The Teatro Real and the Teatros de Canal present in Madrid 'Diàlegs de Tirant i Carmesina', a chamber opera by the Catalan composer Joan Magrané and the playwright Marc Rosich, created from the medieval classic 'Tirant lo Blanc', by Joanot Martorell. The opera will take place in the Green Room of Teatros del Canal, between November 23 and 27.
The production has had the collaboration of the artist Jaume Plensa, who conceives the stage space as a lighting installation built with neons that, like a metronome, mark the inexorable passage of time of the characters and subtly indicate the most relevant moments. of the dramaturgy until reaching the denouement to dye everything in a passionate red color. With this premise, the neons light up, one by one, every 4 minutes and 33 seconds, like a constant vital chronometer, apart from daily life, in what is also a tribute to the work of the composer John Cage, presented as a strategy for the release of the score.
'Tirant lo Blanc' is considered one of the great works of medieval European literature, both for its prose (written in Valencian) and for the documentary value of a narrative that is offered as a novel of chivalry - with warlike actions and great feats. - contains a detailed description of the customs, clothing or food of the time, which have allowed a close approximation to reality.
But 'Tirant lo Blanc' presents an essential feature that makes it different from other novels of the genre; here, love is sensual rather than platonic. The protagonist, Tirant, falls in love with Carmesina, whom he ends up marrying, and the relationship of both characters, as well as the description of erotic or love scenes, occupies an important part of the relationship.
Magrané and Rosich focus their opera on the relationship between Tirant and Carmesina, presenting it as a battle of love, also of heartbreak and death, between desire and conventions, of seduction and sensuality from an ironic distance. As a counterpoint, two antagonistic female characters: for good, the mediation of Plaerdemavida; for worse, the deceptions concocted by the Restful Widow.
Magrané, winner of the Reina Sofía Composition Prize in 2014, is inspired by the baroque and the score with a string quartet, harp and flute – members of the Regular Orchestra of the Teatro Real –, with a modern and theatrical treatment, for three voices: baritone for Tirant (Josep-Ramon Olivé), soprano for Carmesina (Isabella Gaudí) and a mezzo-soprano in the double role of Plaerdemavida and Viuda Reposada (Anna Brull), with sung recitations and brilliant arias, almost always in duets or trios, all of them. They are under the direction of Francesc Prat.
Marc Rosich, an expert in the work of Joanot Martorell, developed the very intense libretto in the version of 'Tirant lo Blanc' by Martí de Riquer and wrote it in a false old Valencian (current Valencian with archaisms) so that, from a old sound is understandable, “we do not use the original because it would not be understood today,” explains the author.
The theatricality of the text, and the complicity with Plensa's proposal, led Rosich to also take on the stage direction, with the participation of Sylvia Kuchinow in the lighting, Joana Martí in the costume design and Roberto G. Alonso in choreographic movements.
