphony. On 14 July, Lautten Compagney Berlin, under the direction of Wolfgang Katschner, will perform a concert version of Purcell’s King Arthur. The Venice Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Andrea Marcon with Roberta Invernizzi as principal soloist, will appear on 16 July.

Les Violons du Roy, conducted by Bernard Labadie and guest soprano Vivica Genaux will give a concert featuring Rebel’s Les Elémens and arias by Handel and Hasse. Sigiswald Kuijken and his group La Petite Bande will perform a semi-staged version of Giuseppe Sellitto’s comic intermezzo La vedova ingeniosa o Il medico ignorante. On 20 July, Patrick Cohën-Akenine and Les Folies Françoises will present a programme of music by the great French masters of the reign of Louis XV.

On 23 July, Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco will give a concert version of Domenico Scarlatti’s opera Tolomeo e Alessandro. The closing concert of the Festival will feature the mezzo Anne Sophie von Otter and Les Musiciens du Louvre under the direction of Marc Minkowski in a programme of works by Bizet and Berlioz. Various afternoon and evening concerts at the monastery of Sobrado dos Monxes (7 July) and the monastery of Carboeiro in Silleda (15 July) promise to be particularly enchanting.