For Leonor, Oviedo is her big event of the year. An act that has been long in coming because it also means her official reappearance since her departure to Wales in August. The date, October 28, coincides with her fall vacation from UWC Atlantic College in Wales where she is studying her second International Baccalaureate. This will be a very special edition because it almost coincides with the heiress’s 17th birthdaynext Monday the 31st. Three days before, he will present the awards that bear his name and give a speech. It will be the fourth time that she assumes her leading role due to her status as honorary president of the foundation.
This 42nd edition of the Princess of Asturias Awards arrives with the return to full capacity of the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo. There are 1,307 seats and a new set design. The capital of the Principality hosts a week of awards after two years of celebrations shielded by the health restrictions of the pandemic. Now, finally, without masks. In addition to her parents and her sister, her heiress will have the company of her grandmothers, Doña Sofía, who always occupies her box to the left of the stage; and Paloma Rocasolano, who usually sits in the first rows of the stalls, next to the aisle, to greet her daughter, her son-in-law and her granddaughters. In the photo, the Queen and her daughters, at the ceremony in Oviedo last year.
Flamenco night at the 42nd edition of the awards
One of the novelties of this edition is the imprint of flamenco. A tribute to this intangible heritage of humanity, which comes from the hand of bailaora María Pagés and cantaora Carmen Linares, winners in the Arts category. Pagés was in charge of opening the awards week with the show blacks paradise at the Niemeyer Center in Avilés.
The night before the Campoamor ceremony, on Thursday 27, the focus is on the Príncipe Felipe Auditorium in Oviedo. There Felipe VI and Letizia will preside with their daughters, Leonor and Sofía, the traditional awards concert, which celebrates its 30th edition. For the princess, who returns to Spain one day before her Welsh school holidays, the concert will be her first official act since the summer.
This year the musical event brings together Pagés and Linares in a flamenco show, 25 years after their last collaboration. The montage bears the title Carmen and Maria. Two paths and one look. It will be the great novelty of this show, since by tradition the concert prior to the awards ceremony is performed by the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (OSPA).
Another novelty this year is that this edition does not end with Cadavedo, who will be honored with the Exemplary Town Award from the hands of the princess. It will be Carmen Linares who will put the end of the party at the Weapons Factory of La Vega (in Oviedo), in a concert for her fortieth anniversary. It will be on Saturday, October 29, under the title Carmen Linares. 40 years of flamenco.