Telefónica celebrates its 100th anniversary this afternoon hosting the Centenary Gala at the Teatro Real in Madrid and presided over by His Majesty King Felipe VI.
The Speaker of the Congress of Deputies, Francina Armengol, the President of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, the Third Vice President of the Government and Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, the Ministers of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, and of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, and other authorities, as well as institutional and business representatives, members of the diplomatic corps, media and representatives of culture and sport have accompanied Telefónica in this commemorative Gala.
The concert began with the interpretation of the Spanish anthem by the Orchestra of the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, followed by the performance of the Symphony created especially for Telefónica’s Centenary by the Madrid composer Lucas Vidal.
Afterwards, the more than 1,100 guests listened to the welcome speech from Telefónica’s Chairman, José María Álvarez-Pallete, who began by thanking King Felipe VI not only for his presence, but also for “the affection, closeness and warmth that you and your family have always shown towards Telefónica”.
“Not far from this wonderful Royal Theater, on Carrera de San Jerónimo, 100 years ago today the Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España was born,” Álvarez-Pallete recalled, “and since then, the vocation to serve, to deliver, has been engraved in the DNA of this company”. The Chairman of Telefónica thanked customers, shareholders, partners and “the half a million employees who have carried the destiny of this company on their shoulders from 1924 until today”. He also had affectionate words for the families of some of the former presidents of the company, present at the Gala, especially for the relatives of César Alierta, his predecessor, who passed away on January 10.
A varied cast of artists, from the Peruvian lyric tenor Juan Diego Flórez, to the violinist María Dueñas, the Chinese pianist Lang Lang -who accompanied Telefónica in the recital at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in February- or the dancer Sara Baras, reviewed a repertoire of very diverse works from different periods for just over two hours.
Bel canto, zarzuela, classical pieces and flamenco went hand in hand in an artistic program inspired by the exchange and interconnection between musical schools and the crossbreeding of genres.
At the start of the second act, the more than 1,100 guests at the Real were able to learn about the history of Telefónica decade by decade through an immersive ‘videomapping’. From its origin to the present, the different milestones experienced by the company in these 100 years took shape in this piece of image and sound projected on three of the four walls of the theater.
The show was completed with forty drones flying over the stage where the Orquesta de la Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía performed “The Flight of the Blowfly” by Rimsky-Korsakov in an unprecedented arrangement: with the musicians placed vertically on a scaffolding installed for this purpose.
The concert ended with an encore that put the finishing touch to Telefónica’s Centenary celebration with a unique and special ‘Happy Birthday’, performed by all the artists of the cast simultaneously on stage.
